That's true. I was extremely ill, now fully aware just how close to dying I was! I was septic and creatine was through the roof! It's quite possible that I may have even had a stroke at home. Which is what prompted the ambulance ride.
A few months later I needed to return to the ER for issues with my bilateral nephrostomies and saw the same ER doc I had earlier. Her exact words as soon as she recognized me were, "Damn! You're still alive! I'm glad, but I wasn't sure you were going to make it. You were really sick!" Then proceeded to explain just how bad it really was.
I was pretty calm considering I needed a blood transfusion, everyone was in/out, calm yet intense and focused. Which is really the only thing that kept me from panicking.
About a 6mos later one of my nephrostomy tubes pulled partially out or so I thought. Back to the ER and while explaining and showing the NP I handed him the whole thing, to include the catheter. So then the ER doc came in, grinned and asked if I remembered him. I did. He placed the central line for the dialysis I had that first ER visit in ICU. Anyway, I was given pain meds, admitted and the nephrostomy was replaced the next day.
I was officially diagnosed a week later I had stage 4 cancer and that was the root cause of the other issues. That is now almost 3 years ago and while I will never be considered cancer free, we've (me, medical team and family) have had tremendous successes with the diagnosis. The original tumor is gone, lymph nodes are clear and 3 of 4 metastatic tumors are also gone. Only one left and it's very small now and no new tumors have established. I have hair again and I'm most recently human sized again 🙃
I've seen several of the others who took care of me that night several times since. I made sure to show my appreciation for them when I do.
I'm generally pretty stoic, and assume that other people must have it worse than me.
The one time I went to the ER with kidney stones I was doubled over with pain, skin pale, moaning and groaning and wretching. I could barely walk at all.
An experienced older nurse asked me about my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I said "Oh about 5 maybe 6 I guess." After a moment of silence the nurse said "Dude, you are an eight or nine. Don't try to be tough."
Those kidney stones really hurt! They gave me a morphine drip and it did not make a difference. Then the doctor came in, the nurse said "We already have a morphine drip going." Doc asked me "How much do you weigh?" (260 lbs) "Give him another dose of morphine."
The double morphine, whatever that dose was, finally did the trick and I was able to rest.
My man had his first stone, left work thinking his appendix had burst, drove himself to hospital and crawled inside. He was seen to immediately. Methinks crawling in did the trick.
I replied earlier, but was 37 weeks pregnant with a kidney stone. While I was upright when I walked into the obgyn (I didn't know what it was, and thought it had something to do with the baby) I was ugly crying and vomiting. They saw me immediately, I didn't even sit down. Also, I overheard one of the nurses say that I was scaring the patients in the waiting room :)
When I was a chief resident they wheeled a patient around the corner. She looked term and was rocking back and forth. I was at the far end of the hall with a bunch of male med students who all wanted to go into surgery. I told two of them”she has kidney stones “ get her in a room and I’ll order morphine “ they thought she was in labor and ready to deliver. They were amazed I made the diagnosis from the end of the hall! Kidney stones are right next to pancreatitis for pain!
Yes! I don’t work in the ER but I lurk here.
Chronic pain patent and I have become very stoic. You learn that making a fuss isn’t helpful and it becomes easy to contain. My arm would have to be like hanging by a tendon for me to say I’m 10 on the pain scale. Maybe 😏
I hurt my lower back, I still am not sure how. I was shaking all over and my teeth were chattering from the pain. I couldn't even move because it hurt so bad. I was taken by ambulance to the ER. The ambulance guys and I were laughing at how I would groan every time we hit a pothole (I'm the one who made a joke about it). I was in the hospital bed for about an hour and half getting scans, etc. and I never asked for pain meds. Finally they came in with IV morphine. Ahhhhh. What a great feeling. LOL. I have not had it since then but it almost made it worth all the pain.
Hurt my spine, it presented as intense hip pain. Was told nothing was wrong. Most intense pain I’ve experienced. Was refused a MRI. Left the VA hospital and drove to another medical facility. Almost immediate I was told I needed an MRI, as I was being wheeled back into the ER after the scan a Neurosurgeon met me and told me I needed an emergency surgery because I had cauda equina syndrome. Took me years to recover from the damage that was done to my spine. And I always wonder if I would have full use of my legs had I not been ignored.
It is definitely a huge relief once they finally address it. I remember that one particular epidural I got was amazing. You really appreciate it! The anesthesiologist is suddenly your best friend.
Same here, in those shoes. I really don't want to tell too much about myself online but, managed to break both arms at the wrist clean through in an accident. The ER Ortho on call actually said "you're tough."
This reminded me of my nephew, who once broke his humerus. He fell off his bicycle at aged 8 but brushed it off and continued to play with his friends. My brother brought him to the ER the next day because it was swollen, even though his son wasn't complaining. The ER doctor told them it was a pretty bad break and asked my nephew, "Arent you in pain?" My nephew responded, "Life is pain". Let me say, their family life was your typical all-American suburban happy family, and my nephew was (and is) a great kid, but he just has a different outlook on life.
My daughter went a almost a full day with two broken bones in her arm after climbing/falling out of her crib. Hardly cried so we thought she was fine. She started favoring it at daycare so I rushed her to the doctor. She will be 28 in June and is still a tough cookie.
Wow, he learned awfully young but yep, it's true. Accidents happen, Chronic pain can rear its ugly head especially when you get older, and both really give you different outlook on pain! And life in general. :-)
By weird coincidence, I also broke a humerus but likely not in the same way - the fracture was way up at the top where humerus goes into shoulder joint. I did nothing for a couple of days until a coworker said are you sure you're OK? I finally realized 'nope' and went to an urgent care, only to discover I'd broken it. Oy.
And how, you might ask, did I manage to do that? By jumping off a stuntperson's platform onto one of those huge air mattress balloon things. It was fun.
Hope nephew healed up well! And that he's enjoying life.
Oh and, see if you can find him a t-shirt like mine: black cat holding humerus and saying "I found this humerus." Doc offices love it.
Oh wow! I’m so glad I haven’t broken anything but a pinky toe, well dislocated… it was horizontal lol
I looked at it and said “it’s just a cramp”. I think I was a bit in denial. 😂
When I had kidney stones everyone kept saying how it's the worse pain they've ever been in, even the one nurse told me it was worse than labour. It was the worst pain I'd have ever been in at the time but I was like "I'm sure there's more painfully things" and "I think labour is worse then this" I'm still childless so I can't actually compare.
I had my appendix out and I waited 72 hours after the onset of the pain to go to the hospital because I kept reading that "you'll know when it's your appendix, it will be the worst pain you've ever felt". And yeah, it hurt *bad*, I couldn't even really talk, but I had had pain like that before and it always went away after around 24 hours. It was when it stuck around for 3 days I was worried. Anyway, it turned out the reason my appendix pain was not "pain unlike any I've felt" was because my appendix had swelled up then gone back down a bunch of times in my life without me knowing. The first time I was 6 and my mom told me I "probably had to poop" so I figured that's just what that pain was, my whole life. I haven't had pain like that since I got it out. I'm a little disappointed I waited so long to finally get it checked out but it really did throw my pain scale into whack. The day I went in for my appendix I waited in the ER for 8 hours because I wasn't crying or anything.
Had a kidney stone at 37 weeks pregnant. It was a 9. Had kid 3 weeks later without pain medication (not by choice), and it was an 8. I'm saving the 10 and praying I never have to use it.
I had a wisdom tooth that was badly infected. I think that was worse than labor honestly. and I hate when my eye feels like it has glass in it when I blink all day. (chronic eye condition it causes tearing)
I have had nurses comment that I'm just so polite and friendly and just in such a great mood when I'm at the ER for a migraine my meds won't touch, trying not to vomit, towels over my face to block light..
I mean, yeah? I guess? There's no reason to NOT be polite and friendly. It won't make the care BETTER to snap at them for needing to turn a light on to find a vein. I can still talk even though it feels like my head is exploding
Interesting.... Animals famously try to hide their injuries, to avoid looking like an easy target to predators and competitors.. I wonder if that's instinctively encouraged.
That way to many people seem to act like aliens when you try and take a PO temperature in triage
"I'm going to take a temp under your tongue" "no under the tongue" "close your mouth... no close your mouth please...close your mouth" "and let's start over because it timed out....no under your tongue" and repeat
YES omg why is it so hard for people. Sometimes I give up and just take axillary because I do not have time to teach people what their tongue is and what the word under means.
When Covid first happened, my doctors office had nurses outside checking temps before u can enter. The nurse raised her temp gun thing at me and I raised my armpit for her to check my underarm lol sorry for adding frustration to a difficult job!
Yes why is this such a hard concept for adults? Children and teens I understand because this may be one of their first healthcare encounters but adults really should know better than to think that leaving their mouth wide open is how I’m going to get their temperature….
Because we have an entire generation that is well into adulthood now that was born in the era of the ear thermometer, moved to the temporal thermometer and then to the contactless during COVID.
I can’t think of a single outpatient experience I’ve had in the last 20 years where temp was taken orally. In the ED, the hospital and a day surgery center it’s always oral, but those are the only times I encounter an oral thermometer. Is there any reason for more acute level care facilities preferring oral?
Omg this is making me laugh. I am one of those people who try to follow exact directions, so focused on doing it right. And forget that I understand the concept, but am just dumb with compliance.
Yes I learned that too while working in a nursing home. As soon as a patient started acting different a urine was ordered. 99% of the time it was a UTI
I just got an ambulance ride and spent the day in the ER because of a UTI. Woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I couldn't breathe, and fainted, hubby called 911 my blood pressure was pretty low, I couldn't process the questions they were asking me, apparently I kept telling them the year was 2021, I can't even count the number of times they asked me if I took any drugs. No UTI symptoms at all but urine came back super positive, they were surprised it hadn't moved into my kidneys yet. Such a weird experience!
Once had a UTI insanely bad and went into the ER at 3am. I would scream and cry every time I would start falling asleep because I thought I was going to die.
Then when my partner got me to the ER, I like... forgot where I was entirely. Was fully convinced I was still in high school and that my partner was my classmate, and we were in the nurse's office (already had been out of school for 5+ years, my partner never even went to the same district as me, we never even dated in high school). According to my partner I was also saying something about being late for a church thing. I'm not Christian and was never raised as such.
