My Horrible ER Experience

If you have been reading my posts lately you know that I have been in and out of the ER and the hospital.  Hopefully things are turning around for me and I will not have to go back.  I wanted to tell you all about the experience I had on Monday night though.  Not so much my experience but the ER experience.

My husband and I got to the ER about 8:45 thank goodness my oldest is old enough to watch her brothers, not that my middle child needs watching he is only a year younger than my oldest.

Anyways, We get there around 8:45 and there are wall to wall people.  This was not looking too promising and was not very comforting to say the least.  The lady checked us in and told us there was going to be a long wait.  She said that someone would triage me as soon as possible and that there were 4 people in front of me to be triaged.  When they triage you they basically take your vitals ask you some questions and determine how bad you are if you are really bad you get to go in faster.

So we sit down, my heart is racing I am feeling like I am going to die, but when I look around I can't help but see people with obviously broken bones, people that looked like me, 2 little old ladies with oxygen tanks, 2 little children crying in pain. Obviously I was not the worse one there and there were a lot of people that needed to go in before me obviously. This of course made my anxiety even worse.

The lady that came in right before me was one of the older ladies with an oxygen tank, this lady did not look good at all.  They took her in and triagged her.  It took a long time to triage her and she couldn't even stand up, I thought for sure they would take her in right away, I was shocked when they sent her back to the waiting room.  We started talking to a couple waiting next to us and they said that they had been there for 5 hours.

Finally I got triagged.  I had brought a cup of ice water from home because cold water felt like a life line to me at that time and I asked if I could get some ice and the lady said no, you had to actually go in to the ER area to get ice.  My husband asked if he could get it for me and she said no, and she said she was much too busy to go get some.  This made my anxiety even worse because my mouth was extremely dry and my lips were numb.  All they had was a drinking fountain with warm city water, and our water in our city is awful tasting.  That warm water was making me sicker.  Finally my husband managed to find me some ice bless his heart.

Well the lady is taking my blood pressure and it is one of those that uses a machine, then someone comes over to talk to her and she steps out of the little room leaving this cuff on me which is really, really tight.  The stupid machine never releases the cuff and it is just squeezing the heck out of my arm.  She finally comes in and releases it and then it didn't work and she had to do it again.  Keep in mind this was my second trip to the ER within a couple of days and my arm was already bruised from the previous trip.

After the triage I was sent back in to the waiting room which was no surprise.  Just seeing all of those sick people was beyond depressing especially seeing little kids sitting there crying in pain.  Not to mention it smelled.  My anxiety was almost through the roof, and I was starting to get dizzy and just wanted to lay down.  Of course there was no where to lay down for any of and pretty much every chair was filled.

Then two critical patients came in one right after the other and they were rushed right in of course.  Then some poor kid who had been there for hours apparently started having a seizure on the floor, the triage nursers and the receptionist were so busy they didn't even notice.  My husband ran up and started to scream this guy is having a seizure over here. They ran over and helped him and took him in.

After about an hour and a half the anti anxiety pill kind of kicked in and I conked out.  They woke me up once to take my blood pressure again and check my blood sugar. They seemed to be doing this for everyone who was waiting in the waiting room.  About 3 1/2 hours after we arrived they finally took me in to the ER. By that time I was just so tired and worn out and still shaking, I had trouble even describing what was going on with me so my husband had to do it.  They ended up admitting me and they gave me something to help me sleep which was wonderful.  Of course you know how it is in the hospital someone has to wake you 500 times to do things to you.

Then my regular doctor comes in to see me and says I can be released.  This was around 9:30 in the morning, so they come in and tell me I am released.  I am a type 2 diabetic and they didn't give me anything to eat.  I even asked for something because I was really hungry and had obviously had a traumatic night the lady told me I was released and I could go eat what ever I want.  I always thought hospitals preferred not to release you until you had some food in you.

My husband was having an MRI on his elbow at that time and that was very important so he could not come and get me for about an hour, so I walked up to the cafeteria and got myself something to eat.

This is experience was completely awful.  For one emergency rooms should have coffee, tea, and a pitcher of cold water and possibly even some saltines and graham crackers for people who have to sit out in waiting rooms, not just for the people who are sick but some coffee for those sitting there waiting with them.

The triage nurse said that ER waiting room was that bad nearly every night.  She said there are a lot of sick people lately,  I have to wonder if this is all from stress because of the economy.

All I know is next year I am going to get every preventative shot there is.