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	kahrohseh 2007-02-18 10:55 pm UTC (link)
	11) If you are well enough to complain about the wait, you are well enough to go home. Someone please explain the logic to this one? I can think of plenty of situations (some experienced first-hand) where the wait would, you know, just exacerbate the sensation of HOLYSHITPAIN you happen to be feeling. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-02-18 11:03 pm UTC (link)
	I'd think there'd be more complaining. I was in the ER one night (interning) and all the people who came in complained. Mostly on account of the catheter. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2007-02-19 05:12 am UTC (link)
	I fucking hate catheters. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-02-19 05:13 am UTC (link)
	I've seen them put in. OW. Tubes that big should not go there! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

napalmnacey
2007-02-19 05:18 am UTC (link)

It felt like the WORST bladder infection I've ever had. My discussion with the nurses went something like this (I'd just woken up):

Me: I need to pee!
Nurse: It's just the catheter. Relax.
Me: It hurts! GET IT OUT!
Nurse: We can't take it out, just relax.
Me: I WANT IT OUT!

Yeah, I was pretty out of it. I don't know how I would have coped without the heavy-duty painkillers they had me on.

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	seiberwing 2007-02-19 05:21 am UTC (link)
	Seeing them put one in the stoned guy with a fracture in his neck was, I admit, kinda funny. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2007-02-19 05:32 am UTC (link)
	That had to have been worth a laugh or two. :D (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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seiberwing, 2007-02-19 05:35 am UTC

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napalmnacey, 2007-02-19 03:42 pm UTC

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singe, 2007-02-19 06:47 pm UTC

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napalmnacey, 2007-02-20 04:15 am UTC

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seiberwing, 2007-02-20 04:16 am UTC

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napalmnacey, 2007-02-20 04:25 am UTC

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kittenmommy, 2007-02-21 06:09 am UTC

	(Anonymous) 2007-02-18 11:18 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, sometimes the complaining isn't so much whining as screaming because you're in agony, and your pain-free friend, obviously distressed by said screams, starts asking every nurse he can see when you're going to get some attention. had appendicitis recently ~Alankria (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pointandlaugh 2007-02-19 01:36 am UTC (link)
	Oh god. Much sympathy your way. In my case, my mother had to sit in the waiting from waiting to hear when I would be called to be looked at, because I was in the toilet, dry-heaving. (They get me a bowl to be sick in, but screw that. Just because my internal organs are rupturing doesn't mean I'm going to be sick in front of strangers if I can avoid it). (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(Anonymous)
2007-02-19 06:35 pm UTC (link)

I was recovering from heart surgery this year. In the middle of the night I woke up with terrible nausea and rang for a nurse. For whatever reason it took them 15 minutes to get to me. They sat me up (I wasn't able to sit up by myself) and the first thing I did was vomit all over one poor nurse. I felt terrible as he was absolutely lovely. I couldn't have vomited on the evil-I'll-find-a-vein-no-matter-what bitch from hell... oh no.

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	singe 2007-02-19 06:52 pm UTC (link)
	Too bad, it's an experience I really recommend. I managed to hit my vivious, nasty nurse in the face. MUAHAHAHA! I was made a hero by the other nurses and they spoiled me the entire length of my stay in the horse-pistol. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	singe 2007-02-19 06:53 pm UTC (link)
	Vicious, even. (My spell-right gland is busted.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	daylightsparks 2007-02-19 02:07 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, the last time I was in the ER I was complaining A LOT because I'd been vomiting for several days straight and was severely dehydrated, and they wouldn't let me drink any water while I sat in the waiting room. (I've never been so glad to get an IV in my entire life. Afterwards I apologized for complaining.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rimrunner 2007-02-19 02:55 am UTC (link)
	Hmm, yes, and the fact that I'm bleeding through this wad of towels? Minor detail. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	eljuno 2007-02-19 10:47 pm UTC (link)
	Oh God, yeah. Been there, done that, like, a week ago. They gave me a new towel every time they took one of the snowboarders back to actually be seen, though! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	april_hurst 2007-02-19 03:23 am UTC (link)
	And when you have a history of heart and electrolyte problems and are at extremely high risk for a heart attack, and get severe nausea and a pulse rate over 200 beats per minute out of nowhere, you're probably not going to take it meekly when you're told that it's a panic attack and to try to breathe evenly while you're waiting. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

chibikaijuu
2007-02-19 07:00 pm UTC (link)