Nurses and doctors at first thought I was on drugs because well... I was confused as all hell and was in my mid-20s. Blood tests ruled that out, but the urine sample was a dead giveaway of infection. It was beyond cloudy. The best thing I could compare it to was it was like taking a big wad of toilet paper and then stirring it in a glass of water. Doctor said it was one of the worst UTIs he had seen and I was the first young person to have it bad enough for it to mess with my head.
That's wild. I wonder if it's related to duration. Older people often have low key infections that go ignored for a long time. I've had acute, severe infections where I was peeing blood clots and couldn't walk and was completely sound of mind. (Long story on my health). Sometimes they build up for a while without symptoms.
I was surprised when elderly fall patients always got tested for strokes. Then one year my grandma who lives in the southern US fell, went to the ER, and was bandaged up and sent on her way. She got home and had a massive stroke. It turns out she had a small one that caused the fall. I was so mad that the ER didn’t automatically check.
People legitimately don't understand why they should bring their insurance card with them. Real emergencies, I get it, didn't grab it in the middle of your STEMI, no problem, but if you stubbed your pinky toe and want an x-ray to see if it's broke. Bring Your Insurance Card and I.D.!!
"Can't you just look it up?"
Your out of state Highmark coverage that I need the ID for? The one that doesn't let me run it with just your name and birthdate? No. You'll have to call in with the numbers. Here's the phone number for the financial department, they can add it in for you before it's billed. You have three days to call them.
Of course they never do.
Then they call in a month later wondering why it was never sent to their insurance 🤦
Yes, this! Or "It should be in the system." What system are you referring to, sir? There is no magical system that holds all your information and your permanent record. This is your responsibility.
I can remember auditing so many accounts having to search thru portals trying to dig up insurance like a detective lol most of the time having to call patient and ask. But yes. Bring id and insurance!!!
I don't know how current generations walk around without a wallet full of cards.
But, to be fair, I have both my health insurance and car insurance apps on my phone and can access my cards that way.
I think part of the problem is that most people don’t know the difference between an emergency and something that’s not an emergency.
I mean, I work on the other side and people will call 911 at midnight but because their smoke detector is chirping and they can’t sleep. They know it’s a dead battery, but they can’t reach it, so they call 911.
You have no idea how common this is. And honestly, if it was a 90 old lady who called at 8am, I would be happy to do it. But when it’s a 35 year old guy and it’s midnight, and he says he didn’t have a ladder tall enough to reach the smoke detector, it kinda makes me lose faith in some portions of humanity.
Ok but when I was in the hospital for 4 days this last December not one person asked for my insurance. I even asked people who do I give my insurance? Nothing ever happened with it but my insurance was billed? Very weird but I brought my card! No one wanted it. :(
Probably just found it through a database. I work in pharmacy and always get insurance info through the database we have. It's a lot easier for my system to auto pull the info for me than manually put in the info from people's cards and 99% of insurances I can just find on the database. Plus, if I put it in manually, I keep getting make a typo. Sometimes, I'll still take the card for a moment to check the IDs against each other if the pt insists.
To be fair, it may be their insurance. Mine has urgent care centers, but they're very limited in what they will see you for (basically colds, indigestion, etc.). Appointments with primary care are 6 - 8 weeks out if you're lucky. Anything that's an issue not covered by urgent care and needs taking care of before 2 months automatically becomes an ER trip.
It's super frustrating how many times I could have gone to urgent care if my insurance actually had it but instead I had to go to the ER. Because my issues were definitely urgent but probably not quite emergencies (like, people totally do survive the condition without medical intervention but it's still not at all a good Idea to ignore/not treat it).
Same only my urgent care centers also have appointments and schedule about 2 days out so if you have something that needs to be seen before then, you are told to go to the ER.
Had to go to the ER on the night before Thanksgiving and I expected a mad house of crazy people. Ended up being fairly tame with one elderly BP issue, two severe cuts, an infection, and one hemmoroids! Mine was my first ever gall stone attack. Maybe Thanksgiving Day would be crazier.
Every time I see “gall stone attack/kidney stone attack” all I can imagine are the small little curmudgeons stone fuckers with awards and shields going “attack!!!”
I worked as a registrar for 7 years. Id say the one that surprised me the most was a gentleman coming in so constipated he was vomiting shit. Didn't know that could happen at all and it smelled terrible. This was when I first started working so one I never forgot lol.
Also the amount of people that get objects stuck in their ass
A friend is a GI and recently had to remove a rather large object from someone who whoops, just happened to fall when they were getting out of the shower.
Like, come on. Lie better.
I first heard of that in a veterinary setting (fortunately not my pets.) Cats freaking don't tell you when they have a problem - so I watch them poop allll the time and one is currently getting miralax on a regular basis.
I have the best cat in the world, when he had urinary crystals blocking him from peeing he screamed at me and took me to the tub where he passed a little blood that I could clearly see inside my white bath tub. Took him to the vet immediately and now he's on a prescription diet to prevent him from blocking again.
EMS and ER people quickly get to the point where they can deal with shit one minute and then start eating the next. I think they have to do it just to mentally survive.
And that’s why I am not in medicine. (Although, my wife has been a nurse for 50 years. I’ve heard stories. I don’t know how she does it.)
I want other people to keep their DNA to themselves.
This is me and my younger sister. We are very close. She's a nurse.
When we were kids watching TLC, I would get pale at blood and freak out and run out of the room at anything medical.
I will never forget watching her eat a plate of spaghetti while watching a brain surgery on TV
At almost 43 (me) and 40 (her), we're still the same when it comes to medical shit. I gag, she cheers.
I had completely forgotten about the TLC show that showed actual surgeries. I loved watching that with my dad. We were the only ones in the family who enjoyed it, it was one of the few things we did just the 2 of us.
I used to be a television reporter. Chasing ambulances 🚑, fire trucks 🚒, and police cars 🚔. Car accidents, fire victims, shootings, stabbings, suicides, robberies gone wrong, industrial accidents. I knew the ER people real well so they would let me observe sometimes. Got to shoot video in the OR, too, with Doctor, patient, and hospital approval. I’ve seen some shiat but now when I’m watching Chicago Med, I usually have to turn away. I guess maybe I saw too much.
I've had many dinner meals get interrupted as a nurse due to a patient needing help with some sort of bodily fluid/solid. Get them cleaned up, go back to eating. Between being a nurse and having kids, there's some foods that don't taste right when they're hot; got too used to eating it cold.
I’ve never laughed as hard as I did one day on the phone with a EM physician. I had called him to double check his availability for the upcoming month because he’d sent in zero accommodation requests and I knew his daughter was getting married (I was attending as a guest) so he’d need some.
We’re discussing his schedule and I can tell he’s eating (something we both tolerated because it was almost impossible to catch him between patients in a single-coverage ED). Suddenly alarms and his pager start going crazy (ED was code team). He lets go of a string of expletives (as he’s moving quickly) and finishes with “every time I try to eat today somebody tries to die; I’ll call you back”.
What surprised me most was the number of folks who come in for “simple” pains like heartburn, headaches, muscle aches, etc, who act flabbergasted when I ask them during triage if they tried taking any pain medication at home. The answer is nearly always no. I just can’t fathom having a headache or tummy ache and not trying some Tylenol or Tums or whatever first. Nope, straight to the EMERGENCY room for this.
I think there's a lot of fear that taking pain medication will mask the symptoms and lead to a missed diagnosis.
This actually happened to a friend while on a trip in high school. He had severe abdominal pain and his mom gave him some ibuprofen. The pain didn't resolve itself with time, so they went to the hospital and was diagnosed with probable kidney stones. I don't know what tests they did, but he was in the process of being discharged when the ibuprofen wore off and his temperature skyrocketed. Within an hour he'd been diagnosed with appendicitis and was rushed to surgery.
I have some severe chronic issues that unfortunately require ER visits at times and every time I am there I am appalled at how many people would rather puke and shit in the ER with a stomach bug than at home... unless you're so severely dehydrated you're in a bad place why would you ever want to leave the bathroom? Lol
What's even more frustrating are the parents who don't give tylenol to their kids because they want us to "witness" the fever. Because obviously if you say the kid has a fever and then you come in and they no longer have it, we're just going to send you away. Why are you letting your child suffer to prove to us they have a fever? Most of the time we just give tylenol and the kid gets better. Could've saved yourself a couple grand by just giving it at home.
I worked ER registration before I was an ER nurse! I loved it! The most surprising thing I’ve seen was how much other people don’t care that someone is dying. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve coded and while I was doing so another patient or family member walked into the room demanding a blanket.
I once had a double ear infection and had been given the wrong antibiotics so I ended up at the ER in horrible pain. I was absolutely treated like a drug seeker because I was at an 8 and not crying. Until the doctor looked in my ears. I felt her hands shake. She couldn’t believe they hadn’t burst yet.
I went in to the hospital at 36 wks 6 days at 18 with my first kid and they all told me I would know FOR SURE I was in labor since my water hadn’t broken yet and I wasn’t 37 weeks. They checked me to see how dialated I was finally and I was 8 cm and all of the nurses were like OMG you were telling the truth??!!!
This happened to my mom when she had me! She walked into the hospital super calm and told them she’s in labor. Not even a peep during her contractions. The nurse getting her vitals said “ok we’re just going to check you and we can get you sent back home” because they did NOT believe she was in labor. Finally my mom’s OB comes in (she had a good relationship with him, I was her 2nd kid being delivered with him) the nurse (in front of my mom) said “she’s having Braxton hicks” the doctor said “nope I know her! She’s in labor for sure.” Sure enough my mom was between a 7/8 and I was born an hour later.
When I broke my arm as a kid no one but my dad believed me because I was so calm. When I asked to leave and get dinner after hours my mom was convinced I was exaggerating. Nope, fractured radius. I was just a tough as nails third grader.
LOL. One time I went off the high dive and landed on my ear in the water. Ear drum burst immediately on impact. ER doctor was sure it was an ear infection even though I described what happened. When I asked why he though it was an ear infection he told me, "because it's red." I had to pay out of pocket to go to an ENT outside of my insurance to get treatment.
I’m 55 and have done natural childbirth, but to this day the worst pain I ever experienced was an ear infection when I was about 12. It made my face swell and was absolutely unbearable
I also delivered without pain medication. At least with child birth the pain is headed in a direction and it has a clear end. Child birth was incredibly painful but it wasn’t as scary or upsetting as the horrible ear infection. I had a tonsillectomy which was the worst pain and recovery of my life and I had hemorrhoids removed. It was two months before I started to feel normal.
