Urgent Care Tales

[LillFilly]

It was then I looked at that chart and noticed that where her first name had been correct it was now changed to my Grandmother's name and the DNR added behind it.

Holy Crap! How did that happen!? Did they somehow mix-up your mom's charts with your grandmothers old ones, or did they have similar names? Nobody noticed "hey, this woman came in with the name of jane and now her name is joan."? Geeze.

[Aethian]

The first letter was the same. Think of going from Gail to Genevieve. Not to mental the differences in hair color, eye color, height, weight, ect. Oh and the fact that Grandma had already been dead for at least 5 years.

[Seshat]

My mum once got a bug bite on her leg that she scratched. It went purple & swelled up, & we suggested going to the doctor. She said no.

The swelling started making its way up her leg, so we started talking about taking her to the doctor for an emergency appointment. She said no.

A red, swollen line started making its way up her leg, & she was achy & feverish. We said we were going to call the doctor out on emergency. She said no. We said tough, & called.

It's a damn good thing you did. The infection was making its way up her veins.

I'm not a doctor, nor do I pretend to be, but in every first aid course I've done, 'infection following a path towards the torso' is a sign of 'get the patient to a doctor NOW NOW NOW'.

My understanding is that the infection would follow the vein into the torso, and potentially into the organs there. She could end up with organ failure - and since every vein ultimately ends at the heart, well.....


And that's on top of what it had already done to her leg.

[42_42_42]

Smiley, I have dealt with depression and anxiety for most of my life. I was diagnosed when I was 22 by the physician at the school health clinic. She put me on anti-depressant medication and strongly urged me to get therapy. At the time, I was finishing up my senior year of college and had no time or inclination to seek out therapy. For me, the medication made a *huge* difference. It didn't change my negative perception about myself, but it didn't make me "high" or blissed out or anything like that. Modern anti-depressants don't work like the ones they gave out in the pre-Prozace era, which did have the effect you're thinking of. For me, my body doesn't produce and regulate several neurotransmitters correctly, so taking an SSRI is akin to a diabetic taking insulin, it's correcting a hormonal imbalance so that my brain and body can function correctly. After several years of being on an anti-depressant, I finally sought out a therapist for some cognitive-behavioral therapy, because I still was unhappy with myself. The medication enabled me to be motivated enough to get therapy. I no longer see a therapist, because mine helped me to correct the image and thinking problems I had, but I'm still on the medication and will be for the rest of my life because I don't function properly without it. I go to my psychiatrist for regular check-ups, but as long as I am doing well on my current Rx, there's no need for me to see a psychologist as well.

You don't have to go through a psychiatrist to get therapy. In fact, therapy isn't the job of a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist diagnoses mental conditions and prescribes and monitors medication when they are warranted. A psychologist is not a medical doctor and cannot prescribe medication, what they do is therapy. Other folks do therapy as well, including social workers and those with a master's in psychology as opposed to a Ph.D. For many people, they need both a psychiatrist and a therapist to work through their issues. For some, they need the medication temporarily until the therapy has begun to work and then they can wean off the medicine and continue with therapy alone. For others, they need the medicine long term and therapy short term. Every one is different.

If you want to go the therapy only route, that door is always open to you. There are plenty of therapists who work on a sliding scale.

Oh, and while a general physician did diagnose me, as a rule, your GP is not the person to go to for psychiatric help, unless it is to get a referral to a psychiatrist.

HTH!

[PandaHat]

EDITED: Also the previous comment is great. It reminded me that actually having to remain on medication lifelong is not a sign of "failure" - it's just what you need to do to remain well. Like she said, it's the same situation as a diabetic and insulin or someone with atrial fibrillation and an anti-coagulant. I changed my comment to reflect this. Look out for places that give you help: if the doctor can only offer you medication, maybe try it but look elsewhere for counselling/psychotherapy if you want it too. Perhaps being on the medication will help with the motivation to do so. Here in the UK there are charities that provide free counselling. There are websites that let you do self help CBT. I can PM you the one my GP recommended me to use. It was designed by and for the Scottish Healthcare system.

Cooper, you may have given me hope about eventually getting medical help... I've avoided it for two reasons, first being that I don't have the money, second, every one I know who has gone on anti-depressants were simply given a large enough dose to drown out the pain and are never given any actual therapy.

I got medication and counselling. I genuinely believe that the counselling was nowhere near as useful to me as the medication. I think mainly because my depression wasn't really triggered by anything. It just ... happened one day. However, studies show that it is the combo that give you the best results. I'm off medication now and currently doing a lot better.

[morgana]

Smiley,

I also will be on medication for depression the rest of my life. I've had therapy, but frankly if I'm on the medication, I don't need the therapy. And if I don't have the meds, the therapy doesn't do me a lot of good.

I use Cymbalta, and it doesn't make me high at all. What it makes me is not-suicidal.

[AccountingDrone]

Hm, despite being allergic to penicillin and having a file noted as such a doctor in one hospital put me on penicillin to see me go into anaphylaxis. I got that hospital stay for free.

And one time while in at 5 months pregnant and both toxemic and pre-eclampsic the nuns let some right to lifer bitches in to discuss with me the evils of abortion. All they really knew about me was the non 9 month pregnancy and order for an operating room the next morning ... to save my life and remove the dead fetus that was poisoning me to death. I got that stay for free also, and my OB moved his entire practice because they refused to let him use the lap machine to tie my tubes because a third try at pregnancy would most likely kill me. [as it was, I did end up on dialysis for about 6 months because the stress trashed the remaining portions of my kidneys.]

