An observation, thoughts on yesterdays ER/ED visit.

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First, I am feeling a bit better. Still tired and keeping an eye on my temp.

Yesterday I felt so bad that I did not even care what ER/ED that my Mom took me to. She decided to take me to a smaller ER/ED thinking that maybe I would get in quicker and be better taken care of than the bigger ER/ED I normally go to.

Well she was right (Funny because she always is in some way). I got a room in less than five minutes. Blood work within the first hour, Ct ordered and an Iv started. "Yea, I have waited 5-6 hours at the bigger hospital for the same thing".

What this showed me is that when everything is done with social security that I should just try to get in with a smaller hospital. Currently it takes 48 hours to even hear back from my GI doctor. Forget trying to get in touch with anyone on the phone directly, and if I do go the the ER/ED they don't even tell me if I am constipated like the doctor did yesterday. (I told him I needed to know that and not just that I was having a diverticulitis attack)

So here is something else that came out of yesterday. The doctor and radiologist both said that I may have compaction/to small a passage way at or near my surgery site from 2019 that is causing some of my ongoing pain. It was explained like trying to fit my foot in a sock that is too small. The radiologist said she has seen it a few time in people that have done what I did.

All in, yesterday was a better ER/ED experience than any time I have been to one here in Pa.

I have a recommendation from a local here in my town to go to a center that she takes her daughter to that does GI and I am going to see what happens with things now that I am going to have to speak to my current GI about my next Covid vaccine jab next month.

 

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Yeah, I think all of your previous doctors have been jerking you around, never giving you an answer. Now you know what’s likely wrong. Did they say if you can have a minor surgery to fix it or anything? How preposterous that nobody saw this before, after the years you’ve been putting up with this crap (literally!). So many doctors of various sorts, so many trips to the other ER, the PT - all for nothing. Now you try this new place and get an answer immediately - amazing! Imagine how much longer it might have taken with the other *many* medicallroviders you’ve been seeing, to get the answer? I think they were just trying to get you to go back and back and back again to rip you off and get your money without ever even helping you. What a shame! They should be sued!

But the good news is now you have new help, and reinvigorated hope.

Feel better today!

 

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So glad to hear you had a good experience at the ER. Boy, that sounds funny. I had the same experience taking my dad to a smaller ER. They were quicker, much friendlier, and very accommodating for my father. Maybe there is truth that Size does matter, but the smaller the better. Feel better!

 

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Very glad you got a new set of expert eyes. The big centers are soulless it seems

 

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@ThatFLGuy
I had a "blockage" once. I went to my usual ER complaining of a sharp pain just below my stomach. It didn't take long for them to identify the problem. They immediately fed a small, flexible tube through my nose into my stomach to pump my stomach, and admitted me. I was there for 3 days. It resolved, but no reason was given.

After being released they referred me to a GI doctor. He made me go through that miserable process of drinking drywall compound and scanning, but it was gone by then.

I have learned to stay away from fiber supplements, like psyllium husk. I now take PEG 3350 (Miralax) frequently.

 

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@ThatFLGuy
Oh, one more thing...if you want to get in as fast as possible, call an ambulance (911).

 

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@ThatFLGuy, Your mom certainly did what moms do best and that's to go by intuition and logical thinking!!! She definitely had your best interests at heart when she took you to the smaller hospital with the smaller ER.
It sounded like the ER doctor and radiologist did a good job explaining what was going on with you and why you were having so much pain. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes and fresh minds to see the obvious when that has been overlooked so many times before!!!
I think another big lesson here is we all tend to think of the bigger places as having better facilities and more highly trained and skilled staff and practitioners but your experienced yesterday showed that isn't always the case!!!
It seems you got far quicker service and a more accurate diagnosis than if you had gone to the ER where you had previously gone.
It's good you have a new "go to" place and that you see it with a different perspective.
I hope you just rest up for awhile and feel better soon!