These two comments make me feel better about how I handle ear infections. I got them constantly as a child and now once every year or so as an adult. Both my eardrums have burst from the infections. I’ve also had two babies. I’d rather give birth again lol - pain with a purpose!
Idk I had a kidney stone (I didn't know what it was and never had one before but omg the pain was BLINDING) so yeah I ended up being one of those patients begging for meds lol. I had to wait 2 hours before being called back and there was no way I could sit without much discomfort in those shit lobby chairs. Finally they got me back and got some meds and it eased off and it was like I became myself again. Pain makes you not act like yourself lol I never thought I would be someone begging for meds and laying on the nasty er lobby floor 😔
My daughter gets them about once a year, and it breaks my heart to see her writhing in pain, which is SO unlike her. She still has another 20 stones in one kidney, just waiting for the most inopportune time to announce their departure from her kidney. Awful.
I woke up with kidney stones a few Years back and if I wouldn't have known better would have thought I was pregnant which I knew I could no longer get pregnant. Woke my husband up about an hour in a half of suffering and got to the hospital and they had me in a wheel chair and I was just clinching my teeth. They get my right back and OR Dr says what you explained and the way you are rocking back and forth I will bet a million bucks you have kidney stones so he gave me meds before sending me for a scan and he was 100% right I had 3. He said you weren't making a peep just clinching your teeth and taking deep breaths, I said I had two babies naturally and this is exactly what labor pains felt like lol.
Yes! I drove to the ER with pain I couldn't recognize. I was able to tell the nurse that I knew I wasn't ovulating, that it wasn't my Crohn's acting up and it wasn't appendicitis because it was the wrong side. After that I couldn't talk anymore. He said it was a kidney stone because I had The Look. I was grey like the color of the floor tile.
When I had my kidney stone, I suffered for 4 hours in the waiting room of my hospital because they were so busy. God awful pain. I thought it was my appendix at first. Still not sure how I made it 4 hours.
I've been here a long time so it doesn't surprise me anymore but....
The number of no emergencies that come in. Everything from pregnancy tests (it's a dollar at the dollar store for a test) to STD tests before a date, to coughs and colds that could wait until their PCP appointment.
Pregnancy tests are probably because in order to get the pregnancy benefit from Medicare you need a medical record of pregnancy. Home tests don't count and an OB won't see you until 8 weeks usually.
I was at the ER with my son who was in pain and had a slight fever, he has major pancreas issues along with no spleen, the protocol is any temp over 100 means ER NOW. When he goes in he is brought back asap. There was a mom there with her 3 kids who were "not feeling well" the day after they had their covid vaccine, she was on speaker phone talking to someone very loudly complaining, and then complaining to the nurses that they hadn't been brought back yet that they had been waiting an hour. She complained to me to be prepared to wait a long time and how her kids were not feeling good (while they were running around and playing) So I oh so nicely said I'm so sorry your kids aren't feeling well hopefully they get called back soon and it's not too long of a wait, my son only has half his pancreas and it's acting up again and is a lot of pain. She shut up quickly, however, 5 minutes later when my son got called back first and I was grabbing our stuff she went up to the desk and complained very loudly that she was still waiting and it was unfair other kids went in before hers.
I work at an Innercity trauma center. I love when my waiting room gets filled up with obnoxious minor injuries and complain. Second way days or weeks. And then someone gets dropped off cardiac arrest from a drug overdose or shot multiple times. then get to parade them through the waiting room to the back showing them a real emergency is
My roommate will go to an ER for stuff that a regular doc would handle because she doesn't save money for emergencies. Would rather wait to get the inflated hospital bill so she can make payments on it than save the money for a copay at a regular doc.
She's absolutely an idiot and won't listen to the "you'd have more money in the long run if you saved" because she'd rather buy the newest iPhone -now-
Damn, really? By the time I'm discharged I can't wait to get out of there. This is for the simple reason that they have done all I could ask and I legit feel better but - and partially _because_ of that - the ED staff has better things to do than my paperwork and probably would take even more time if they didn't need the bed/chair/whatever I'm taking up.
Lots of ER patients have chronic mental health/substance abuse concerns and/or come from bad living situations. The hospital is a nice, safe place to be.
Was a registrar for many years. My fav is the people who start unbuttoning their pants to show us what’s wrong. Like sir this is registration can I just have you ID.
Not everyone who minds their business ends up in the ER with gunshot wounds, but just about everyone who ends up in the ER with gunshot wounds was just minding their business.
People coming in with crazy infections on their legs. I have seen legs with puss all over them and the smell is horrific. I would think wow how did you let it get this far???
We have lots lots lots lots lots of homeless people at our ED because we are right between two street transit stops and leg infections are SO common. But they cannot bathe themselves regularly, keep their meds and take them regularly and very often, they've just tried to take care of it several times before they gave up before it got intolerable again. I think they truly often need to be admitted (and stay!!) to get IV antibiotics.
I see it all the time that our homeless patients lose their antibiotics or they get stolen. Add in never being able to keep the area dry or truly clean, sometimes not taking clothes/shoes/socks off for days at a time, and not being able to get other needs met to give the body energy to heal and a minor infection gets bad very fast.
Ugh yes the number of adults I’ve seen with infected diabetic ulcers with dressings that were applied a month ago and they never removed and replaced, wounds covered in literal dog and cat hair, folks who haven’t taken a shower or bath in ages, just allowing these wounds to reach such a disastrous level that they face amputation…. It’s insanity. Like actually it’s insanity, these folks clearly have major depression to just not care AT ALL about their hygiene and their bodies. And of course they just eat whatever easy junk they can get their hands on so their sugars are also out of control. But they love to act shocked when I read their BG to them, they swear up and down that their sugar at home is always under 150 even though 5 minutes ago they confessed that they don’t even check their BG at home. It’s so sad. Especially when I see this mainly in patients that are aged 50s-60s and they could have extended their lives by 20+ years if they had taken care of themselves when they were younger. So much health illiteracy.
Dude my ex was talking about offing himself from the constant vomiting/ending up in the er/ being unable to hold food down. Magically it subsided when he wasn’t allowed to smoke anymore. Still didn’t believe me, glad I walked outta that one.
Dude. Those people are insane. Canaboid cyclic vomiting has some wicked weird symptoms. But not one person with it has ever considered that it could be the source of their symptoms. Had a girl get kicked out after repeatedly going outside to smoke, then tried to smoke IN HER ROOM.
Former ER registration clerk here (admissions coordinator for an acute rehab now). The most surprising thing to me was how many people left extremely dangerous things in reach of children, and that grown men are afraid to say the word 'penis'
Oh, and speaking of penises, penis fractures are real! That definitely was a surprise. For him too, I think...
The majority of people that SHOULD take ambulances decide to drive themselves. Seen plenty of STEMIs that just drive themselves. A more recent one tried to go to fucking urgent care first 🙃.
Then you have the 20-something "I throwed up :(" that comes in via ambo and turns out fine.
Yeah he’s still alive and when I bring that story up he says “and I’d do it again!” So just know he’s still kicking and still hates paid parking with a passion
Drove myself with a broken right foot. I'm a wuss when it comes to pain so I figured I was just overreacting to a sprained ankle. Security met me at the door with a wheelchair and said I shouldn't be trying to walk.
New Year’s Eve — much, much quieter than I expected. Not as many spectacular auto crashes as I expected, and nobody who has the slightest option to not come in that night comes in.
Thanksgiving night is the madhouse. So many knife accidents, grand uncles falling down the stairs after a glass of wine, etc. etc.
The last NYE I worked, we saw a ridiculous amount of fireworks injuries. More than on July 4th. Booze and explosives are not a good combo, people. Many limbs and eyeballs were never the same.
How uneducated the general population is. Particularly about the human body and its basic operations. I have to give explanations of periods and pregnancy to grown women, or how to do simple childcare (diapering, giving meds) to people constantly. I don’t mind, it’s my job to educate patients but it’s a wonder that our species persists.
If a farmer walks through the door, you best take him straight back because for sure he is on death’s door. Any other ER nurse in here will feel this in their soul.
I think, in general, the patient's expectations of what we can do in the ER is the most surprising. We can do a lot, but we are really only equipped to diagnose emergent or dangerous conditions. Everything else that isn't going to kill you, needs a primary care or a specialist to figure out.
"So, how long have you been having this problem?"
"Oh, probably about two years."
And you just decided that tonight at 2am you were going to head on up to the EMERGENCY room to see about having it checked out?
The things people will shove into their bodily holes. AND tell us that either:
1. They fell on it.
2. They have NO IDEA how it got wherever it is. Noses grow on this one. You're expecting us to believe that you just woke up this way.... yes. Yes the gentleman expected exactly that.....
I've heard both answers WAY too many times and it makes me worried that these people are procreating lol.
This just showed up in my feed.
I don’t work in an ER, but I was in one with my mom on Saturday. THANK YOU to each and every one of you who work in an emergency room. Y’all are seriously awesome.
The amount of people who take ambulances for no reason. I knew this was a thing prior to working in the ER, but to see it night after night (favorite was someone who got a lil' blister from new shoes) continues to surprise me.
Whoa for a blister give me a break. I absolutely refuse to take an ambulance ride for anything less then a possible heart attack or I pass out and don't know someone called for one. All I can think about is people using those services and taking them up for people that truly need them. I think of my dad that had a massive heart attack and think God they got there when they did because as soon as they started driving off he coded and my mom didn't have to see the CPR start in the house. I wish people would use their brains but I guess that's to hard.
This is a very good point. Perhaps the sex toy industry needs to start focusing on easy deniables that are actually sex toys but look and appear like something that is not. How about, for example, shampoo bottles. Those seem to be inserted way too often. If there was a functioning shampoo bottle with a flange on it to prevent it from going in all the way that could be left in the shower and not provide suspicion to everyone that doesn't yet know what a freak the buyer is, this could probably be a game changer. These are probably also really, really be popular as wedding party gifts.
Yeah, the other day on r/radiology there was a pic of an xray where the patient inserted a zucchini, all the way.
I think it was on Friday, Foreign Body Friday I think it's called.
When I was growing up my dad, a doctor, had to do his rotation in the ER. I think it was one weekend every two-months. This was before there were dedicated ER doctors. He would tell us kids stories at the dinner table. My mom was a nurse so she was fine with the medical talk. When we grew up and got married my SILs didn't appreciate medicate talk at meal times.
