kristin (layered) wrote in bad_service,
kristin
layered
bad_service

Oh, emergency room.



Coming down an especially narrow staircase at a friend's house, I slipped a little, caught my balance, but something in my knee felt weird. I hobbled down to the car and then tried to rub it a little. Evidently, that was the wrong thing to do, because it immediately started hurting. I'm talking about the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life (I've broken bones and had an ovarian cyst that was 15cm in diameter and had to be surgically removed. I am no stranger to things hurting. So when I say 'worst pain in my entire life'... yeah. I know, nothing compared to some people's pain stories, but still.)

I get to the hospital fairly soon, get wheeled in, get checked in, get wheeled over to the waiting room. And there I sit for god only knows how long. Probably around an hour. I'm in obvious pain, basically sobbing the entire time. I'm given nothing. Not even a tylenol, and no nurse comes to check on me. I'm nowhere near the presence of mind to go find one - I can't move, I'm crying, and I'm completely freaking out because I'm afraid I've screwed my knee up badly. The weirdest pain ever, it feels the way metal tastes, and it's shooting from my knee, all the way up my leg and to my chest.

I get taken to X Ray, then to a room, finally. I sit there for another hour or so, before my room-mate meets me there. She's livid that I haven't been given anything for the pain, or seen a doctor, or anything. She walks out to find a nurse and ask what the hold up is, that I'm still crying because it hurts so bad and if I could have a Tylenol or something.

The nurse said, and I quote, "We can't give out medicine without the doctor seeing her, and she's fourth in line."

I'm sorry, WHAT? I've been here for 2-3 hours and am in so much pain I'm not even able to ask for pain medicine. The first time they asked me the "how much does it hurt on a scale from 1-10" question, I couldn't answer because my jaw was clenched shut. That's absolutely fucking RIDICULOUS.

And then, oh, and then (after another hour) I finally get seen by a doctor, for two minutes. He pokes at my knee, moves it around a little, and says "well, it's not broken." Okay? But what about... like, tendons and muscles and stuff like that? He can't tell me. He goes to find a nurse, who - looking like someone had just kicked her puppy - comes in to fit me with a knee brace.

"This is never going to fit her." Says the nurse. Okay, I'm a slightly larger woman, but I'm definitely not the largest person the hospital has ever seen by a long shot. I don't need to go to special stores to buy clothes or anything like that. Having a knee brace that would fit my leg should not have been a problem. Oh, but it obviously was. She takes the too-small brace, slams my leg onto it, and straps it in as tightly as she can.

Obviously, this doesn't work. The moment I stand up, it falls down. "Oh, they do that," she says. "You just have to work with it."

What? Seriously?

I get a couple of tylenol, sign the discharge papers, and LEAVE for god's sake, because that hospital is a deathtrap.

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