 

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My local hospital has an Urgent Care in next town 10 miles away, only 5 more miles from our home. They are faster, good at telling you: "You need the ER" due to no specialist or something, or don't have the equipment (like MRI). They will even call the ambulance, give Covid shots, etc. The hospital is expecting you, have any data the Urgent Care recorded, already. Triage knows what to do for you. Another advantage: you are now on the hospital's computers. If necessary, bet they can summon or send you to the Medivac Copter based at the hospital (a national chain; but the Cost!).
Medivac, here, can mean to the big hospitals (2, & the Native one) who can also send you to Seattle.
There are still some other Urgent Cares.
The only other hospital is 90 minutes by car, smaller, owned by 1st hospital. You do NOT want to try for 90 minutes in winter!
My huge Seattle hospital (3.5 hours by jet), now has satellite clinics all over, other cities, most in Puget Sound. Some specialize. Some have Urgent Care but may have business hours.
Hospitals - and hospital chains - are buying out other hospitals, and merging, which gives you access at the other hospitals & to your computer records, too. Mine merged with the Franciscans; I don't know how many other hospitals & UCs that adds, or where, yet. But a religious hospital can have more restrictions on what they will do - which mostly doesn't effect most of us, probably.
Check out your hospital's website for this sort of info.
A local Urgent Care chain got closed for cheating Medicare. Imagine that.

 

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That was an interesting read! I would hope that you wouldn't have to be airlifted somewhere particularly on a 3.5 hour flight to Seattle!!
Beaucoup, beaucoup bucks there!!!
Regarding what you said about religious hospitals having more restrictions on what they can and will do, the main thought here is Catholic hospitals won't do abortions but not sure about other restrictions.

 

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billliveshere. It costs in the neighborhood of $18,000 to get Medivaced from Anchorage to Seattle, I'm told. Helo to Anchorage (an 80-mile trip), is suppossedly in the $10,000 price range. Tourists off the Cruise Ships used to pay $50,000 to fly back to the East Coast; not sure why they had to go that far.
However, you can subscribe to the helo company, here, for some sum under $10 a month, very low, really.
Insurance can cover Medivac, depending. Have no idea about Medicare.
I know of other kinds of restrictions, and in at least one other religion, and they even vary by religion. But with at least one religion, I'd check. Some take different days off. Let's refrain; it's politics & religion, which are not appreciated here. I did mean it when I said most of us incontinence patients won't have to deal with the restrictions - except the costs we all face, anywhere.
There is at least one chain that deals only with Children - the Shriner hospitals. I don't know their criteria, and admittance is not based on religion, but may be based on income & seriousness. None here, but they run a yearly program for evaluation, etc, and fly accepted kids to one or the other hospital in the Lower 48, and even a parent or parents. Your income too low? You have no insurance? They don't care, you get accepted, they even buy the airline tickets. Heck of a great charity. There are about 21 or 23 of them, and they aren't huge.

 

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The Shriners is a good group all around and they take kids from anywhere and any circumstance. The nearest one to me is in Tampa. They are really unsung heroes! And in parades they drive these cool little putt-putt cars and miniature airplanes and wear fezzes!!!
But at the risk of being shut out from the group, one more comment about religion!! The Seventh Day Adventists have Saturday as their sabbath and on Friday afternoons they kind of lie low as well. The local hospital here is Seventh Day Adventist (used to be Florida Hospital Waterman) and now it's Advent Health Waterman. It's part of a big chain here in the Orlando area. And having been a patient there a couple of times (and outpatient a couple more times) it is a very good hospital and I'm glad it's my local hospital. No huge difference, as no one takes the day off from nursing on a Saturday and the only difference I've seen is the gift shop is closed on Saturdays. Other than that it's business as usual!!
But your helo company up there sounds like it has very, very reasonable subscription rates. But without it a $10,000 trip to Anchorage would most definitely put a dent in my budget!!!

 

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@AlasSouth Three years ago, I crocheted 23 blankets for Shriners newborns.

 

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Snow: That is so cool! Thank you, from me and for the children.

My Shriner friend is one of the clowns - does all the parades in his clown outfit, make-up and all, would do Ringling Brothers circus proud. He does the signup-signin clinics, too, which he has to travel for, (by car). We don't have a hospital, so he doesn't work one of those, but I know they do that in Spokane, among other ones. He used to have a fire-engine put-put, but passed it one to a younger clown.
You have to be a Mason, first.

It just occurred to me - they may take on incontinence, too.

Anyway, thanks!

 

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Yes the Shriners also have those fire engine putt-putts that I always see in local parades. Really fun!!
And @snow, that is really a "fun fact" about you crocheting 23 blankets for Shriner newborns!! That is so giving and generous!!! People who do that are really extra-special in my book!!!