Emergency Room- Save yourself the trip

Last Friday morning I was out at Elsinore and my knee crumbled on a backroll attempt. I was taken to the emergency room, where I sat for 5 hours and was then blown off by the nurse. The doctor looked at my knee for about a minute and ordered some X-rays. Then didn't bother coming back with the results. I had to get the nurse, who said they came back negative, and sent me hobbling away with a note to see a doctor if the pain persists for 15 days.

Saturday, my knee turned into a balloon, and I still had almost no mobility. I sat like this for the weekend before getting into the orthopedic doctor, yesterday.

From the symptoms, he's pretty confident I tore my meniscus. I'll be getting an MRI to confirm and see if there's any other damage and then make a decision on arthroscopy.

Next time I will go straight to the orthopedic.

you should have gone straight to the ortho if you have PPO.

Yeah, I had that a couple years ago, of course I didn't feel the need to hit up the emergency room since we were on vacation, so I stuck it out until I couldn't move it anymore (a 4 hour car ride later), then went to the doctor where they gave me drugs, a brace, and some crutches. They said I'd be fine in a week or 2, but after 3 agonizing weeks, I went to the ortho, got an MRI and he decided on 3 months of rehab on it instead of geting scoped.

Emergency rooms are crap. Last winter I came off a backyard kicker 15 ft up and spun a 540 onto my side. Needless to say I cracked and broke 3 ribs. After a couple of hours I went in to the E-room to get something done... I sat for 4 hours or so.. got Xrays by a beasty nurse...and was told to go home. Not even an Advil.....bastards.

Broke my hand pretty bad in a fight once...went in too see how bad....(this was after New Years 2000 - imagine the hangover!) a nurse cruised by with a cart full of chocolate milk...and wouldnt give me one.
Not very nice...when she turned her back..I stole 2

Do you have minor emergency rooms where you are? Ironically they move alot faster than any emergency room I've ever been too.

Robert wait until you get the bill from the ER!!!

I know. Luckily, I'm only stuck with a $75 copay. Insurance should handle the rest. I may try to dispute it anyway, but that often ends up being more of a hassle than what it's worth.

Much of that sounds like something Kaiser would do. Remember this...no one is a better doctor than yourself. You are the only one that can feel what is going on. It is typical for a hospital to send you out and see if you improve. Yup, they did it to me with a broken leg, slipped disk in my back, and the final straw was a cut nerve in my hand they said was simply trauma.

Never be afraid to hound them into doing more than what little they want to do. You have to be professional about it, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Yeah, I hurt my knee a few years back, they x-rayed it and I never got the results. I even told the doc that I didn't think anything was broken, but that didn't stop them. I was so fed up that I just left. A couple weeks later the swelling went down and I started riding. To this day my knee hurts all the time and I still don't know what's wrong with it.

Thanks Kaiser

I tend to stay away from the doctors all together. They just give you bad news.

I have two options near home:

1) Stanford ER -- awful, avoid at all costs!
2) PA Medical Foundation Urgent Care - excellent, but not open 24hrs!

Just be glad you don't work in health care or you would be having to deal with this kind of crap on a daily basis.

All you people with horror stories, are you going to Kaiser hospitals, local hospitals, or what? That way I can be sure to stay away from those.

I do recall having sprained my ankle and sitting at UCDavis medical center ER for 4 hours waiting to be looked at. They wrapped me up and told me to take some Ibuprophen. I coulda done that all by myself!

My son fell Saturday on a TS wake jump, left foot came out of binding. So much pain he couldn't put any weight on it. Didn't swell bad or turn colors so we thought it was a sprain. On Monday still looking the same but hurting worse so we called the ortho doc and went in this morining at 8:15. Bone in foot broken just below ankle, will have to have surgery on Friday to install screws for proper healing. I felt bad that we didn't go to the emergency room Saturday. My wife is really mad at me.

Not all ER's or nurses are created equal. There are good and bad experiences with healthcare, as is true with everything in life. I totally understand your frustration and I, too, have been frustrated with healthcare. But truth is healthcare is not what it used to. And you can't accuse all healthcare facilities and personnel of inadequate care. I am not defending anyone but myself as a nurse. I know I am doing what I can to give the absolute best care I can give to my patients. Our OR department has a 96% care satisfaction from patients: we go out of our way to give friendly, efficident, professional care to everyone. I have also worked at a hospital close to Elsinore which is probably where bprince went last weekend. Worst place I have ever worked. I now work at a Kaiser and it is the best job I have ever had. I have my horror stories too...... as a patient/nurse!!!! Just remember there are more of us who want to do a good job and give exceptional patient care than there are those who don't.

George....I would have done the same thing you did.

Thane...it was great to see you up and about at the tourney. How much longer?

It would be nice if we all had crutches or braces at home for some of these injuries... (or the vicodin) then we could wait to see an ortho doc...The ER is there for more of the "stop breathing, uncontrolled bleeding" cases. "Otherwise, have a seat and we'll get to you when we can....."

