Painful

So what is it like to be "hammered" by unexplained pain and left unattended in an emergency room waiting area.  Not fun, to say the least.  So with the controversy over Obama healthcare and all, the experience of actually having to use an emergency room in a local hospital is pretty revealing.

On a recent Monday I dragged myself to the emergency room because of excruciating pain in my lower abdomen.   To eliminate the suspense, it turned out to be a serious kidney stone episode which required surgery.

However, the broader point was the reception I received when I went to the triage section to get medical help.  (Let's just say, they have no customer SKILLS!)  I presented myself in severe, uncontrollable pain and was told to wait along with the 33 other people waiting in the same room.  A lady next to me had a headache.  A woman had been bitten two days earlier by a possible spider and the site was itching.  Lots of coughing and wheezing.  And what's up with the mental cases yelling and cursing...!

And then the triage nurse announced that the wait to be seen was four and one-half hours. Please.  Oh, and BTW, one of the emergency room workers told me, "Don't come on Mondays... these people are trying to get a slip to get out of work."

So after doing the chicken for almost 2 hours in the waiting room and being dismissed as just another crackhead a sharp nurse finally realized that I was in real distress.  They shot me up with morphine to reduce the pain...  

... and they found a bed for me.  I was hauled off to a CAT scan where they found a 1.2 cm kidney stone lodged in the ureter.  Oh, and BTW it wasn't comforting to be told that the pain was similar to that which a lady suffers when they have a baby.  (Why do they keep having them?)

So the fate was sealed:  surgery the following day to bust it up.  A whole day without water or food then on to surgery.

And right on time, the sun came up the next day and I was on my way to recovery and hopefully not experience this again.  Lots free advice I was given:  drink water, cran juice, etc.  Ok, I'll start right now.

Tech details:  Samsung Cell Phone S4; Natural light.  Processed in SnapSeed App.
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