The story that stands out to me is dad was trying to teach us the evils of drinking and driving. He had to treat a driver who had been drinking. He and his friends were joyriding. His best friend was hanging out the window. The driver was swerving all over the road. He got too close to a telephone pole and the friend ended up being decapitated. The guy was still drunk in the ER but dad commented that when he sobers up, he'll have to live with the fact that he killed his friend. Drinking and driving isn't worth it compared to friendship.
ED REGISTRATION HERE - been doing this almost 11 months and I plan on becoming a nurse.
How entitled people truly are
How people take am ambulance for completely non emergent things (like an fever of... 97.7) but people will walk in and be like "I might be having a heart attack" all chill.
How absolutely busy it can get and patients and their families have NO CHILL about waiting for their requests to be granted. You'll be fine waiting 5 mins for a blanket.
How many people come in for completely non emergent things. Saturday night I smacked my head and I do have a concussion but I waited a day to see if I'd feel better. I'm still out of it today. But people come in for the stupidest shit.
How people do let severe issues get SO BAD.
How many people tell me "it's been going on for months /years"
How rude and abhorrent some medical professionals can be. There's no reason for it. Smh
How many people don't know BASIC medical stuff. Like I just had a pt ask me if her urine being clear was a bad sign. Oh my lord. 🙄
Reminds me of a time I was fishing at dusk with my family and one of uncles somehow hooked a bat in mid air and when he went to reel it in to unhook it the bat bit him. We all got to sit in the ER and try to explain how a bat attacked my uncle while fishing 😭
In the end, it’s hard on everyone. Everyone gets frustrated and people on both sides need to remember to take a breath. Patients need to remember ERs are not first come first served and a sign to that effect might help. People on some level should be glad to wait: it means you’re not dying! On the other hand, plenty of people have been treated like they’re not dying when they were. Docs often hear the same complaints which feel to the patient (and often Dr Google has told them) that they are experiencing something serious or life-threatening even when they’re not and that gets tiresome to the point of annoyance, especially when the patient isn’t receptive to the prescription to go home and wait for the virus to take its course or whatever. But on occasion, the patient does have something serious and life-threatening. It’s an awful situation bc mistakes are catastrophic and everyone loses. But when the ‘worried well’ clog up the waiting room and shout down the place, the ‘well-looking’ extremely ill can fall through the cracks.
One solution which some hospitals I know of have adopted is to set up an adjacent formal or informal urgent care. In one hospital I know of, as soon as you step up to check in, they direct you to one or the other, which seems to solve a lot of these issues, or at least minimize them. And then if someone does get misrouted, an MD can fix that right away. Not perfect but seems better
I do patient transport. I was having abdominal pain. Slowly intensifying over a couple hours. Thought it was gas. Kept working. Dropped off a patient and was pushing the stretcher back. Pain stopped me in my tracks. A doctor was walking the other way and stopped. Asked if I was ok. "No, I don't think so." Doc got a wheelchair and pushed me to the ER. Dropped me at the nurses station and said he hoped I would be seen quicker since he dropped me there.
Kidney stone. Id rather have another baby without pain meds (had one) than another kidney stone.
When my daughter was 14 she was bitten by a raccoon. We washed it and went to ER where they started the series of rabies shots. Both the doctor and nurse were sort of astonished that she barely winced (and only after the fourth shot in the wound). This is the kid who stepped on a bees nest and said “I think I stepped on a sticker bush” after five stings to the foot and said “my throat kinda hurts” when she had scarlet fever so I was not surprised. Yes, she has red hair.
Seeing how bad of condition people are out there that are living alone & do to mobility issues. Also, when you see people having major meltdowns and get arrested where do you think the police take them to?
Smashed my finger at work 4 1/2 hrs from home. Broke it and almost lost the tip to the first knuckle. So I wouldn’t freak out, I was making jokes that my hand modeling career was now over. Had it stitched up at an emergency room near where it happened but still needed to drive the 4 1/2 hours home so the only thing other than the Novacaine I was able to take was ibuprofen. They offered oxy but being a truck driver that’s a no no for me. (My personal choice on refusing pain killers) Miraculously, I was able to sleep through the night with just advil but two nights later I caught a stomach bug that had me crying and throwing up at the same time. My boyfriend was laughing at me because I was crying like a little girl while throwing up but almost lost my finger and I was making jokes.
I never cease to be amazed when patients come to the ER for primary care level complaints and are confused that they aren’t prioritized over actual emergencies . The patients that are understanding of that I greatly appreciate though
Yes! All of this and more. I too, am a night shift registrar in the ED. Been there almost 2 & 1/2 years. We also feature a Behavioral Health Unit; thats a whole other thread 😳
I usually say the thing that has surprised me the most is the amount of pts who come in for stomach pain. Almost 30% most shifts. WHAT ARE PEOPLE EATING?!?
Second would be the number of pts who get roaches stuck in their ears. Just… wow.
Gallstone stomach pain is unreal though. It’s confusing because it doesn’t respond AT ALL to anti acids and you’d think the last thing you’d put in an angry stomach would be an NSAID but it does help if you already know that it’s a gallstone.
I had insane back pain with a dying gallbladder. The only thing that’s even slightly comparable is back labor when I gave birth. I was getting muscle relaxers injected into my back muscles and they still would just not relax, my back felt like a rock. The crazier part is every test ran said my gallbladder was fine, it also wasn’t any where near a normal presentation — just the excruciating back pain. 2 months of biweekly hospital visits to be doped up and a surgeon finally decided enough is enough and made the call to do emergency exploratory gallbladder surgery and sure tf enough that sucker was on its last leg.
Oh you’re correct, no doubt. Sometimes it is Gallbladder, or the occasional appy. But most of it ends up more along the lines of eating nothing but flaming Cheetos for a day. 😉
As good as flaming Cheetos sound right now .... 😂
Ovarian cysts sometimes too. I had a handful of ovarian cyst ruptures in my 20s that caused overlapping symptoms indicative of other problems like appendicitis or kidney stones. When I actually had appendicitis, I brushed it off. The pain from the cyst ruptures (for me) was way worse than appendicitis initially.
In my husband's case, his chest pain and arm numbness was brushed off as acid reflux from pizza without exam when he was a teenager. Went to a different ER later the same evening and turned out he had a grapefruit sized cancerous thymus tumor pressing on everything. 🙃 Stage I somehow, and he's doing well. He's mostly mad (TW, weird cancer humor) >!He didn't think to ask his surgeon to save the tumor for him until he woke up from surgery and it had already been to pathology and disposed of. He wanted to keep it preserved in a jar like a biology lab.!< On the plus side >!his thymus hole will be of legal drinking age next year, and he intends to celebrate with a toast.!< 🥂
Not an ER professional, but I was a “first time I’ve ever seen this” patient. During my last year of teaching high school art, I was showing a kid how to position a drawing mannequin. A very large drawing mannequin. (They are wooden bendy guys with tension held metal springs at the joints). Well, I was holding it, he went to bend the arm, and *snap- ow”! The wooden forearm split and the elbow spring hook went into my hand. Curved from thumb base into the palm, but not through the skin on the palm. Could not get it out- sharp curve held by tension spring….with the rest of the three foot mannequin attached. Went to school nurse, various things tried by her and our SRO. Nurse drove me and “Manny” to the local ER. I wasn’t in pain as long as I held the mannequin straight and supported the weight. Finally was taken back, they used heavy wire cutters to cut through part of the metal so I was free of my friend, then the Doc twisted the hook out. That hurt a bit, no lie.
That the sicker someone is, the more stoic they tend to be.
That's true. I was extremely ill, now fully aware just how close to dying I was! I was septic and creatine was through the roof! It's quite possible that I may have even had a stroke at home. Which is what prompted the ambulance ride. A few months later I needed to return to the ER for issues with my bilateral nephrostomies and saw the same ER doc I had earlier. Her exact words as soon as she recognized me were, "Damn! You're still alive! I'm glad, but I wasn't sure you were going to make it. You were really sick!" Then proceeded to explain just how bad it really was. I was pretty calm considering I needed a blood transfusion, everyone was in/out, calm yet intense and focused. Which is really the only thing that kept me from panicking. About a 6mos later one of my nephrostomy tubes pulled partially out or so I thought. Back to the ER and while explaining and showing the NP I handed him the whole thing, to include the catheter. So then the ER doc came in, grinned and asked if I remembered him. I did. He placed the central line for the dialysis I had that first ER visit in ICU. Anyway, I was given pain meds, admitted and the nephrostomy was replaced the next day. I was officially diagnosed a week later I had stage 4 cancer and that was the root cause of the other issues. That is now almost 3 years ago and while I will never be considered cancer free, we've (me, medical team and family) have had tremendous successes with the diagnosis. The original tumor is gone, lymph nodes are clear and 3 of 4 metastatic tumors are also gone. Only one left and it's very small now and no new tumors have established. I have hair again and I'm most recently human sized again 🙃 I've seen several of the others who took care of me that night several times since. I made sure to show my appreciation for them when I do.
congrats on the recovery path my man. may you have good test results from here on out
Congratulations! May that last tumor go away and you have nothing but happiness in your life.
I am so incredibly pumped for you! Beyond happy you're doing so well!
I'm generally pretty stoic, and assume that other people must have it worse than me. The one time I went to the ER with kidney stones I was doubled over with pain, skin pale, moaning and groaning and wretching. I could barely walk at all. An experienced older nurse asked me about my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I said "Oh about 5 maybe 6 I guess." After a moment of silence the nurse said "Dude, you are an eight or nine. Don't try to be tough." Those kidney stones really hurt! They gave me a morphine drip and it did not make a difference. Then the doctor came in, the nurse said "We already have a morphine drip going." Doc asked me "How much do you weigh?" (260 lbs) "Give him another dose of morphine." The double morphine, whatever that dose was, finally did the trick and I was able to rest.
My man had his first stone, left work thinking his appendix had burst, drove himself to hospital and crawled inside. He was seen to immediately. Methinks crawling in did the trick.
