ER Griping

Last night I held my boyfriend's hand as he writhed in pain next to me while trying to put on a tough face. We were in the ER--my second time there in a month, a different reason but still the transportation--and the waiting room was entirely empty. We were told "any minute now" every hour on the hour, and soon it was 6am. Neither of us would be on time to work, that was for certain. And while I have a precious few vacation/sick time hours left, his current job does not allow him the luxury.

He would nod off next to me for a couple of minutes, only to wake again with the pain moments later. The frustration and anger built up in both of us. How busy could they be with only us in the waiting room? Why couldn't they DO something?

For a while the only other person in the waiting room was a homeless man who had come in trying to get warm. He had garbage bags with random articles of clothing that he seemed to be taking an inventory of. Then he left and it was just us again.

Maybe it was because we were two young, able-bodied 20-somethings. Maybe they assumed we only wanted to get our hands on some prescriptions. Maybe the invisible ambulances that the front desk kept telling us were arriving--we were right next to the ambulance bay and saw none--had too important people waiting to be seen. I tried to comfort him best I could, while trying not to freak myself out over the fact that my seemingly indestructible 6'5 boyfriend was experiencing pain that made him keel over in pain every few minutes.

Once we were called, after 5 hours of waiting, his temperature and blood pressure were taken, and then we waited another stretch of time I will estimate at about an hour and a half. Finally a doctor saw him, and the entire transaction took ten minutes. He was told it was a pinched nerve, and given a prescription. The doctor was gentle and apologetic, but seemed to be suggesting that the pain he was experiencing did not warrant an ER trip to begin with. He seemed concerned that my boyfriend had self-medicated with painkillers from a previous injury and I almost heard a condescending tone. I gritted my teeth and thanked him. During this exchange three elderly people were pushed past our room in stretchers, all seemingly awake and responsive and some even smiling. I wondered how many grandmas had taken a fall during Christmas celebrations and if elderly people should consider not living in homes with stairs. Then I felt like a bad person for thinking ill of the elderly.

The entire time I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being put off just because we are young. I feel this sort of discrimination regularly, but I also feel like complaining about it would fall on deaf ears because of a sort of "young privilege" or something. Like how I cannot compare my years of people scoffing "EAT A SANDWICH!" at me to someone being teased for being overweight because I happen to have a slimmer body type. I'm young, I shouldn't complain, and I should respect my elders and let them go before me in all things in life. My chance will come. Right.

I cannot count how many times I have gone to work feeling ill, only to have a smiling coworker say "party too hard last night, eh?" as they noticed the bags under my eyes or that I looked somewhat off--typically on a day where I choose to not wear makeup, ugh. I feel like whenever I am sick for any reason these days, it is assumed it is because I have "partied too hard." Yes, occasionally I have to deal with a hangover. But, as a somewhat responsible young adult, I try to keep my "partying" contained to the weekends and NOT on a work night.

I've heard stories of young people faking illness to get meds. And older people too. But do they wait for six hours, or do they give up? I don't know. Maybe that's the minimum wait to make sure you're not going to sell them or whatever--as he did end up getting painkillers or some sort. I don't know how the ER works, and I understand this is just going to look like me complaining. The fact that a ten minute meeting with a doctor needed to wait six hours is just mind boggling to me.

I do hope everyone in the ER that night was able to be discharged quickly. I'm just irritated I suppose. And sleepy. Very. Very. Sleepy.