Posted on 12/28/2013 12:27:09 AM PST by MacMattico
Hi all, Last night I spent 8 hours in the ER and am still in pain. I'm also mad about the whole thing. Obviously, though, I'm healthy enough to type on my iPad! Any insight is appreciated.
For the last 3 weeks or so I have had a dull pain right below the bottom of my ribcage on the left side. At times it would become sharp, like a stabbing pain and I would not be be able to take a deep breath during that time. I would cringe in pain during these times. After a while it would go back to a dull ache. This went on, like I said, on and off for the past three weeks. I tried to ignore it (stupidly) because I was so busy and wanted to get past Christmas. Last night about 9 pm the stabbing pain came back and it was unbearable. I had thought I was coming down with something because I was so tired I had left a family Christmas day get together early, came home, and slept 9 hours straight. When I woke up I didn't feel sick so I thought I had just been really tired from the Christmas eve get together we had hosted the night before. That is until 9pm last night.
Amazingly I got into an ER room without any wait. They told me things were really slow. I described my symptoms. I had no fever or trouble using the bathroom. They took blood and urine samples and did a series of x-rays. Within about an hour the pain was back to a dull throb with no pain killers. I try to avoid them because they make me sick.
Hours went by and 3 different doctors came in. They were pressing on my stomach area and it only hurt worse when they pressed directly under my ribs to the far left. I don't have a gall bladder so that definitely wasn't it. My blood pressure has never been high but was high, and they said this was probably nerves although I didn't really feel nervous. The third doctor that came in was convinced it was a stomach issue. I told him it didn't feel like anything to do with my stomach. From then on out all that was mentioned was my stomach.
One doctor mentioned doing a CAT scan. I said go right ahead. Get this-- the doctor says CAT scans are expensive! I said if you've checked my health insurance, you will find out they are covered 100%. I don't know if he really checked my insurance but a nurse came in to tell me I was going to have a CAT scan and be admitted. At this point the hospital was getting busy and I heard a gun shot victim was coming in.
So I laid there for who knows how long, my husband with me, and then a nurse walks in and says I need to take your IV out and you're being released! I said what? The nurse said your X-rays, urine sample and blood tests are all normal. I said the last person in here was a doctor that said I was being admitted! The nurse went and checked with that doctor who told them that I was to "follow up with a doctor specializing in stomach issues". I said I don't even think it's my stomach!
So this morning I had a couple more shooting pains and the dull pain persists. I called the doctor I was referred to and their office said they don't know when they can get me in! I said I was told to follow up today! They said they had no appointments until the end of January and would not see me until then. I hung up I was so mad. I called the hospital and after getting transferred three times was told to come in if the pain got worse, but "they wouldn't have released me if everything didn't look good". I was so mad. I took a high dose motrin and tried to sleep, now I'm up all night with a dull side ache.
**Do you have a GP or private doctor of some kind? If not, you need to get one.**
That. A private physician will run the diagnosis to the ground. ERs a great if you are critically ill or have something very simple.
Does it hurt to take a deep breath?
Apparently not in this case!
OTOH, I have a great GP who takes care of all of my medical needs.
I was an emergency room nurse for a lot of years at the “great” Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore when I was young. What an education that was! LOL! Some days, it was like working at the animal farm.
However, emergency rooms aren’t what they used to be. Everyone has to be so careful not to leave themselves open for a lawsuit.
I’m of the opinion that to cover their behinds, they order way too many tests , and don’t get around to treating you until all the test results are in.
CT scans are over used, and they cause cancer. Did he say they were expensive, which seems very unlikely for him to say, or did he say they would cost in in cancer risk?
People are so sensitive to the costs that they are convinced doctors think about the patient's insurance all the time.
So you don’t have a doctor?
Skip the ER and go to an urgent care clinic. Demand a urine test specific for blood and a CT. Ongoing for 3 weeks is a bit much but my bride of 28 years had her first kidney stone 2 weeks ago. Not saying that’s what it is but it’s possible. Bottom line; get a CT. If you don’t work around radiation the dose isn’t enough to affect your health. It would take multiple CT’s over a short period of time so don’t be concerned about that.
Don’t go to the ER for pain that has been occurring for 3 weeks. Go to your GP. ER’s are full of people trying to get pain meds. They have long involved stories of mysterious pains that are hard to diagnose. So if you actually have a real pain that is hard to diagnose, you get sent home.
In short, don’t use the ER for a doctor.
The amazing thing is the mooches keep coming back and getting free medical care for trivial things.
I have a “Cadillac Plan” and a great Primary Doc. I went to the ER because I was in a lot of pain suddenly in the late evening, not because I am penniless with no insurance.
That was another one of my thoughts.
Kidney stones ain’t your friend.
Sounds intestinal. I have the same pain at times just because of how my guts are strung. A kink. It goes away when I drink plenty of water. And I stopped drinking in 2011.
When the pain is sharp, yes, dull no.
None of those symptoms.
thanks everyone. I’m going to try to sleep now and hopefully make it through the weekend with no ER and get in to my Primary doctor Monday.
Or that’s the plan for now.
If I end up in the ER, I will get all test results and a decent referral.
There’s a lot of ‘stuff’ in that area, and I’m not even gonna try to guess what it could be, though I have my suspicions. Go back to that ER, and tell them its worse, or find another hospital ER. Chances are, whatever it is isn’t gonna kill you, because you aren’t dead yet, but you probably do indeed need a CT Scan.
+1
Docs in the ER could use more vay-cays imo. I could tell horror stories, but I’ll pass; it’s Christmas! :)
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