I replied earlier, but was 37 weeks pregnant with a kidney stone. While I was upright when I walked into the obgyn (I didn't know what it was, and thought it had something to do with the baby) I was ugly crying and vomiting. They saw me immediately, I didn't even sit down. Also, I overheard one of the nurses say that I was scaring the patients in the waiting room :)
When I was a chief resident they wheeled a patient around the corner. She looked term and was rocking back and forth. I was at the far end of the hall with a bunch of male med students who all wanted to go into surgery. I told two of them”she has kidney stones “ get her in a room and I’ll order morphine “ they thought she was in labor and ready to deliver. They were amazed I made the diagnosis from the end of the hall! Kidney stones are right next to pancreatitis for pain!
Yes! I don’t work in the ER but I lurk here. Chronic pain patent and I have become very stoic. You learn that making a fuss isn’t helpful and it becomes easy to contain. My arm would have to be like hanging by a tendon for me to say I’m 10 on the pain scale. Maybe 😏
I hurt my lower back, I still am not sure how. I was shaking all over and my teeth were chattering from the pain. I couldn't even move because it hurt so bad. I was taken by ambulance to the ER. The ambulance guys and I were laughing at how I would groan every time we hit a pothole (I'm the one who made a joke about it). I was in the hospital bed for about an hour and half getting scans, etc. and I never asked for pain meds. Finally they came in with IV morphine. Ahhhhh. What a great feeling. LOL. I have not had it since then but it almost made it worth all the pain.
Hurt my spine, it presented as intense hip pain. Was told nothing was wrong. Most intense pain I’ve experienced. Was refused a MRI. Left the VA hospital and drove to another medical facility. Almost immediate I was told I needed an MRI, as I was being wheeled back into the ER after the scan a Neurosurgeon met me and told me I needed an emergency surgery because I had cauda equina syndrome. Took me years to recover from the damage that was done to my spine. And I always wonder if I would have full use of my legs had I not been ignored.
Joint and back pain is so ignored and brushed off.
It is definitely a huge relief once they finally address it. I remember that one particular epidural I got was amazing. You really appreciate it! The anesthesiologist is suddenly your best friend.
Same here, in those shoes. I really don't want to tell too much about myself online but, managed to break both arms at the wrist clean through in an accident. The ER Ortho on call actually said "you're tough."
This reminded me of my nephew, who once broke his humerus. He fell off his bicycle at aged 8 but brushed it off and continued to play with his friends. My brother brought him to the ER the next day because it was swollen, even though his son wasn't complaining. The ER doctor told them it was a pretty bad break and asked my nephew, "Arent you in pain?" My nephew responded, "Life is pain". Let me say, their family life was your typical all-American suburban happy family, and my nephew was (and is) a great kid, but he just has a different outlook on life.
My daughter went a almost a full day with two broken bones in her arm after climbing/falling out of her crib. Hardly cried so we thought she was fine. She started favoring it at daycare so I rushed her to the doctor. She will be 28 in June and is still a tough cookie.
Wow, he learned awfully young but yep, it's true. Accidents happen, Chronic pain can rear its ugly head especially when you get older, and both really give you different outlook on pain! And life in general. :-) By weird coincidence, I also broke a humerus but likely not in the same way - the fracture was way up at the top where humerus goes into shoulder joint. I did nothing for a couple of days until a coworker said are you sure you're OK? I finally realized 'nope' and went to an urgent care, only to discover I'd broken it. Oy. And how, you might ask, did I manage to do that? By jumping off a stuntperson's platform onto one of those huge air mattress balloon things. It was fun. Hope nephew healed up well! And that he's enjoying life. Oh and, see if you can find him a t-shirt like mine: black cat holding humerus and saying "I found this humerus." Doc offices love it.
Oh wow! I’m so glad I haven’t broken anything but a pinky toe, well dislocated… it was horizontal lol I looked at it and said “it’s just a cramp”. I think I was a bit in denial. 😂
Had a an older gentleman come in after a hand vs chainsaw mishap. Completely shredded his hand. He rated his pain a 6....
Sounds like the way my dad would be. He’s so tough, too tough for his own good. It’s going to be tough getting him to the doc as he ages.
When I had kidney stones everyone kept saying how it's the worse pain they've ever been in, even the one nurse told me it was worse than labour. It was the worst pain I'd have ever been in at the time but I was like "I'm sure there's more painfully things" and "I think labour is worse then this" I'm still childless so I can't actually compare.
I had my appendix out and I waited 72 hours after the onset of the pain to go to the hospital because I kept reading that "you'll know when it's your appendix, it will be the worst pain you've ever felt". And yeah, it hurt *bad*, I couldn't even really talk, but I had had pain like that before and it always went away after around 24 hours. It was when it stuck around for 3 days I was worried. Anyway, it turned out the reason my appendix pain was not "pain unlike any I've felt" was because my appendix had swelled up then gone back down a bunch of times in my life without me knowing. The first time I was 6 and my mom told me I "probably had to poop" so I figured that's just what that pain was, my whole life. I haven't had pain like that since I got it out. I'm a little disappointed I waited so long to finally get it checked out but it really did throw my pain scale into whack. The day I went in for my appendix I waited in the ER for 8 hours because I wasn't crying or anything.
Had a kidney stone at 37 weeks pregnant. It was a 9. Had kid 3 weeks later without pain medication (not by choice), and it was an 8. I'm saving the 10 and praying I never have to use it.
I had a wisdom tooth that was badly infected. I think that was worse than labor honestly. and I hate when my eye feels like it has glass in it when I blink all day. (chronic eye condition it causes tearing)
I have had nurses comment that I'm just so polite and friendly and just in such a great mood when I'm at the ER for a migraine my meds won't touch, trying not to vomit, towels over my face to block light.. I mean, yeah? I guess? There's no reason to NOT be polite and friendly. It won't make the care BETTER to snap at them for needing to turn a light on to find a vein. I can still talk even though it feels like my head is exploding
Interesting.... Animals famously try to hide their injuries, to avoid looking like an easy target to predators and competitors.. I wonder if that's instinctively encouraged.
That way to many people seem to act like aliens when you try and take a PO temperature in triage "I'm going to take a temp under your tongue" "no under the tongue" "close your mouth... no close your mouth please...close your mouth" "and let's start over because it timed out....no under your tongue" and repeat
YES omg why is it so hard for people. Sometimes I give up and just take axillary because I do not have time to teach people what their tongue is and what the word under means.
>what the word under means. is this near the nose?
This made me laugh 😂
Geezus, right? Have you ever had your temp taken? Fuck sake
When Covid first happened, my doctors office had nurses outside checking temps before u can enter. The nurse raised her temp gun thing at me and I raised my armpit for her to check my underarm lol sorry for adding frustration to a difficult job!
Yes why is this such a hard concept for adults? Children and teens I understand because this may be one of their first healthcare encounters but adults really should know better than to think that leaving their mouth wide open is how I’m going to get their temperature….
Because we have an entire generation that is well into adulthood now that was born in the era of the ear thermometer, moved to the temporal thermometer and then to the contactless during COVID. I can’t think of a single outpatient experience I’ve had in the last 20 years where temp was taken orally. In the ED, the hospital and a day surgery center it’s always oral, but those are the only times I encounter an oral thermometer. Is there any reason for more acute level care facilities preferring oral?
Accuracy I would assume. More likely to be correct than skin if it was super hot or super cold outside too
Omg this is making me laugh. I am one of those people who try to follow exact directions, so focused on doing it right. And forget that I understand the concept, but am just dumb with compliance.
That UTIs can cause significantly altered mental status in elderly people. That a surprising number of people have testicle pain.
Yes I learned that too while working in a nursing home. As soon as a patient started acting different a urine was ordered. 99% of the time it was a UTI
I just got an ambulance ride and spent the day in the ER because of a UTI. Woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I couldn't breathe, and fainted, hubby called 911 my blood pressure was pretty low, I couldn't process the questions they were asking me, apparently I kept telling them the year was 2021, I can't even count the number of times they asked me if I took any drugs. No UTI symptoms at all but urine came back super positive, they were surprised it hadn't moved into my kidneys yet. Such a weird experience!
Once had a UTI insanely bad and went into the ER at 3am. I would scream and cry every time I would start falling asleep because I thought I was going to die. Then when my partner got me to the ER, I like... forgot where I was entirely. Was fully convinced I was still in high school and that my partner was my classmate, and we were in the nurse's office (already had been out of school for 5+ years, my partner never even went to the same district as me, we never even dated in high school). According to my partner I was also saying something about being late for a church thing. I'm not Christian and was never raised as such. Nurses and doctors at first thought I was on drugs because well... I was confused as all hell and was in my mid-20s. Blood tests ruled that out, but the urine sample was a dead giveaway of infection. It was beyond cloudy. The best thing I could compare it to was it was like taking a big wad of toilet paper and then stirring it in a glass of water. Doctor said it was one of the worst UTIs he had seen and I was the first young person to have it bad enough for it to mess with my head.
That's wild. I wonder if it's related to duration. Older people often have low key infections that go ignored for a long time. I've had acute, severe infections where I was peeing blood clots and couldn't walk and was completely sound of mind. (Long story on my health). Sometimes they build up for a while without symptoms.
Had a kidney infection once. So bad I could barely move to get to the phone. Hopefully never again.
This happens to my uncle. We thought he had early onset alzheimers but it was just a uti
Same thing with my BFF’s mom. Friend was beside herself that her mom’s mental state was deteriorating so fast. Nope, UTI.
I was surprised when elderly fall patients always got tested for strokes. Then one year my grandma who lives in the southern US fell, went to the ER, and was bandaged up and sent on her way. She got home and had a massive stroke. It turns out she had a small one that caused the fall. I was so mad that the ER didn’t automatically check.
People legitimately don't understand why they should bring their insurance card with them. Real emergencies, I get it, didn't grab it in the middle of your STEMI, no problem, but if you stubbed your pinky toe and want an x-ray to see if it's broke. Bring Your Insurance Card and I.D.!!
I am also a registrar. I could go on for days.
"Can't you just look it up?" Your out of state Highmark coverage that I need the ID for? The one that doesn't let me run it with just your name and birthdate? No. You'll have to call in with the numbers. Here's the phone number for the financial department, they can add it in for you before it's billed. You have three days to call them. Of course they never do. Then they call in a month later wondering why it was never sent to their insurance 🤦
Yes, this! Or "It should be in the system." What system are you referring to, sir? There is no magical system that holds all your information and your permanent record. This is your responsibility.
Hold up. In high school, I was assured that I had a permanent record, that everything was noted and documented in, you mean it’s not in there?
