My wife gets lots of anxiety and for a few years when we were first married she would get some pain in the middle of the night, get anxious about it, start to panic and think she was dying or something. She'd insist on going to the emergency room.
From this process I learned a couple of things. First, in the middle of the night the ER doctor's job is to keep you alive until 8am when the regular staff comes in. If you aren't dying, they won't talk to you more than once, maybe twice if you're lucky. Second, you never see them again once you leave. That's not their bag.
I finally told my wife "These ER doctors in the middle of the night will do nothing for you unless you are in cardiac arrest. If you seriously think you can't make it til morning, then we'll go. Otherwise I think you're better off waiting and seeing a doctor in office because that's what ends up happening anyway". She agreed and we haven't gone back to the ER in 10 years.
Wow!!!! That’s a new look at what occurs in Hospital and Emergency Rooms around the U.S.
About 18 months ago my wife had a similar stone (3.5 mm) lodged in the upper part of her ureter. The Urologist inserted a ‘Stent’ and it was removed several days later of course with the appropriate medication.
I guess it all depends on where you live and what quality of medicine you’re used too.
I’ve worked closely with ER staff. They will not do much for you if nothing is seriously or even moderately wrong. They are there for emergencies. If your wife was no an emergency, they twould put her in an open bed, run some tests. Make sure your insurance goes through, and then let you go when the emergency is gone.
If there were real emergencies going on...you wouldn’t get a bed. You would sit until morning.
Our ED was great. Not so much for frequent flyers.