Don't mean to be rude but here is the lowdown on most Emrgency departments.#1 The word emergency defines priority. A real emergency is someone who could possibly die. These are first come priorities like poss. heart attacks or asthma attacks, allergic reactions where someone can't braathe, hi or low blood sugars blah blah blah you got the idea. Our emergenct esp. the one's i have worked at are full of people who don't have health care so this is where they come too get prescriptions filled so that's why they are crowded. Now too get too the bottom of the list with people like us the last of the emergency's. The diffence between if you get put on the top of the list or the bottom.. A true emergency is is there a chance that this is life thratening or a chance of the person loosing a limb or eye site? If there is you get up on the top priority in other words see us first. A good example would be your leg is swelling up with lots of pain especially with discoleration of the leg because of internal bleeding. Sorry guys but if you just have some pain and some swelling and you need some xrays then you will be sent to your primary MD for follow=up and possible surgery later then you will have too wait. I never put anyone like this on top of the list until the emergency's are transfered out. You would have better luck at an urgent care center. Pain play's a big part of it too . Lot's of pain usually means higher priority because there is more on going damage. Stable injuries usually means nothing except you need too be seen . Now if you have a emergency on the boat you should have your local sheriffs phone # on your cell. A 911 phone call will be routed on a waiting basis then sent too highway patrol, and then routed too local authorities eventually. Another thing too think about is if you have too do CPR on your boat where are you gonna do it at?

"Thanks Kaiser"..........lmao!!

Nice Evan!!

Hey Mobv,
don't feel to bad they prob wouldn't have performed surgery immed. on your son anyways. They sent me home for 4 days due to swelling and i ended up going to my surgery appt. only to be turned away due to the swelling again. That happened 3 times it ended up being a week and some change before i had my surgery last wed. Also the wait times in the er are very unfort. but if you go to a bigger hospital where they receive alot of 911 pt's then that also contributes to the wait. If there is a bed that becomes open and it has your name on it but suddenly one of the pt's Dennis described is being brought in via ambulance than there goes your bed. I was very fortunate to be a paramedic and happen to transport the majority of my pt's to the hospital i went to a couple Sundays ago when i broke my legs. I wasn't even out of the car before i was recognized and from there i was taken straight in and treated but then again i don't think i would have waited very long both of my legs were in a twisted pile on the floor board of my friends Subaru.

(Message edited by crracer on April 19, 2006)

CPR on the floor of the boat if there is room, swim platform, or sun deck. just some ideas. Next question, how many in your crew are CPR certified, not very many if ANY I would suspect. Its easy training and you can normally get it free. You can save a life!

My Hubby is a flight nurse so I think anyone riding in my boat is good to go.

except for the fact he has been oh-so clear that he is off-duty when on the boat... so you just arent allowed to get hurt.

Yeah, he says that... but I've seen him fly into action when we thought Tom's daughter had really hurt herself after a fall. His full of bologna. (Sorry Sweetie, I spilled your beans)

It would be interesting to see CPR on a direct drive, or on a swim platform when it is 3 inches under water,and no room room for the rescuers. It might be difficult on a v-drive. I've never really thought about it before. Kaiser huh! That's a whole nother story all though iv'e heard they are getting better. If your on a jet ski and you have an accident you need to have a mortician. Yeh! Nobody get hurt thats the best solution..

Even if you had torn an ACL, PCL, MCL, or ANY OTHER ligament, you would have had the same treatment. You usually get X-rays, and whenthey come back fine, the doc, (not the nurse) SHOULD come and let you know what is going on. Then you will be sent home with a pain killer AND Motrin (which helps with the inflammation, taking the swelling down), and likely crutches. If this gets better in a few days, GREAT, just a sprain. If it is not getting better in a few days, you will likely need a MRI, which gives you better looks at the soft tissues in the knee, including the ligaments and cartilage. These are tough to get in a hurry, and usually need to be scheduled out a few days to a week or so. The MRI also gives you the best images if there is little to no swelling. Those reasons are why you did not get an MRI while in the ED that day. If you were to get one that day, it would have likely to be repeated since there was blood and other fluid in your knee. (About the only way to get an MRI in the ED is if you have a neurological, not an extremity, EMERGENCY. A few ligaments/cartilage is NOT an emergency.

You guys are all right on..It's nice having a discussion with other health care professionals. I think people are using ER's too much as off hour doctor's offices. That is what is crowding our ER's. Plus the fact that Calif is going to need to start pushing people off the cliffs in order to have room to live. It's a huge problem but it is here to stay. When I was 8 I broke my arm on a Friday pm and my mom called Monday am for an appointment with the doc. ER's were for people who were dying.

Yeah I hope you have insurance. I got a serious concussion snowboarding a few months ago, and got rushed to the ER by ambulance (I have no recollection of this occuring LOL!). But I just go the bill for Ambulance, Catscan, and hospital time (7 hours) and it came to a grand total of...$6500. Luckily my mom has great medical coverage so I paid nothing.

Bob, if i was there with you (like a good crewman should have been) I would have told you to shake it off and be a man! Just Kidding.

I can only imagine that the time spent at the ER was much worse than any of the pain.

ouch that sounds really painful