Hospitals

Warning: If you are easily sickened maybe you should not read this!
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Today I had to go to the emergency room. First of all this is always a gloomy and expensive situation but the Estes Park ER is really quite dismal. While most of the people are friendly enough they didn't give me my own room-which when you go because you may have a case of giardia is not a pretty picture. The nurse who is a dude which is totally fine, I just didn't want to give the impression the nurse was female as is assumed of the profession nurse, fixes my I.V. digging around in my vein to get my blood out for tests and such. I have had a lot of blood taken and several I.V's put in-but this one was extremely painful still hurting even tonight. And I have a nurse in training watching the whole thing go down-Neat. It's cool you can watch me be sick and miserable. When the nurse tells me to stick out my tongue he makes a sort of "eww" sound and says, "That looks bad, like a helamonster dried out in the desert." I take that to be a bad thing. But what is to be expected when I haven't been able to drink much of anything for a week? Dry helamonster it is. It took three bags of fluid to rehydrate me to the point that I actually had to pee.

But worst of all the ER doc (who I have seen before and is a total a-hole) doesn't even really believe me when I am telling him my symptoms. "So you think this is like a diarrhea and vomiting thing then." I'm like well I'm not the doctor but since those are my symptoms I'm gonna have to say yes. I don't say this, but I do say yes I believe this is what I am experiencing. I explain to him that I am extremely dehydrated because this has been going on for a week and I can't keep anything down that that is why I came in. I feel I have to justify myself to him-justify the fact that I am ill. "And this isn't related to your endometriosis or interstitial cystitis?" "well it feels nothing like the pain or symptoms that come along with either of those issues so no." "And still there is no way you could be pregnant?" ARGH! "No," I respond, but my anger is muted by the fact that I am on anti-nausea medication. "So we can just give you some anti-nausea medication to take home and you can hydrate orally?" "If I can keep it down, I threw up all my medicine this morning." I don't actually say this I just think it and nod and smile. I want to punch him in the face for not believing me, want to explain to him that I would not go on this long painful venture to see his stupid ass if I didn't have too. But I nod and smile-home is really where I should be anyway-much more comfortable and he won't be there.

Lastly they made me take stool sample cups home to collect specimens. Awesome! I asked if they would give me some gloves, I change diapers for a living and I don't go anywhere near those kids' poop without them, why would I go that close to my own.

At least they are remodeling so if I ever have to go back it won't suck quite as much.