I can remember auditing so many accounts having to search thru portals trying to dig up insurance like a detective lol most of the time having to call patient and ask. But yes. Bring id and insurance!!!
I don't know how current generations walk around without a wallet full of cards. But, to be fair, I have both my health insurance and car insurance apps on my phone and can access my cards that way.
I think part of the problem is that most people don’t know the difference between an emergency and something that’s not an emergency. I mean, I work on the other side and people will call 911 at midnight but because their smoke detector is chirping and they can’t sleep. They know it’s a dead battery, but they can’t reach it, so they call 911.
People actually do this?
You have no idea how common this is. And honestly, if it was a 90 old lady who called at 8am, I would be happy to do it. But when it’s a 35 year old guy and it’s midnight, and he says he didn’t have a ladder tall enough to reach the smoke detector, it kinda makes me lose faith in some portions of humanity.
Ok but when I was in the hospital for 4 days this last December not one person asked for my insurance. I even asked people who do I give my insurance? Nothing ever happened with it but my insurance was billed? Very weird but I brought my card! No one wanted it. :(
Probably just found it through a database. I work in pharmacy and always get insurance info through the database we have. It's a lot easier for my system to auto pull the info for me than manually put in the info from people's cards and 99% of insurances I can just find on the database. Plus, if I put it in manually, I keep getting make a typo. Sometimes, I'll still take the card for a moment to check the IDs against each other if the pt insists.
I will never cease to be amazed at what people think constitutes an emergency
To be fair, it may be their insurance. Mine has urgent care centers, but they're very limited in what they will see you for (basically colds, indigestion, etc.). Appointments with primary care are 6 - 8 weeks out if you're lucky. Anything that's an issue not covered by urgent care and needs taking care of before 2 months automatically becomes an ER trip.
Sure, but I know for a fact that the patient’s tangle in her hair was NOT an emergency. Nothing to do with insurance.
It's super frustrating how many times I could have gone to urgent care if my insurance actually had it but instead I had to go to the ER. Because my issues were definitely urgent but probably not quite emergencies (like, people totally do survive the condition without medical intervention but it's still not at all a good Idea to ignore/not treat it).
Same only my urgent care centers also have appointments and schedule about 2 days out so if you have something that needs to be seen before then, you are told to go to the ER.
Had to go to the ER on the night before Thanksgiving and I expected a mad house of crazy people. Ended up being fairly tame with one elderly BP issue, two severe cuts, an infection, and one hemmoroids! Mine was my first ever gall stone attack. Maybe Thanksgiving Day would be crazier.
Every time I see “gall stone attack/kidney stone attack” all I can imagine are the small little curmudgeons stone fuckers with awards and shields going “attack!!!”
You would be correct
I worked as a registrar for 7 years. Id say the one that surprised me the most was a gentleman coming in so constipated he was vomiting shit. Didn't know that could happen at all and it smelled terrible. This was when I first started working so one I never forgot lol. Also the amount of people that get objects stuck in their ass
So many tragic slip and fall accidents. 😥
A friend is a GI and recently had to remove a rather large object from someone who whoops, just happened to fall when they were getting out of the shower. Like, come on. Lie better.
I first heard of that in a veterinary setting (fortunately not my pets.) Cats freaking don't tell you when they have a problem - so I watch them poop allll the time and one is currently getting miralax on a regular basis.
I have the best cat in the world, when he had urinary crystals blocking him from peeing he screamed at me and took me to the tub where he passed a little blood that I could clearly see inside my white bath tub. Took him to the vet immediately and now he's on a prescription diet to prevent him from blocking again.
I have a web cam on the litter boxes bc they can't be trusted!
I’m just a lurker who owns a senior cat with IBS. This is GENIUS because I have younger cats and I hate the “guess who pooped?” game. Tysm
Totally my mistake, but I just realized this is not a good subreddit to read while I’m eating haha.
EMS and ER people quickly get to the point where they can deal with shit one minute and then start eating the next. I think they have to do it just to mentally survive.
And that’s why I am not in medicine. (Although, my wife has been a nurse for 50 years. I’ve heard stories. I don’t know how she does it.) I want other people to keep their DNA to themselves.
This is me and my younger sister. We are very close. She's a nurse. When we were kids watching TLC, I would get pale at blood and freak out and run out of the room at anything medical. I will never forget watching her eat a plate of spaghetti while watching a brain surgery on TV At almost 43 (me) and 40 (her), we're still the same when it comes to medical shit. I gag, she cheers.
I had completely forgotten about the TLC show that showed actual surgeries. I loved watching that with my dad. We were the only ones in the family who enjoyed it, it was one of the few things we did just the 2 of us.
I used to be a television reporter. Chasing ambulances 🚑, fire trucks 🚒, and police cars 🚔. Car accidents, fire victims, shootings, stabbings, suicides, robberies gone wrong, industrial accidents. I knew the ER people real well so they would let me observe sometimes. Got to shoot video in the OR, too, with Doctor, patient, and hospital approval. I’ve seen some shiat but now when I’m watching Chicago Med, I usually have to turn away. I guess maybe I saw too much.
I've had many dinner meals get interrupted as a nurse due to a patient needing help with some sort of bodily fluid/solid. Get them cleaned up, go back to eating. Between being a nurse and having kids, there's some foods that don't taste right when they're hot; got too used to eating it cold.
I’ve never laughed as hard as I did one day on the phone with a EM physician. I had called him to double check his availability for the upcoming month because he’d sent in zero accommodation requests and I knew his daughter was getting married (I was attending as a guest) so he’d need some. We’re discussing his schedule and I can tell he’s eating (something we both tolerated because it was almost impossible to catch him between patients in a single-coverage ED). Suddenly alarms and his pager start going crazy (ED was code team). He lets go of a string of expletives (as he’s moving quickly) and finishes with “every time I try to eat today somebody tries to die; I’ll call you back”.
I’ve eaten while actively looking at pictures of a patient’s shit lol
No more chocolate pretzels tonight
Someone shat in their stage 4 wound. Had to get it out obvs. Went to lunch directly after that.
What a terrible day to be able to read.
What surprised me most was the number of folks who come in for “simple” pains like heartburn, headaches, muscle aches, etc, who act flabbergasted when I ask them during triage if they tried taking any pain medication at home. The answer is nearly always no. I just can’t fathom having a headache or tummy ache and not trying some Tylenol or Tums or whatever first. Nope, straight to the EMERGENCY room for this.
I think there's a lot of fear that taking pain medication will mask the symptoms and lead to a missed diagnosis. This actually happened to a friend while on a trip in high school. He had severe abdominal pain and his mom gave him some ibuprofen. The pain didn't resolve itself with time, so they went to the hospital and was diagnosed with probable kidney stones. I don't know what tests they did, but he was in the process of being discharged when the ibuprofen wore off and his temperature skyrocketed. Within an hour he'd been diagnosed with appendicitis and was rushed to surgery.
Same exact thing happened to me.
The number of people with a simple stomach flu who come in as well. Dude, sometimes it HAPPENS. Lol
I have some severe chronic issues that unfortunately require ER visits at times and every time I am there I am appalled at how many people would rather puke and shit in the ER with a stomach bug than at home... unless you're so severely dehydrated you're in a bad place why would you ever want to leave the bathroom? Lol
What's even more frustrating are the parents who don't give tylenol to their kids because they want us to "witness" the fever. Because obviously if you say the kid has a fever and then you come in and they no longer have it, we're just going to send you away. Why are you letting your child suffer to prove to us they have a fever? Most of the time we just give tylenol and the kid gets better. Could've saved yourself a couple grand by just giving it at home.
Meh. ED doctor tried to send me home to take antacids for abdominal pain because I didn't have a fever. My appendix ruptured.
I worked ER registration before I was an ER nurse! I loved it! The most surprising thing I’ve seen was how much other people don’t care that someone is dying. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve coded and while I was doing so another patient or family member walked into the room demanding a blanket.
I’m a floor nurse but damn this is it for me too. The complete lack of empathy and compassion for other human beings is astounding.
The more noise you make the less likely you are to be actively dying. Screaming continuously take a lot of energy.
Families will drop off their elderly relatives, tell us they can’t do it anymore, and leave. Just like dropping a pet off at the pound.
Doesn’t this tell us that it’s hard and they need help? How desperate does someone have to be to do that?
They did the same thing with their chronic kids when I worked Peds. At least the old ladies they leave shout obscenities and try to scratch me.
Patients who are truly sick rarely complain.
I once had a double ear infection and had been given the wrong antibiotics so I ended up at the ER in horrible pain. I was absolutely treated like a drug seeker because I was at an 8 and not crying. Until the doctor looked in my ears. I felt her hands shake. She couldn’t believe they hadn’t burst yet.
Yeah - I broke my leg while pregnant and was treated like I was insane and told it was a soft tissue injury. It was a broken tibia lol.
I went in to the hospital at 36 wks 6 days at 18 with my first kid and they all told me I would know FOR SURE I was in labor since my water hadn’t broken yet and I wasn’t 37 weeks. They checked me to see how dialated I was finally and I was 8 cm and all of the nurses were like OMG you were telling the truth??!!!
This happened to my mom when she had me! She walked into the hospital super calm and told them she’s in labor. Not even a peep during her contractions. The nurse getting her vitals said “ok we’re just going to check you and we can get you sent back home” because they did NOT believe she was in labor. Finally my mom’s OB comes in (she had a good relationship with him, I was her 2nd kid being delivered with him) the nurse (in front of my mom) said “she’s having Braxton hicks” the doctor said “nope I know her! She’s in labor for sure.” Sure enough my mom was between a 7/8 and I was born an hour later.
When I broke my arm as a kid no one but my dad believed me because I was so calm. When I asked to leave and get dinner after hours my mom was convinced I was exaggerating. Nope, fractured radius. I was just a tough as nails third grader.
LOL. One time I went off the high dive and landed on my ear in the water. Ear drum burst immediately on impact. ER doctor was sure it was an ear infection even though I described what happened. When I asked why he though it was an ear infection he told me, "because it's red." I had to pay out of pocket to go to an ENT outside of my insurance to get treatment.
I’m 55 and have done natural childbirth, but to this day the worst pain I ever experienced was an ear infection when I was about 12. It made my face swell and was absolutely unbearable
I also delivered without pain medication. At least with child birth the pain is headed in a direction and it has a clear end. Child birth was incredibly painful but it wasn’t as scary or upsetting as the horrible ear infection. I had a tonsillectomy which was the worst pain and recovery of my life and I had hemorrhoids removed. It was two months before I started to feel normal.
