Emergency Room Waiting

i should mention that when i went to the ER for food poisoning (or a bad case of the flu -- doctors didn't know which i had), my doctor at the time recommended i go there after he examined me and i had been vomiting for several weeks. if there had been an urgent care facility in my area, i probably would have gone there instead. in my case, it made more sense to go to the ER since it was only a 5 minute drive from my doctor's office and there are no urgent care facilities where i live.
 
Grummer said:
LOL at Jiro and David's relays, quite hilarious, um David what is a IVP?
it sounds painful, but all the best for your recovery and happy new year, give your bird a scratch under her chin
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Jiro said:
Intravenous Pyelogram. simply put - a needle in your arm (hopefully not in the ballz) connected to a bag of liquid
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Jiro is correct. They injected some dye via a vein in my arm. As the dye made its way through my body, they took pictures (x-ray) of the urinary and reproductive system.

Even though the results are not in, they are suspecting that the swelling and pain is complications from the vasectomy I had seven years ago.
 
i recall about 15 years ago, i flipped my motocross 125 mid air over a 75 feet long table top ramp, my freind drove me 40 minute to the hospital (after he loaded 2 bikes (both were mine- we swapped and took turns between the screaming monster and the tame bermbasher) and had to wait 4 hours with a dislocated hand of the wrist and a severely bruised leg -Luckly it was not broken. it was bloody painful. i still went back to motocross just it took a long time to get strength back in the wrist, not so bad now
 
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I wonder if the ER did announce your name, but you have no way to know that someone is calling your name! They notice you sitting on the chair for too long, and they realized that they forgot that you are hearing impaired. The ER is always busy everyday.
 
Jiro said:
hhmm... I've had a bad food poisoning a couple of times but I didn't have to go to ER for that. I just puke it out and shit it out even though I couldn't figure out how can my body expel more shit than I took in :laugh2:. My bad one lasted about 3 days.

Why did you have to go in your case?
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Dehydration. I needed IV fluids. Because of my size, I dehydrate very easily. But I didn't go to the ER. I went to an urgent care walk in facility.
 
jillio said:
Dehydration. I needed IV fluids. Because of my size, I dehydrate very easily. But I didn't go to the ER. I went to an urgent care walk in facility.
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IV fluid is the same as for drinking water. You need to stay away from the sun too much during the summer. It is the best way for you to be under the tree and drink some water once a while. It is easy for me to say that, but I could be dehydrating if I am not thinking about drinking water in the hot weather. How about jumping into a hot whirlpool now for the winter? :D
 
webexplorer said:
I wonder if the ER did announce your name, but you have no way to know that someone is calling your name! They notice you sitting on the chair for too long, and they realized that they forgot that you are hearing impaired. The ER is always busy everyday.
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to get around this problem, i request that a nurse tap me on the shoulder when my name has been called. some hospitals (such as the one who did my ci surgeries) also have vibrating pagers they give to deaf and hoh patients so they know when it is their turn to see the doctor. you might also look into purchasing a vibrating pager and receiver for yourself and give the pager to the nurse/receptionist whenever you're at the ER or doctor's office.
 
webexplorer said:
IV fluid is the same as for drinking water. You need to stay away from the sun too much during the summer. It is the best way for you to be under the tree and drink some water once a while. It is easy for me to say that, but I could be dehydrating if I am not thinking about drinking water in the hot weather. How about jumping into a hot whirlpool now for the winter? :D
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Its not that simple. We can dehydrate for all kinds of reasons. If you expel more fluid than you take in, you'll dehydrate. That's probably what she was talking about. She was ill and couldn't take in fluid orally and keep it, so she dehydrated. Sometimes, IV fluids are needed no matter what; especially if one gets sick and can't drink the required amounts of liquids.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Its not that simple. We can dehydrate for all kinds of reasons. If you expel more fluid than you take in, you'll dehydrate. That's probably what she was talking about. She was ill and couldn't take in fluid orally and keep it, so she dehydrated. Sometimes, IV fluids are needed no matter what; especially if one gets sick and can't drink the required amounts of liquids.
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yep. now that I think of it... I do remember being very very dehydrated when I had a worst food poisoning of my lifetime. I lost weight by like 10-15 lbs just by fluid loss alone. I do remember calling and begging my friends whose parents are doctor for some IV but they can't because of legal reason. I didn't want to get it from doctor/ER cuz it was going to cost me a leg. I didn't have insurance at that time.

so yea - when you're very ill, your bodily function is operating at very minimal level which is not good. IV is a "shortcut" by bringing fluids directly to your blood instead of going thru whole system to get into blood.
 
