Friday, November 2, 2012

What I Learned In the ER.....

This morning, more of what we've gotten sadly used to - a bad headache, nausea, light and sound sensitivity, and the added bonus, neck stiffness and pain.  I gave Babygirl her headache meds and called CHOP, getting the same on-call nephrologist I got last week. 

Like me, she's concerned about the neck pain. It's not a typical migraine symptom, and it's a new player in this game. She called neurology.  They can't move up her appointment.  She advised me to take Babygirl to the local Emergency Room to try, once again, to break the headache, and to have them call neurology for further advice.

Sigh.  But if you ask a question of an expert, you can't always expect to get an answer that you like.  And generally, you are a fool if you disregard such advice.  So we went.

To give our ER as much credit as possible, I have to say they were overwhelmed.  We went to a room pretty quickly, but I could hear, over and over and over again, overhead pages asking the doctors to take calls from incoming ambulances.  And what I heard wasn't "We're coming in with some moron with an ankle sprain" but "we have an 82 year old with a heart rate of 160 and dizziness." 

We had an awesome nurse.  She's the same one who rode all the way to CHOP with us in an ambulance last spring.  The doc, not so much.  He popped in, barely stayed long enough for me to point out that yes, it was only a headache, but the nephrologist told us to come in because of the neck symptoms and that she recommended imaging of Babygirl's neck.

I don't think the imaging she was hoping for was a simple neck x-ray, but that's what we got. I'm guessing she was hoping for a view or two of the spinal cord, but hey.  We were there from before 9 AM until 3:30 PM.  She got IV meds shortly before 11, more than an hour after we were told that that was what the plan was.  We were discharged without being told the results of bloodwork or xrays. I cried in front of the nurses and got ugly with the doctor.

So what I learned in the ER this morning is that I'm not going back.  I'm not asking again until I see the neurologist ten (LONG) days from now what it is that is causing this pain, or what anyone plans to do about it.  I'll give her the meds we have, keep her home from school if she has a headache, and ask everyone I know to pray for us both.

DeeDee

6 comments:

  1. AND.......call/stop in/make an appointment with one of the bigwigs - as a consumer or whatever lame name they are calling sick people this week. And you might remind this admin (aka money man/woman) that treatment like that sends people to a different ER. What the heck, you aren't coming in with a sprained ankle EITHER.... Competition can bite someone in the uhhhhh....ankle. What a jerk! Judy

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  2. I hear you. The ER is horrible. I have a mentally ill child, and I will never take him to the ER (at least for a psych eval) ever again. <3

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    1. Oh, Jenny! There are no words for how appalling care is for mentally ill children - the barriers are nearly insurmountable. At least the phrase "Kidney Transplant" garners a degree of respect.

      God bless you.
      DeeDee

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  3. Fight like the Mama bear that you are Dar! Nobody knows ur baby like u do and for God's sake let the powers that be at that hospital know that this kid didn't come in with JUST a headache and she was treated like that is her whole history! Let some heads roll! And of course we are praying! Lynne

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  4. What about a different ER??
    Lorraine

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    1. It's a case of "better the devil you know." I work for the hospital. And however frustrated I may be, I know that I can pull rank if I need to. And despite my incessant whining, the medical part of me knows there isn't a lot more they can do short of admitting her, and she truly does not meet the criterion necessary for admission. Each ER has good docs/bad docs who all have good days/bad days. I no longer have to consider the price, since her Medicare would pick up the copayment ($100 here, $1000 elsewhere).

      DeeDee

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