At the ER tonight
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Short version: nothing bad.
Ok, so my wife has been feeling off for a few days. Some pain in lower back. She thinks maybe kidney stone but has been feeling nauseated …anyway she went to OBGYN today who said her creatinine levels were high, puts the kidney at risk. The doc said they wanted her to go to the ER today and not tomorrow. So off we went…
Checked in with an estimated wait time of 33 minutes.
As of typing this, it’s been 5.5 hours.
We have seen people come and go and come and go, and I suspect she’s been flagged as low urgency. I’ve asked after 3 hours how long it’ll be and they said “soon… the longest of the day was a 4 hour wait”.
This is ridiculous. If it wasn’t about her kidney or the doc’s instructions to go here today, we would just leave.
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Yikes, I hope she's okay!
Mik's right, so far you're getting off light. Keep us posted on both her progress and the nature of the vending machine coffee.
(Not a contest or anything, you just reminded me of this: When our kiddo was very little, we were driving back from seeing the in-laws late at night when my wife felt kinda funny. Then really funny. We stopped at an ER about 90 minutes away from home. She had serious gallstones. They took a look at her gallbladder, and ended up having to take it out. We spent 3 days at the hospital with no intention of ever going. The nurses there were absolutely fucking amazing. They boosted a crib from God-knows-where and apparently broke about a dozen hospital procedures by letting us all sleep in the same room together. And it was thanks to a PA, not the doc who wanted to send her home, that they even checked her gallbladder in the first place.)
Please love yourself.
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Yikes, I hope she's okay!
Mik's right, so far you're getting off light. Keep us posted on both her progress and the nature of the vending machine coffee.
(Not a contest or anything, you just reminded me of this: When our kiddo was very little, we were driving back from seeing the in-laws late at night when my wife felt kinda funny. Then really funny. We stopped at an ER about 90 minutes away from home. She had serious gallstones. They took a look at her gallbladder, and ended up having to take it out. We spent 3 days at the hospital with no intention of ever going. The nurses there were absolutely fucking amazing. They boosted a crib from God-knows-where and apparently broke about a dozen hospital procedures by letting us all sleep in the same room together. And it was thanks to a PA, not the doc who wanted to send her home, that they even checked her gallbladder in the first place.)
@Aqua-Letifer said in At the ER tonight:
Yikes, I hope she's okay!
+1 sorry to hear you guys are going through this.
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First, she is ok. Thanks for the well wishes. They think it’s dehydration and a possible kidney stone, doing a CT scan now.
Otherwise, took 6 hours…before going back into a room or bed. That was all waiting room. The main reasons it was frustrating was we were told 30 minutes, and it ended up being 6 hours before being seen. Further; we watched folks who arrived after us go in before us and discharged while we sat there. Folks that didn’t seem in worse shape, at least from what I can tell, but perhaps I was wrong. Also, we have a 4 and 2 year old at home, and I’ve been holding our 1 month old here at the hospital because she needs to breastfeed (not from me, luckily). So hour after hour… woof.
Also it’s not fun to watch the wife in discomfort and pain
@Aqua-Letifer what a story! And yes…nurses ROCK.
Oh and the coffee was actually one of those Starbucks 8-in-1 machines. Honestly, not bad at all. But when you’re tired…
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Sitting in a waiting room for five hours with a kidney stone is horseshit, unless they were absolutely slammed and your wife is a stoic when it comes to pain.
Sounds to me like they screwed up a triage.
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Sitting in a waiting room for five hours with a kidney stone is horseshit, unless they were absolutely slammed and your wife is a stoic when it comes to pain.
Sounds to me like they screwed up a triage.
@Jolly said in At the ER tonight:
Sitting in a waiting room for five hours with a kidney stone is horseshit,
Yes. That's bullshit. She should have been taken back, had an IV put it, and been given something for pain. The only reason to withhold pain meds is to assure yourself that you're not masking something serious.
Glad that you have a plan.
I've taken care of hundreds (literally hundreds of people with stones - a 1 week rotation 8 times a year, with 20 - 30 cases a week) and the presentation is frequently variable and nonspecific. Sometimes it has to "blossom."
Thank goodness for CT scans!
Bilateral stones, only one side?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@Jolly said in At the ER tonight:
Sitting in a waiting room for five hours with a kidney stone is horseshit,
Yes. That's bullshit. She should have been taken back, had an IV put it, and been given something for pain. The only reason to withhold pain meds is to assure yourself that you're not masking something serious.
Glad that you have a plan.
I've taken care of hundreds (literally hundreds of people with stones - a 1 week rotation 8 times a year, with 20 - 30 cases a week) and the presentation is frequently variable and nonspecific. Sometimes it has to "blossom."
Thank goodness for CT scans!
Bilateral stones, only one side?
@George-K said in At the ER tonight:
Thank goodness for CT scans!
No kidding!
Well I semi-blame my wife. When she checked in I told her to make sure they understood the urgency of the kidney pain since it’s not obvious on the surface and you know they are triaging patients from the first glance. She told them she had elevated levels of creatinine, so I’m sure they didn’t trigger any alarms.
Anyway….all is well that ends well. I was venting last night after the long wait compounded by watching folks come and go and leap frog us.
Very glad there is a plan and the staff has been more than good. Too bad she doesn’t have GK to put her under before the stent insertion!
@Axtremus yes very lucky to have my FIL come over and stay until 2am when I got back. Was able to get about 2 hours of sleep and now up with the 3 kids. Coffee time!
