MetaChat - ERs

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15 June 2006

ERs I just spent 4 and a half hours in the ER waiting room because my friend got food poisoning or something and freaked out.→[More:]

I'm an idiot.

But here is why my friend is a bigger idiot:

1) You already feel shitty; 4 hours (which is a record short time) in horrible chairs watching a rerun of a KQED pledge drive while surrounded by gruesomely injured and/or insane homeless people won't make you feel better.

2) It's the ER- if you don't have a 2 foot spike sticking out of your eye socket you aren't that big of an emergency- you are going to sit around.

3) It's my considered opinion that if you aren't rushed into treatment immediately, but instead are sent back to the waiting room to watch said pledge drive, it's probably safe to go home and come back the next day with an actual appointment.

(Exceptions to this rule for compound fractures, seizing, etc.)

It's 1:40 am. Work tomorrow will be hard.

post by: small_ruminant at: 03:48 | 7 comments

food poisoning can hurt like a mofo

posted by flopsy 15 June | 08:05

Tell me about it; I had food poisoning Tuesday night. I met a woman for a date, and we went to this Italian place, and I had, of all things, endives, which must not have been well-cleaned, because about an hour into our meal, I said, "Say, I think I've eaten something that disagreed with me, pretty horribly, and I'd better go home right now." She responded that she thought I looked kind of green, and no worries, we could go out some other time; I managed to hail a cab and get home before the cramps took over and I started vomiting, which I did until noon yesterday, lying on my side in bed and aiming into a mop bucket. Today I feel the occasional mild wave of nausea, like the touch of an old enemy, and my body aches like I went ten rounds with a bandsaw.

posted by Hugh Janus 15 June | 08:26

Yow, Hugh. I've never been the recipient of food poisoning, but intestinal gas that has no escape can hurt like hell and I've been to the ER for that. I'm now faithfully addicted to ginger tablets & haven't had trouble since.

Bummer about your friend small_ruminant. ER = no fun. May the day speed by and the friend feel better.

posted by chewatadistance 15 June | 08:42

I went in a few weeks ago with abdominal pain--I thought it might be appendicitis, and so did the admitting nurse, because she put me on the fast track and I was with a doctor in less than 30 minutes. And this was at the U of Chicago hospital, which has legendary waiting times for its ER. Turns out it was just the flu.

posted by goatdog 15 June | 09:03

My brother has a Meckel's diverticulum. It once put him in the hospital overnight with appendicitis symptoms, but after an initial examination they wanted to be sure before operating, so they gave him a bed and had him lie on his side. After an hour or so, the gas that had built up behind his diverticulum began to escape, and continued to do so for the next couple of hours. He was sharing a room with an old man, who called for the nurse after about fifteen minutes of farting and requested a change of room, which he received.

posted by Hugh Janus 15 June | 09:59

Hugh, that's funny!

posted by small_ruminant 15 June | 10:34

Yeah, I thought so. My brother finds it a little embarrassing, which I understand. Luckily, nobody here knows him.

posted by Hugh Janus 15 June | 10:46

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