A family member of mine was just administered to the ER. I’m sitting here. Waiting for news. Any stories to tell of going to the hospital? Yours? Someone else’s? Something you would like to share? If you want to. No pressure. Be as open as you want. Please no names or specifics. Only experiences and only those you wish to share. I feel alone right now and hearing from anyone who’s been there would help. The waiting as Tom Petty said, “is the hardest part.” Thanks in advance.
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I hope your family member’s okay. As anyone who reads the griping thread knows, I’ve been to the ER three times in the past year. Once for a kidney stone and then twice because of my mystery stomach ailment where I didn’t eat for almost a month.
Everyone there was very nice, but it takes forever for anything. All three times I was there for over six hours. One of them for nine.
Anyway, it’s not an experience I recommend.
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Yeah. I’ve had several experiences personally. Two Open Heart Surgeries and the second began first with me going to the ER. I had suspicions it might be my heart while the nurses thought I had Asthma even beginning treatment before realizing I was right and rushing me to an ambulance that raced me to the nearest cardiac center where hours later I had surgery. This time it’s a parent and we arrived at 9 am and they’re only now taking her for a CAT Scan. Squid, I appreciate your thoughts. Thank You.
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My typical response to medical problems is to ignore them until they go away (which, technically, eventually holds true). But I was in such a ridiculous amount of pain once that my roommate at the time was freaking out. So he dropped me off at the ER.
I was asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. It was the absolute worst pain I have ever felt (akin to someone with metal cleats repeatedly kicking me in the side), but I’m a scientist at heart so I could only give it a 9, because I dunno maybe that same person could also say I’m ugly at the same time or something.
So they’re like “I think it’s kidney stones” and I’m like “typical” and they’re like “but we’ll run some tests which will take several hours.” I phoned my roommate and asked if he could bring me my Kindle since I was otherwise just going to be lying in a bed for the rest of the day, but he was all “oh man, it’s such a drag to travel 20 blocks” so he’s pretty much written out of my life now (not just for that, but also for that).
Anyway, in the end it was “yep, kidney stones. We can’t do anything. Sucks to be you. Bye bye.” And I don’t remember what the total bill was but with my insurance I ended up paying about $3000 so my lesson is “I didn’t ignore the problem enough.”
Waiting indeed is the worst thing, so I hope you find something to otherwise occupy you. Worrying about stuff you can’t control is like paying taxes for money you didn’t earn. If you run out of MST3K threads to read, one of my favorite waiting room games is to come up with a backstory for all the other people in the room, making them out to secretly be Batman-style villains.
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Kidney stones should be analyzed when they pass though, because that could be an indication of something worse. So that really shouldn’t be ignored.
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Excellent advice for someone who is nowhere near as fatalistic as I am.
Edited to add: an honest to goodness doctor seems to agree with me:
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Geez, I hope your waiting ends soon. Last time I was at the e room (grade 3 ankle sprain), I struck up a conversation with a guy who had his manly bits shot off in Iraq. 
When they asked me my pain level, I looked over at him, and said, “Probably like a 5…”. My anke was the size of a watermelon, and I almost ended up losing my foot because swelling would not go down.
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This is AWESOME! Inventing stories in your head of the people around you. I’ll try that. I have a feeling I have a long time to wait yet. They had difficulty putting in an IV. Two different nurses went into her room. She returned from the CAT Scan roughly 20 minutes ago.
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Hey, the only people I look at are already dead. 
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Must take the pressure off.
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Many moons ago, when I was a youngin’ and worked at a doctor’s office, my favorite response from the doctor was, “Don’t worry, I bury my mistakes!”
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Diverticulitis. She’s being prescribed antibiotics and is to be released. We’re waiting to hear back from the doctor.
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Man, that sucks. I’ve had great success with regards to GI problems using honey. You’ve got to get as organic as possible, and at first you have to be like Pooh Bear, and eat honey in everything you can for a few days. It’s like it ‘coated’ the lining of my plumbing, cleaning, soothing, all the good stuff honey does. Diabetes puts a 25 gram high level per day, but after a few weeks will actually be helpful for some hemoglobins associated with Diabetics.
Then, you have to be like Popeye, and eats yer spinitch! There’s an enzyme (sic.) called papain…you can get it in papaya, but papaya is expensive and quickly digested…spinach will ‘stick’ with you and your body will leech out more of the valuable chemicals that are so valuable to GI health…especially with anti biotics, they’ll wipe out your gut flora/ fauna, you’ve got to Spinach!
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She’s home now. Great info. I’ll have to get her some honey and spinach. Is fresh spinach best? I’d assume so. Any other dietary suggestions? She needs as much help as I can muster!
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Ouch! My stepmom had diverticulitis and it sounds absolutely awful. ERs are also awful. Like, who knew you could combine terror and boredom in such rich proportions? Glad your person got a diagnosis and gets to go home.
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Raw, fresh spinach is probably best, but I prefer a slight steam on a whole bunch, as it has a tendency to reduce down and you can eat a whole bunch in a few bites.
Otherwise, green tea is really good for skin cells, which cover every surface of our bodies, inside and out! Brew some tea, add honey to taste, and pour over ice for a yummy punch.
Then there is the almighty ginger; she is very powerful and reduces inflammation wherever she finds herself. I love the Chimes ginger chews, and actually use them for pre and post workout respiratory help.
Curry is also another great digestive spice, as it contains tumeric. You can usually find some Indian curry in the freezer of your local store if you don’t have access to a good Asian restaurant.
BRAT diet, of course; Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toasted bread…
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I forgot to mention that all three times I went to the ER, the TV remote didn’t work. I don’t like TV with commercials, but I would have taken that over just my phone. I hate watching or reading things on a phone so I never do it.
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This makes my sides hurt.
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Especially waiting on kidney stones, hoagie fuggn sonuva @#$%.
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I’ve heard that riding roller coasters is good for passing kidney stones.
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