Oh god, ew. (The only reason I was able to stave off a full-blown panic attack the last time I had physical anxiety symptoms was because I *don't* have a history of heart issues and was able to recognize the tightening in my chest as an anxiety attack and mentally go "you're not gonna die, you're not gonna die" and try to breathe. I was also pretty lucky that my friend, whose birthday party it was, found me standing in the hallway shaking and helped me over to his bedroom window (which opens out over the deck and faces the ocean, so there was a nice crisp breeze for me to breathe), offered me half a Xanax (which I luckily didn't need) and refused to leave until I swore up and down I'd be alright. This is a good deal of why I think I might love him, even if he doesn't know that...)

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luxshine
2007-02-19 04:52 am UTC (link)

Ok, I'll admit I have problems with that one too.

I've been in ONE american ER, for a very mild case of heatstroke but since I had been recently in surgery, the paramedics took me there. I waited for hours, felt better, asked if I could leave... and no one let me. I had to argue with a doctor, six hours after I had been put in the waiting room, so he would finally let me go 'against medical advice'.

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	singe 2007-02-19 06:54 pm UTC (link)
	Don't get sick in America. Christ A'mighty. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kahrohseh 2007-02-20 01:03 am UTC (link)
	Yeah. My mom? Bone cancer. No health insurance. It's really funny hearing people react to my railing against the American health system because most are utterly convinced that death by bureaucracy and negligence is only something that happens in heathen countries and we're all far too nice for that to happen here. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	singe 2007-02-20 02:14 am UTC (link)
	What a nightmare, I'm so sorry that's happening to ya'll. What's also sad is even if you HAVE insurance that doesn't mean they'll pay. Insurance companies get away with a lot of shady bullshit under the 'pre-existing condition' clause. Sigh. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

kahrohseh
2007-02-20 04:22 pm UTC (link)

Story of our lives. Even if we could afford insurance for her now, no-one would take her.

I could fly my mother to Norway and dump her on a street corner somewhere and could guarantee she'd see better medical care than we could get here as fifth-generation tax-paying working-class Americans (who, being of Norwegian descent, don't complain much unless someone's got an arm off). :p The hell.

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	luxshine 2007-02-20 03:14 am UTC (link)
	I'm convinced that the most advanced a country is, the easier it is to end up dead by bureaucracy and negligence because everyone is covering their asses. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

kahrohseh
2007-02-20 04:37 pm UTC (link)

Echoes of Gilliam's Brazil there. I completely concur. Still, I'd like to feel that a country properly sorted out can be advanced and not kill its own citizens. But then, we're also a country whose current dictator believes in the "sanctity of life" enough to ban stem cell research and gay marriage, but treats the tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths as an interesting factoid. And thinks that giving a tax break on health insurance when most who don't have it are too poor to pay taxes is an excellent damn solution.

May I ask, where are you from, and can I move there?

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luxshine
2007-02-20 05:20 pm UTC (link)

Mexico. Unfortunately, we are not much better as the extreme-extreme right has just gotten themselves into power and, well, they like to follow the steps of mr.Sanctity of life.

(On the plus side, gay marriage has been legalized, and there's at least one ER that will not only take you no matter what you have, or if you have insurance or not, but also will not charge you at all for the service. And a health insurance policy that more or less goes to the fact that if you have a job, you get health insurance. So it's a situation where you have to decide if it's a half full glass or a half empty one)

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