emergency rooms

And yet the bill shows up a prompt two days later.

Is your kid okay, at least?

Last time I was there, I had a 180/125 BP, and ended up waiting an hour and a half for anyone--an orderly, stray doctor, etc--to come by and ask how I was doing.

After I got home and all was well, I told my girlfriend if this happens again, that hour and a half would be better spent driving our asses to Canada.

I had to go to the hospital last year with a severe stomach virus. I'd been vomiting all day so my leg and back muscles were so sore that I couldn't even sit in a chair. I had to slump down onto the floor, which was cold and hard, and dirty, with little hairballs all around.

My mother asked if they could put me in a room to wait and they said none were available. They wouldn't even give me a blanket. My mom found a sweater in her car and I was lying on that. I was shivering, heaving loudly and puking bile every few minutes. They gave me a plastic bag.

I lay on the floor wretching and complaining of the pain for almost 2 hours. When they finally wheeled me to a room we passed multiple rooms with empty beds on wheels. In the room I was given dilaudid intravenously and within 5 minutes I was feeling better.

He left with one less arm and one less leg.

My charge was $70. I had insurance. Otherwise I don't think I'd have gone.

Last weekend I saw a private emergency room in a pretty busy shopping area here in town. I was kind of perplexed, and mentioned it to my dad. He then told me he had seen a few around town as well, and between here and the Mexico border when going to his deer lease.

I asked a nurse friend about this, and she said it's the way of the future. More and more private emergency rooms are going to be opening up in major cities, and Houston is getting a rash of them because we have so many damn medical people in the city. She said that if something ever happens just get a lift to one of the private emergency rooms, and let insurance cover it.

Umm wtf? Stuff like this you often dont even get charged for here in germany. Minor injuries, really quick stuff is often charged at 20 euro or less, and in my experience if you got along well with the doc, he considers it his professional duty to just help you and send you on your way, no questions asked, no money needed.
70 bucks is just capitalizing on your helplessness.

Yep. I used to go to an Internal Medicine location a few years ago, they had emergency services and a 24 hour hot line. I never used it, but it was nice that they offered this.

Yeah, but you live in a socialist hell-state. We live in wonderful capitalism.

(I'm being sarcastic).

In Germany, emergency rooms cure you!


Ok, that didn't work out how I wanted it too...

Yeah, damn socialists with medical care...oh, wait, I'm Canadian, never mind.

You're Canadian? Well, shouldn't you be crawling across the border to experience the wonders of our system?

My first year in college (many years ago) I came down with a pretty bad flu. I didn't know what it was as I was from Florida and had never gotten sick before. I just thought I was tired. In any case, I ended up passing out in class and I figured I should go see someone about it. I take myself to the emergency room and fill out whatever paperwork needed to be filled out. Hours go by. I'm hunched over a waiting room chair, barely able to speak, unable to get myself to the front desk to ask what's taking so long, and end up passing out again. A few more hours go by and finally the front desk attendant notices. She asks my name so she can check on my paperwork and comes back saying that my file had attached itself to the back of someone else's. After almost half a day (literally) of sitting in the waiting room, they finally move me to a room and give me some fluids and I was released maybe an hour later. I can't remember how much they charged me, but I was uninsured so I'm sure a few hundred bucks. Needless to say, I've never gone back to a doctor. I hate them and the way they treat people, and fortunately I've never needed to.

I would but getting to the border through the ten feet of snow in the sub -40C temperatures minus my favourite dog sled team isn't the easiest thing in the world. So, I'll just sit hear in my igloo, watch hockey, eat whale blubber and poutine and dream of a better life south of the border.

Oh, for a simple two-party system of elections...

I have ate enough poutine to send me to an emergency room ten times over. The meal of titans.

The other Candian food to send you to the emergency room, Nanaimo (sp?) Bars.


My room mate had migraines a couple years back, and seeing as how he can't grow up and find a decent job with pay or benefits, ended up paying a couple grand for an extended stay in the hospital. They didn't even discover what was causing the migraines, but he became incredibly sick during the stay. He still gets horrible migraines, almost on a weekly basis, but refuses to go to the emergency room again just to find out the tests were inconclusive.

My recommendation to see a doctor in Jersey for a battery of tests goes unheard.

My wife has actually banned Nanaimo Bars from our house as they just get into our mouths. We once ate a panful in one sitting. They're the elder ones of desserts.

We got lucky the last time we took our son to the ER. We were into the actual ER in a few minutes. Sometimes the suburbs aren't so bad.

Nanaimo bars...these fascinate me. I shall have to import them using my Canadian mules, of which I have an army both varied and vast!

Hmm, mentioned this in another thread like this one, but what the hell; I have gout. I discovered this after my foot swelled up to the size of a grapefruit and three different doctors came in and out before giving me correct pills that made the swelling and pain go dead right away.

Few months later, it swells up again, and I'm screwed. The drug I need you need a prescription for, and I had no way to get a hold of the doctor who prescribed it in the first place. Luckily, I knew the name of the drug, but had no way of getting it without going to a clinic of some kind. After waiting for hours, I finally get let in, and before he could say a word, I explained the situation: I knew what was wrong with me, I knew what pills I needed, all I needed from him was a prescription. Still he looked me over nine ways to sunday before giving me said prescription, which ended up costing me about ninety bucks.

The irony here is that, a good doctor friend of mine told me (free of charge) that I didn't need the fancy dancy pills; IBprofin (or however you spell it) would do the trick, cost much less and I best of all I didn't need a prescription for it. When my gout flared up again I did what he said and lo and behold, he was right.

Why would they do that? Why would they make me take a more expensive set of pills that I'd need a prescription for when a regular, cheaper over the counter drug worked just as fine, if not better?

I can tell that, in your mind, you're so close to the answer.

Come on...think diabolical thoughts of doom. You'll get it.

It may have something to do with not living in a socialistic hell-state like germany, but a wonderful free market capitalism like the USA