Though I really can't blame Doc David for the third pregnancy, the one where I went in for some other lab work, and the Navy hospital was in its phase of pregnancy testing every female of reproductive age just in case ... and I popped pregnant. [I had an operation a couple years previously to remove a tumor in my lower abdomen, picked up a proteus infection and it caused the area of one tubal loop to swell, popping the little band and scar plug, rendering me fertile on one side again. Talk about pregnancy roulette! I combined an abortion with actually cutting and removing a bit of each fallopian tube.]

[dragon_wings]

Smiley, I'm also on an anti depressant. It's a small dose as my depression isn't as severe as many people's. It's made a huge difference in just a month in a half. I was told it would take four weeks for me to notice a difference but within a few days I could already tell a difference. I was in therapy for years as a kid and I'm not too keen to try it again but for some it does help.

[Cia]

The first letter was the same. Think of going from Gail to Genevieve. Not to mental the differences in hair color, eye color, height, weight, ect. Oh and the fact that Grandma had already been dead for at least 5 years.

Did you ever find out who in the hell had the gall to change your Mom's name and add 'DNR' next to it?

[Aethian]

Did you ever find out who in the hell had the gall to change your Mom's name and add 'DNR' next to it?

No and they should be glad I didn't.

[Flying Grype]

Adding my voice to the antidepressant crowd. When I'm off meds my brain chemistry is FUBARed. When I'm on them... it does the trick. It doesn't 'numb the pain', it allows my brain to regulate its chemistry properly. This means I'm not stuck in sad/angry mode and can actually feel emotions appropriate to the situation.

I've tried therapy a couple of times, and when I was in a really turbulent time in my life (e.g. university) it helped a bit. But quite frankly there's very little going on where I actually need the emotional coaching. If I have the meds I can deal with life and I can function well. If I don't have them, little things are overwhelming and therapy would be unlikely to help. It's that simple in my case.

[Dilorenzo]

Regarding the depression - I was on anti depressants for a long time, due to the fact that my depression is actually caused by the chemical imbalance in the brain. I say was because my last GP, delightful woman, decided that I didn't need to be on them anymore. So, been going it alone for over a year, and not gone back to the doctor, either.

Regarding urgent care stories? I have one of those. I spent an entire day at home when I wasn't working, where I wasn't able to keep anything down, not even water. It was basically an all day vomit and crapathon. That was fun.

Wife dragged me to urgent care, who failed to get an IV into my veins (I told them it was hard to get a vein, to be fair), went over everything, and then called an ambulance because my blood pressure was so low.

Glad I went to the hospital, as they found the diverticulitis (or osis? I can never remember which is the one you don't need surgery for). Not so happy that they had to call the ambulance, as I had to pay for that, and if the doctor who called them had let me get a word in, he would have heard me tell him there must have been a mistake. The nurse who had taken my BP earlier had said it was just fine.

Lovely bill that one cost me.

[telecom_goddess]

Cooper, you may have given me hope about eventually getting medical help... I've avoided it for two reasons, first being that I don't have the money, second, every one I know who has gone on anti-depressants were simply given a large enough dose to drown out the pain and are never given any actual therapy.

For what it's worth I'm on a moderate dose of an anti depressant and am in therapy, have been in therapy for a year and a half.

[Primer]

Smiley, be super aware that different meds work for different people, and you do NOT have to be taking one that really messes you up otherwise. When Prozac first came out, I asked my psych about trying it. For the first time in YEARS, I didn't want to find a dark corner in which to curl up and die. I felt like I could actually DEAL with life.

A few months ago, my pain management doc decided to try me on Cymbalta, as it's supposed to have a side benefit of helping with pain. I took it faithfully for a month, and the only thing I got out of it were several episodes of pure unadulterated rage. The neighborhood kids now think I'm a lunatic, which is fine by me.

I went back to the Prozac. I can deal with pain. I cannot deal with rage.

[Sapphire Silk]

Cooper, you may have given me hope about eventually getting medical help... I've avoided it for two reasons, first being that I don't have the money, second, every one I know who has gone on anti-depressants were simply given a large enough dose to drown out the pain and are never given any actual therapy.

Medication is only part of the solution for most people. Some kind of therapy is also required, and there are several variants. But it's expensive, so it's hard to get insurance to cover it.

Prozac worked great for my depression when I had it. But it also took away all my other emotions, and I didn't like that. My psychiatrist was afraid most anti depressants would "wind me up" so she wanted to add something to pull me back down. I really was messed up at that point in my life, so the faulty logic got past my nursing knowledge of pharmacopeia because I was so desperate to feel better. She tried me on several antipyschotics even though I've never had a psychotic disorder. After she tried me on Wellbutrin and Geodan and it triggered a massive panic attack (I had to leave work early and load up on Ativan to stop it), I found myself another psychiatrist and a clinical social worker for a therapist (my previous therapist just let me bitch for an hour and didn't do any real therapy).

Cognitive behavioral therapy worked wonders for me. I'm now depression and medication free, and I'm very thankful for that since some folks will really have to take meds for life. But far too many people are just given a prescription because it's the easy route.