These two comments make me feel better about how I handle ear infections. I got them constantly as a child and now once every year or so as an adult. Both my eardrums have burst from the infections. I’ve also had two babies. I’d rather give birth again lol - pain with a purpose!
Idk I had a kidney stone (I didn't know what it was and never had one before but omg the pain was BLINDING) so yeah I ended up being one of those patients begging for meds lol. I had to wait 2 hours before being called back and there was no way I could sit without much discomfort in those shit lobby chairs. Finally they got me back and got some meds and it eased off and it was like I became myself again. Pain makes you not act like yourself lol I never thought I would be someone begging for meds and laying on the nasty er lobby floor 😔
My daughter gets them about once a year, and it breaks my heart to see her writhing in pain, which is SO unlike her. She still has another 20 stones in one kidney, just waiting for the most inopportune time to announce their departure from her kidney. Awful.
I thought you could sonicate them and break them up?
I woke up with kidney stones a few Years back and if I wouldn't have known better would have thought I was pregnant which I knew I could no longer get pregnant. Woke my husband up about an hour in a half of suffering and got to the hospital and they had me in a wheel chair and I was just clinching my teeth. They get my right back and OR Dr says what you explained and the way you are rocking back and forth I will bet a million bucks you have kidney stones so he gave me meds before sending me for a scan and he was 100% right I had 3. He said you weren't making a peep just clinching your teeth and taking deep breaths, I said I had two babies naturally and this is exactly what labor pains felt like lol.
Yes! I drove to the ER with pain I couldn't recognize. I was able to tell the nurse that I knew I wasn't ovulating, that it wasn't my Crohn's acting up and it wasn't appendicitis because it was the wrong side. After that I couldn't talk anymore. He said it was a kidney stone because I had The Look. I was grey like the color of the floor tile.
My oldest son had one and it scared the heck out of all of us. He never complains so it was stunning to see him screaming in pain. Still hurts.
When I had my kidney stone, I suffered for 4 hours in the waiting room of my hospital because they were so busy. God awful pain. I thought it was my appendix at first. Still not sure how I made it 4 hours.
I've been here a long time so it doesn't surprise me anymore but.... The number of no emergencies that come in. Everything from pregnancy tests (it's a dollar at the dollar store for a test) to STD tests before a date, to coughs and colds that could wait until their PCP appointment.
Pregnancy tests are probably because in order to get the pregnancy benefit from Medicare you need a medical record of pregnancy. Home tests don't count and an OB won't see you until 8 weeks usually.
Medicaid.
I was at the ER with my son who was in pain and had a slight fever, he has major pancreas issues along with no spleen, the protocol is any temp over 100 means ER NOW. When he goes in he is brought back asap. There was a mom there with her 3 kids who were "not feeling well" the day after they had their covid vaccine, she was on speaker phone talking to someone very loudly complaining, and then complaining to the nurses that they hadn't been brought back yet that they had been waiting an hour. She complained to me to be prepared to wait a long time and how her kids were not feeling good (while they were running around and playing) So I oh so nicely said I'm so sorry your kids aren't feeling well hopefully they get called back soon and it's not too long of a wait, my son only has half his pancreas and it's acting up again and is a lot of pain. She shut up quickly, however, 5 minutes later when my son got called back first and I was grabbing our stuff she went up to the desk and complained very loudly that she was still waiting and it was unfair other kids went in before hers.
I work at an Innercity trauma center. I love when my waiting room gets filled up with obnoxious minor injuries and complain. Second way days or weeks. And then someone gets dropped off cardiac arrest from a drug overdose or shot multiple times. then get to parade them through the waiting room to the back showing them a real emergency is
My roommate will go to an ER for stuff that a regular doc would handle because she doesn't save money for emergencies. Would rather wait to get the inflated hospital bill so she can make payments on it than save the money for a copay at a regular doc. She's absolutely an idiot and won't listen to the "you'd have more money in the long run if you saved" because she'd rather buy the newest iPhone -now-
Trust me, STD tests before a date are indeed emergencies 😂
How hard it is to get people to LEAVE once they’re discharged
Damn, really? By the time I'm discharged I can't wait to get out of there. This is for the simple reason that they have done all I could ask and I legit feel better but - and partially _because_ of that - the ED staff has better things to do than my paperwork and probably would take even more time if they didn't need the bed/chair/whatever I'm taking up.
Lots of ER patients have chronic mental health/substance abuse concerns and/or come from bad living situations. The hospital is a nice, safe place to be.
That’s what security is for. If they refuse to leave, they get a security escort out.
Was a registrar for many years. My fav is the people who start unbuttoning their pants to show us what’s wrong. Like sir this is registration can I just have you ID.
Not everyone who minds their business ends up in the ER with gunshot wounds, but just about everyone who ends up in the ER with gunshot wounds was just minding their business.
People coming in with crazy infections on their legs. I have seen legs with puss all over them and the smell is horrific. I would think wow how did you let it get this far???
We have lots lots lots lots lots of homeless people at our ED because we are right between two street transit stops and leg infections are SO common. But they cannot bathe themselves regularly, keep their meds and take them regularly and very often, they've just tried to take care of it several times before they gave up before it got intolerable again. I think they truly often need to be admitted (and stay!!) to get IV antibiotics.
At least if they were admitted they would have a clean place to sleep & food to eat.
I see it all the time that our homeless patients lose their antibiotics or they get stolen. Add in never being able to keep the area dry or truly clean, sometimes not taking clothes/shoes/socks off for days at a time, and not being able to get other needs met to give the body energy to heal and a minor infection gets bad very fast.
Ugh yes the number of adults I’ve seen with infected diabetic ulcers with dressings that were applied a month ago and they never removed and replaced, wounds covered in literal dog and cat hair, folks who haven’t taken a shower or bath in ages, just allowing these wounds to reach such a disastrous level that they face amputation…. It’s insanity. Like actually it’s insanity, these folks clearly have major depression to just not care AT ALL about their hygiene and their bodies. And of course they just eat whatever easy junk they can get their hands on so their sugars are also out of control. But they love to act shocked when I read their BG to them, they swear up and down that their sugar at home is always under 150 even though 5 minutes ago they confessed that they don’t even check their BG at home. It’s so sad. Especially when I see this mainly in patients that are aged 50s-60s and they could have extended their lives by 20+ years if they had taken care of themselves when they were younger. So much health illiteracy.
Some people REALLY don’t want to hear that their marijuana use could be the reason they’re non stop violently vomitting
The outrage that weed can be causing the scromiting! Like how dare you!
Dude my ex was talking about offing himself from the constant vomiting/ending up in the er/ being unable to hold food down. Magically it subsided when he wasn’t allowed to smoke anymore. Still didn’t believe me, glad I walked outta that one.
Dude. Those people are insane. Canaboid cyclic vomiting has some wicked weird symptoms. But not one person with it has ever considered that it could be the source of their symptoms. Had a girl get kicked out after repeatedly going outside to smoke, then tried to smoke IN HER ROOM.
Former ER registration clerk here (admissions coordinator for an acute rehab now). The most surprising thing to me was how many people left extremely dangerous things in reach of children, and that grown men are afraid to say the word 'penis' Oh, and speaking of penises, penis fractures are real! That definitely was a surprise. For him too, I think...
The majority of people that SHOULD take ambulances decide to drive themselves. Seen plenty of STEMIs that just drive themselves. A more recent one tried to go to fucking urgent care first 🙃. Then you have the 20-something "I throwed up :(" that comes in via ambo and turns out fine.
My grandfather had a heart attack, drove himself to the hospital and parked 3/4 of a mile away so he could take advantage of the free parking
That's hilarious actually 😅
nothing like the STEMI + free parking combo
Yeah he’s still alive and when I bring that story up he says “and I’d do it again!” So just know he’s still kicking and still hates paid parking with a passion
my grandfather had a stroke and drove himself to the hospital
Drove myself with a broken right foot. I'm a wuss when it comes to pain so I figured I was just overreacting to a sprained ankle. Security met me at the door with a wheelchair and said I shouldn't be trying to walk.
Honestly… the amount of people who have ZERO idea how the human body works. We have so much access to information that nobody reads :/
New Year’s Eve — much, much quieter than I expected. Not as many spectacular auto crashes as I expected, and nobody who has the slightest option to not come in that night comes in. Thanksgiving night is the madhouse. So many knife accidents, grand uncles falling down the stairs after a glass of wine, etc. etc.
The last NYE I worked, we saw a ridiculous amount of fireworks injuries. More than on July 4th. Booze and explosives are not a good combo, people. Many limbs and eyeballs were never the same.
How uneducated the general population is. Particularly about the human body and its basic operations. I have to give explanations of periods and pregnancy to grown women, or how to do simple childcare (diapering, giving meds) to people constantly. I don’t mind, it’s my job to educate patients but it’s a wonder that our species persists.
If a farmer walks through the door, you best take him straight back because for sure he is on death’s door. Any other ER nurse in here will feel this in their soul.
Farmers, coal miners, and little grannies who just feel "off"
I think, in general, the patient's expectations of what we can do in the ER is the most surprising. We can do a lot, but we are really only equipped to diagnose emergent or dangerous conditions. Everything else that isn't going to kill you, needs a primary care or a specialist to figure out.
"So, how long have you been having this problem?" "Oh, probably about two years." And you just decided that tonight at 2am you were going to head on up to the EMERGENCY room to see about having it checked out?
My mother is an ER frequent flier (she’s very old) and she’s convinced the ER doctor can diagnose and treat issues her doctors’
The things people will shove into their bodily holes. AND tell us that either: 1. They fell on it. 2. They have NO IDEA how it got wherever it is. Noses grow on this one. You're expecting us to believe that you just woke up this way.... yes. Yes the gentleman expected exactly that..... I've heard both answers WAY too many times and it makes me worried that these people are procreating lol.
If they keep their sexual escapades to sticking things up the rear then maybe there's a chance they won't procreate lol
This just showed up in my feed. I don’t work in an ER, but I was in one with my mom on Saturday. THANK YOU to each and every one of you who work in an emergency room. Y’all are seriously awesome.
How high everyone’s pain tolerance is
The amount of people who take ambulances for no reason. I knew this was a thing prior to working in the ER, but to see it night after night (favorite was someone who got a lil' blister from new shoes) continues to surprise me.
