ARGH! (A rant, with un-love)

[KhirasHY]

Ok...some force is begging me to stay on the site tonight. I normally only post when I'm running all my automated functions (accounting stuff, mostly, with payroll and the like), but this is now necessary.

A question to all you late-night readers! You're walking past a hotel at 12:45am, just you and your husband, and suddenly you collapse in pain due to an intense sinus infection. The pain is so much that it literally radiates throughout your body (according to you), and you can barely stand. You ask for someone to call 911 (which the hotel obligingly does), and the paramedics check you out. Do you go to the hospital?

I ask this because the person I just dealt with apparently looked common sense in the face and said, "Nay. Nay I say, for I am trying to make Khiras burst a blood vessel in his brain. I shall, instead, sit on the hotel's emergency oxygen and bug the paramedics for 15 minutes, then walk away from the hotel as if nothing had happened!"

Now, she may have still been in pain (she looked it, and I've seen enough sinus infections to know that they will make you unhappy about life in general), but you would think that being in that much pain would mean "hop on the ambulance." Yes, I'm aware they're expensive, but to simply say you don't want to go to a hospital or even a doctor at all (because you know what's wrong, even though you have no diagnosis or perscriptions to be sure...) is just plain idiocy. The sad thing is, this is not the first one of these I've gotten this WEEK!

Scenario B was with a larger (not super-heavy, but larger) woman who was in extreme pain, but did not want any medical assistance. Okay...so I help her into her room via a wheelchair we have, and help her into her bed with her family assisting as well. A 5 foot journey into the bed has her screaming and crying in pain...why? Because she's had a hernia for months, and has not gotten the surgery... ............. !

Okay, the details make some sense, couldn't get the surgery at first because of a blood clot. However, that's cleared up, and now she just doesn't want to do it. I seriously wanted to shake her and scream that, if she has a rupture, the condition could become lethal...but no, she doesn't want to go to the hospital! She laid down for a while and says she feels better, but I've seen one too many dead bodies in my hotel career...I'd rather not see one more because you're too stupid to take something like that seriously!

The moral of this story is simple people: hospitals and doctors visits in general may not be fun, but they are there for a reason. Refusing to get yourself checked out when you're seriously sick or injured/in pain is just retarded, and doing so should automatically qualify you to have your brain examined. Stop doing it, people like me do not enjoy it when we have to find what's left of you.

[Bright_Star]

Both of them should have gone to the hospital. When you're in so much pain that you either collapse or scream in pain then it's a given that you better haul your ass to the emergency room.

[Bramblerose]

Not so. If you have sprained ligaments (which was a screaming offense for me), your ortho doesn't want to see you for a few days. It's too hard to figure out the damage with the initial swelling in place.

I've long learned different people handle pain differently, as well as being without insurance most of my adult life. The sinus lady I can understand, but the hernia woman is another issue.

Consider- Had I been a sedentary person, I may not have gotten knee surgery-$2000 up front and another grand in payments for something not life-threatening? Not counting follow up care and PT. I need my mobility (I wish I were still in PA, but I couldn't keep up), so I ponied up.

(more quad exercise for me plus rain this week- I will be grumperina this week!)

[Meegz]

Or it can be the hospital where I live. I collapsed due to an asthma attack (which I've had for years but no doctors would give me help for it) but due to lack of insurance which I lost from work, the doctor told me "you're wasting my time, you're looking for attention." And refused to treat me.

However, I get a new health plan from work that says they'll pay for medicine and help for people who are overweight, but not with serious medical/ER conditions. I can't understand what is happening with hospitals these days.

[Bliss]

It-s their choice. If they want to try out darwinism I dont mind

[Emrld]

There is a higher risk when poor health due to lack of a person being responsible and taking care of themselves comes into play.
Course you also end up with the wonderful Catch-22 of the reason you have breathing issues is you weigh too much . . .because you can't breathe exercise isn't a real option.
With as sue happy as society has become Dr's have to find a way to protect themselves.
You also get to a point of why should I help this person if they won't help themselves.
With sinus lady . . .she may not be comfortable talking to anyone but her Dr who wouldn't be available till business hours the next day.
(Note: I am not a tiny person . . .I am not 300lbs either. However, I am fully aware that I have to change some things in my life and I am doing so. Having the surgery I did in June is allowing for easier breathing and exercise is actually possible now.)

[dithers66]

If the person is not medically insane, let them make their own damn choices is my motto.

[QASlave]

I was skiing in Vail with some co-workers and my boss fell and hyper-extended his thumb. Vail has a clinic at the bottom of the slope, so he goes in and they cast him up. The rest of us were in the waiting room because we were headed out as soon as he was done.

The ski patrol brings in some guy on a strecher and he's moaning and whimpering pretty good. About 20 minutes after, you see this guy trying to walk back to the waiting room to leave. The ER doc runs after him yelling, "STOP! Do you realize your back is broken! You're going to be paralyed if you don't stop!"

The guys response? "I'll chance it, I don't have insurance."

They sedated him and hauled him back.

I know it would be expensive, but come on. YOUR BACK IS BROKEN!!!!!

Some people's kids.

[ebonyknight]

A question to all you late-night readers! You're walking past a hotel at 12:45am, just you and your husband, and suddenly you collapse in pain due to an intense sinus infection. The pain is so much that it literally radiates throughout your body (according to you), and you can barely stand. You ask for someone to call 911 (which the hotel obligingly does), and the paramedics check you out. Do you go to the hospital?

Now, she may have still been in pain (she looked it, and I've seen enough sinus infections to know that they will make you unhappy about life in general), but you would think that being in that much pain would mean "hop on the ambulance." Yes, I'm aware they're expensive, but to simply say you don't want to go to a hospital or even a doctor at all (because you know what's wrong, even though you have no diagnosis or perscriptions to be sure...) is just plain idiocy. The sad thing is, this is not the first one of these I've gotten this WEEK!

Unfortunately, a lot of people are doing this. With medical costs warping at light speed out of this universe, it is a no brainer (unfortuantely) to not go. Yes, they might die, but nowadays, these vultures won't stop there and come after your family for the money. For some families that type of financial hit will ruin them for the rest of their lives.

It's sad that it has come to this. 10 years ago, it probably would be idiotic, but these days, it's just (ironically) a fact of life.

[auntiem]

Do you have a walk in clinic where you live? That is where I go (if I can wait until it opens - ours isn't a 24hr) if I need emergency care. It is significantly less money and the Dr.s are very good.

I'll admit that I went two weeks with a broken leg because I refused to admit that it might be broken (yes, I am that stubborn). The doctor that cast it kept asking when I broke it because he couldn't believe it - he said he had grown men with this kind of break that would be screaming in the emergency room that day. What can I say - I've got a high threshold for pain.
That said, I was at the walk in clinic before it opened last week with a problem that started the night before because I was so worried. There are some things that you can't diagnose or treat yourself.

[JoitheArtist]

When I had my fun run-in with kidney stones two years ago, I would've not gone to the emergency room if I'd known that's what it was. I would've just gulped down Advil and toughed it out

Sadly, kidney stones have similar symptoms to appendicitis, and I didn't want to take any chances. Hello hospital bill.....

[AdminAssistant]

I HATE hospitals/doctors, the whole bit. I refused to go when I turned my ankle last year. I just haaaaaattteee it.

But, when I started having gallbladder attacks when I was 18, I was more than happy for Mom and Big Sis (I was living with Big Sis at the time) to load me into the car and drive me to the hospital. That's the kind of pain you don't ignore.