Emergency Rooms And Other Oxymorons

How do we alert others we are hurting? Pain is a subjective issue; only we can tell, express, or in the worst of situations, show when we cannot speak.

Pain will be expressed by grimacing, crying, clenching of the body's muscles, holding of the area, neurological changes and other signs.

When we know that we are in so much pain that we need to be seen by a doctor, and it is that wonderful time of day that gives us only the choice of going to an Emergency Room.

Believe me, I do not just go to ER's for the hell of it, and I have seen both sides of the medical side of ER's to know that I will be waiting a while.

What does "wait a while" mean? Is it an hour? Is it less? I know that there are many people that need to be seen before me. Why did I go? For PAIN relief, and to be checked that this was not 'just' my regular pain, forbid it was something else.

My pain the night I went to the ER was rated a 9/10. The pain scale is a zero for no pain, and ten for pain that you just cannot stand any longer; I equate a 10 being burned alive.  Since I knew the levels of my own Chronic Pain, and what was as high as I could go without seeing a doctor, I knew that this was not normal pain for me.  I was very worried that this could be something else in the thoracic area of my spine.  I signed in and saw the Triage Nurse, who I told my pain level to, my medications, who assessed me, and then sent me back out to the waiting room.

If a patient has vocalized a nine out of ten pain, through tears, raised voices, or other signs of great pain; that patient needs to be seen ASAP.  I live with severe pain every day.  I can't roll around on the floor screaming in agony-I have learned how to deal with pain on an ongoing basis.  I don't look the same in pain, as someone who does not experience pain daily.  Just because I have chronic pain, there is no reason to treat me any different than a patent in pain that does not suffer from it chronically.  And here is the sad thing about chronic pain, it can be acute.  I have chronic pain with acute bouts.  Pain that spikes up off my normal chart of pain levels.  These events are frightening.

I have stopped myself from going to the ER before during these acute times, because I knew about the waits. I knew that staying home and sweating through the pain would be more comfortable (howewer miserable) and more reasonable, not to mention, cheaper. Unfortunately, this time, I knew that not seeing someone wouldn't be too smart.

After the triage nurse sent me out to the waiting room that night, I went back and sat with my sister and niece who had taken me.  We waited.  And we waited.  My niece was so kind when she saw me trying to sit in a hard chair, she asked for a pillow and blanket and gave them to me.  My sister held my hand and prayed.  Here is where I needed to be taken back into the ER, through those huge, ever-closed-do -not-pass-go doors, and at the least given a gurney to lie on.  No one in 9 out of 10 pain should ever be made to SIT through the wait.  NO ONE.  It is inhumane.

When 3 hours had passed, I was hunched in my chair, trying to get into a semi-fetal position to 'help' my pain. ha. Didn't work.  When it had neared nearly 4 hours of waiting, I told my sister I was ready to go home.  We had seen group after group go in, and I was the only one in the waiting room.  I knew I couldn't sit there any longer. "Take me home", I told my sister.  I had meds there, and a bed.  This had just gone too long, and I went up to the nearest person in the front lobby and told them nicely, that I was leaving, I was in too much pain to wait any longer. What? Is that the Oxymoron here?  I was in too much pain to wait any longer and was going to leave the Emergency Room. hmmm.

Here is what I was told: "Your pain level is so high that you need to see a doctor, all the other people have been seen by a Physician's Assistant, and we are waiting for a doctor to be free to see you."  I understood that way of thinking.  I had seen the ambulance come in while I was waiting.  Yet I didn't understand why they made absolutely NO effort to make me more comfortable.  And here is where we get to the subject of how some medical personnel are completely uninformed about chronic pain patients, and how they view us: Drug-Seeking patients. That is another post.

I got home, I took my prescribed amount of pain medication (proving I was not a drug seeker) including something to help me sleep, and that was that.  I was home, I was more comfortable, and eventually I went to sleep.  Waking up the next morning, I had to laugh a little at how I had been to an EMERGENCY ROOM for an emergency of unbearable pain, and had not seen anyone in 4 hours.  I know in the back that they were working on patients that needed a doctor, and ER doctors are overworked and have to decide who can be seen by a PA, delegate as many patients to them as possible, and the docs see the 'tough' cases. Guess I wasn't 'tough' enough!

And as I thought back on the night before, I wondered: How long would I have been left to sit there? And I'm happy I didn't stay to find out.  After all, I was just another emergency in the Emergency Room.

May your pain be low enough to stay out of the ER!!!