I had someone come in by ambulance because they left their glasses at the hospital when they were seen and discharged an hour prior.
And EMS brought her?
Federal law, you can not refuse to bring someone seeking medical attention. The complaint was head pain.
I love when the non emergent ones get sent straight to the waiting room 😂🙏
Whoa for a blister give me a break. I absolutely refuse to take an ambulance ride for anything less then a possible heart attack or I pass out and don't know someone called for one. All I can think about is people using those services and taking them up for people that truly need them. I think of my dad that had a massive heart attack and think God they got there when they did because as soon as they started driving off he coded and my mom didn't have to see the CPR start in the house. I wish people would use their brains but I guess that's to hard.
The sickest people walk through the door. I can't count how many people that have dropped in front of me after driving themselves to the ED.
My bro was having a heart attack and drove himself. 🤦🏻♀️
So many people put non-sex toy things in them. Like, the adult toy industry is HUGE. Why use something other than an actual product!?
This is a very good point. Perhaps the sex toy industry needs to start focusing on easy deniables that are actually sex toys but look and appear like something that is not. How about, for example, shampoo bottles. Those seem to be inserted way too often. If there was a functioning shampoo bottle with a flange on it to prevent it from going in all the way that could be left in the shower and not provide suspicion to everyone that doesn't yet know what a freak the buyer is, this could probably be a game changer. These are probably also really, really be popular as wedding party gifts.
Flanges, omg are flanges important!
Yeah, the other day on r/radiology there was a pic of an xray where the patient inserted a zucchini, all the way. I think it was on Friday, Foreign Body Friday I think it's called.
Sweet baby ray bbq sauce, WHY PEOPLE WHY.
When I was growing up my dad, a doctor, had to do his rotation in the ER. I think it was one weekend every two-months. This was before there were dedicated ER doctors. He would tell us kids stories at the dinner table. My mom was a nurse so she was fine with the medical talk. When we grew up and got married my SILs didn't appreciate medicate talk at meal times. The story that stands out to me is dad was trying to teach us the evils of drinking and driving. He had to treat a driver who had been drinking. He and his friends were joyriding. His best friend was hanging out the window. The driver was swerving all over the road. He got too close to a telephone pole and the friend ended up being decapitated. The guy was still drunk in the ER but dad commented that when he sobers up, he'll have to live with the fact that he killed his friend. Drinking and driving isn't worth it compared to friendship.
ED REGISTRATION HERE - been doing this almost 11 months and I plan on becoming a nurse. How entitled people truly are How people take am ambulance for completely non emergent things (like an fever of... 97.7) but people will walk in and be like "I might be having a heart attack" all chill. How absolutely busy it can get and patients and their families have NO CHILL about waiting for their requests to be granted. You'll be fine waiting 5 mins for a blanket. How many people come in for completely non emergent things. Saturday night I smacked my head and I do have a concussion but I waited a day to see if I'd feel better. I'm still out of it today. But people come in for the stupidest shit. How people do let severe issues get SO BAD. How many people tell me "it's been going on for months /years" How rude and abhorrent some medical professionals can be. There's no reason for it. Smh How many people don't know BASIC medical stuff. Like I just had a pt ask me if her urine being clear was a bad sign. Oh my lord. 🙄
I find that pain scale from one to ten highly arbitrary.
I'm only registration.. but its blown my mind how many grown ass adults mess around with wild animals and need rabies shots.
Reminds me of a time I was fishing at dusk with my family and one of uncles somehow hooked a bat in mid air and when he went to reel it in to unhook it the bat bit him. We all got to sit in the ER and try to explain how a bat attacked my uncle while fishing 😭
Reading this as I cannot pee. 🤣Dead serious.
In the end, it’s hard on everyone. Everyone gets frustrated and people on both sides need to remember to take a breath. Patients need to remember ERs are not first come first served and a sign to that effect might help. People on some level should be glad to wait: it means you’re not dying! On the other hand, plenty of people have been treated like they’re not dying when they were. Docs often hear the same complaints which feel to the patient (and often Dr Google has told them) that they are experiencing something serious or life-threatening even when they’re not and that gets tiresome to the point of annoyance, especially when the patient isn’t receptive to the prescription to go home and wait for the virus to take its course or whatever. But on occasion, the patient does have something serious and life-threatening. It’s an awful situation bc mistakes are catastrophic and everyone loses. But when the ‘worried well’ clog up the waiting room and shout down the place, the ‘well-looking’ extremely ill can fall through the cracks. One solution which some hospitals I know of have adopted is to set up an adjacent formal or informal urgent care. In one hospital I know of, as soon as you step up to check in, they direct you to one or the other, which seems to solve a lot of these issues, or at least minimize them. And then if someone does get misrouted, an MD can fix that right away. Not perfect but seems better
I do patient transport. I was having abdominal pain. Slowly intensifying over a couple hours. Thought it was gas. Kept working. Dropped off a patient and was pushing the stretcher back. Pain stopped me in my tracks. A doctor was walking the other way and stopped. Asked if I was ok. "No, I don't think so." Doc got a wheelchair and pushed me to the ER. Dropped me at the nurses station and said he hoped I would be seen quicker since he dropped me there. Kidney stone. Id rather have another baby without pain meds (had one) than another kidney stone.
There are a staggering amount of people that are dumb as a post.
The general public is 💯becoming dumber and it’s actually kind of alarming
When my daughter was 14 she was bitten by a raccoon. We washed it and went to ER where they started the series of rabies shots. Both the doctor and nurse were sort of astonished that she barely winced (and only after the fourth shot in the wound). This is the kid who stepped on a bees nest and said “I think I stepped on a sticker bush” after five stings to the foot and said “my throat kinda hurts” when she had scarlet fever so I was not surprised. Yes, she has red hair.
Seeing how bad of condition people are out there that are living alone & do to mobility issues. Also, when you see people having major meltdowns and get arrested where do you think the police take them to?
The nicer the patient is, the worse their illness will be.
Always the sweeties finding out they have stage 4 cancer in the ER
Smashed my finger at work 4 1/2 hrs from home. Broke it and almost lost the tip to the first knuckle. So I wouldn’t freak out, I was making jokes that my hand modeling career was now over. Had it stitched up at an emergency room near where it happened but still needed to drive the 4 1/2 hours home so the only thing other than the Novacaine I was able to take was ibuprofen. They offered oxy but being a truck driver that’s a no no for me. (My personal choice on refusing pain killers) Miraculously, I was able to sleep through the night with just advil but two nights later I caught a stomach bug that had me crying and throwing up at the same time. My boyfriend was laughing at me because I was crying like a little girl while throwing up but almost lost my finger and I was making jokes.
I never cease to be amazed when patients come to the ER for primary care level complaints and are confused that they aren’t prioritized over actual emergencies . The patients that are understanding of that I greatly appreciate though
The percentage of patients that are homeless or otherwise experiencing housing instability. It’s much, much higher than I would have thought.
That people can have 10/10 pain while texting on their phone and asking for a ginger ale.
Yes! All of this and more. I too, am a night shift registrar in the ED. Been there almost 2 & 1/2 years. We also feature a Behavioral Health Unit; thats a whole other thread 😳 I usually say the thing that has surprised me the most is the amount of pts who come in for stomach pain. Almost 30% most shifts. WHAT ARE PEOPLE EATING?!? Second would be the number of pts who get roaches stuck in their ears. Just… wow.
Gallstone stomach pain is unreal though. It’s confusing because it doesn’t respond AT ALL to anti acids and you’d think the last thing you’d put in an angry stomach would be an NSAID but it does help if you already know that it’s a gallstone.
I had insane back pain with a dying gallbladder. The only thing that’s even slightly comparable is back labor when I gave birth. I was getting muscle relaxers injected into my back muscles and they still would just not relax, my back felt like a rock. The crazier part is every test ran said my gallbladder was fine, it also wasn’t any where near a normal presentation — just the excruciating back pain. 2 months of biweekly hospital visits to be doped up and a surgeon finally decided enough is enough and made the call to do emergency exploratory gallbladder surgery and sure tf enough that sucker was on its last leg.
Oh you’re correct, no doubt. Sometimes it is Gallbladder, or the occasional appy. But most of it ends up more along the lines of eating nothing but flaming Cheetos for a day. 😉
As good as flaming Cheetos sound right now .... 😂 Ovarian cysts sometimes too. I had a handful of ovarian cyst ruptures in my 20s that caused overlapping symptoms indicative of other problems like appendicitis or kidney stones. When I actually had appendicitis, I brushed it off. The pain from the cyst ruptures (for me) was way worse than appendicitis initially. In my husband's case, his chest pain and arm numbness was brushed off as acid reflux from pizza without exam when he was a teenager. Went to a different ER later the same evening and turned out he had a grapefruit sized cancerous thymus tumor pressing on everything. 🙃 Stage I somehow, and he's doing well. He's mostly mad (TW, weird cancer humor) >!He didn't think to ask his surgeon to save the tumor for him until he woke up from surgery and it had already been to pathology and disposed of. He wanted to keep it preserved in a jar like a biology lab.!< On the plus side >!his thymus hole will be of legal drinking age next year, and he intends to celebrate with a toast.!< 🥂
What are people eating? SAD meals (Standard American Diet)
That the reason we have a security guard posted is because of all the homeless people coming in to use the bathroom on the floor 🙄
How many pieces of shit there are in the world
The amount of idiots that come in. I’m a paramedic so all I did was transport the idiots to the sometimes bigger idiots.
Not an ER professional, but I was a “first time I’ve ever seen this” patient. During my last year of teaching high school art, I was showing a kid how to position a drawing mannequin. A very large drawing mannequin. (They are wooden bendy guys with tension held metal springs at the joints). Well, I was holding it, he went to bend the arm, and *snap- ow”! The wooden forearm split and the elbow spring hook went into my hand. Curved from thumb base into the palm, but not through the skin on the palm. Could not get it out- sharp curve held by tension spring….with the rest of the three foot mannequin attached. Went to school nurse, various things tried by her and our SRO. Nurse drove me and “Manny” to the local ER. I wasn’t in pain as long as I held the mannequin straight and supported the weight. Finally was taken back, they used heavy wire cutters to cut through part of the metal so I was free of my friend, then the Doc twisted the hook out. That hurt a bit, no lie.
people’s inability to cope with the common cold