Jiro said:
yep. now that I think of it... I do remember being very very dehydrated when I had a worst food poisoning of my lifetime. I lost weight by like 10-15 lbs just by fluid loss alone. I do remember calling and begging my friends whose parents are doctor for some IV but they can't because of legal reason. I didn't want to get it from doctor/ER cuz it was going to cost me a leg. I didn't have insurance at that time.
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Wow. That's dangerous. I dehydrated once after surgery. The dumbass nurses didn't increase the rate on the IV pump, so I wasn't getting enough fluids. As a result, my fluid volume dropped. And, so did my blood pressure. Nobody could figure it out until they looked at my chart and saw what the notation was for what I was getting thru the IV. Then, they scrambled and dramatically increased the IV rate. My pressure rose and was maintained at normal after that. :roll:
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Wow. That's dangerous. I dehydrated once after surgery. The dumbass nurses didn't increase the rate on the IV pump, so I wasn't getting enough fluids. As a result, my fluid volume dropped. And, so did my blood pressure. Nobody could figure it out until they looked at my chart and saw what the notation was for what I was getting thru the IV. Then, they scrambled and dramatically increased the IV rate. My pressure rose and was maintained at normal after that. :roll:
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:mad2:
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Its not that simple. We can dehydrate for all kinds of reasons. If you expel more fluid than you take in, you'll dehydrate. That's probably what she was talking about. She was ill and couldn't take in fluid orally and keep it, so she dehydrated. Sometimes, IV fluids are needed no matter what; especially if one gets sick and can't drink the required amounts of liquids.
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this is exactly what happened to me when i had a bad case of the flu/food poisoning and had lost 15 pounds as a result. i had been vomiting several times a day for weeks and couldn't keep anything down. after seeing my doctor, he recommended that i go to the hospital where i was given IV treatment for 2 weeks.
 
dehydration can also be caused by meds. i'm on several meds that are known to cause this side effect. when i fainted last fall, the ER doctor told me it was most likely due to the heat (it was 85 degrees that day) and my meds.
 
Hear Again said:
this is exactly what happened to me when i had a bad case of the flu/food poisoning. i had been vomiting several times a day for weeks and couldn't keep anything down. after seeing my doctor, he recommended that i go to the hospital where i was given IV treatment for 2 weeks.
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Severe nausea, vomiting, and, diarrhea is common with food poisoning. This almost always leads to dehydration to some degree. It just depends on how bad.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Severe nausea, vomiting, and, diarrhea is common with food poisoning. This almost always leads to dehydration to some degree. It just depends on how bad.
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doctors gave me an endoscopy, but could not determine if i had a very bad case of the flu or food poisoning. i think you're right that i probably had food poisoning because the longest i've been sick with the flu is one week. in this case, i had been sick and vomiting for 3-4 weeks before finally going to my doctor who said that if i had put off seeing him any longer, i could have died.
 
Hear Again said:
doctors gave me an endoscopy, but could not determine if i had a very bad case of the flu or food poisoning. i think you're right that i probably had food poisoning because the longest i've been sick with the flu is one week. in this case, i had been sick and vomiting for 3-4 weeks before finally going to my doctor who said that if i had put off seeing him any later, i could have died.
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hhmm I didn't think food poisoning can last that long unless it's a rare/aggressive virus or something.
 
Jiro said:
hhmm I didn't think food poisoning can last that long unless it's a rare/aggressive virus or something.
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i think that's why doctors had trouble determining what i had. i didn't have a fever or diarrhea nor did i have a sore throat, coughing or sneezing. my only symptoms were nausea and vomiting. as i mentioned, i lost 15 pounds due to the dehydration and didn't start to gain weight until i received IV treatment for 2 weeks. to avoid something like that from happening again, i always keep protein drinks at hand. sometimes i don't feel like eating when i'm manic, depressed or "normal," so this is something i need to continuously watch out for.
 
In 4 years ago, I had wait for nearly 5 hours at ER to see doctor for one of my broken pinky finger and ER were very full.

I know that some people use ER as doctor visit.
 
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