Quote from: Poppy post_id=431909 time=1640359613 user_id=3287
This post contains a lot of words. If that is not your thing it's ok, no really it's ok.



 Around 8 p.m., I start getting slight cramping on my right side and assume that the probiotic I had taken was causing a lot of gas and that I shouldn't take it anymore. The cramps were getting stronger by 10 p.m. I go to bed at 11 p.m. because the cramps are unbearable. At 12 a.m., I get mild nausea and waves of pain down my entire right side, and I suspect that the turkey we had at the restaurant was contaminated, and I contracted food poisoning. At 2 a.m., I'm curled up in a fetal position, hoping the pain will go away. At 3 a.m., I try to roll onto my left side and get the need to chuck my cookies and race to the bathroom, where I grip the toilet and dry heave for over a minute. The pain is stabbing and is not getting better. At this point, I decide that taking an ambulance ride to the emergency room sounds like a lot of fun, so I dial 911.



 They arrive within 10 minutes, so I decide to wear jeans and my long sleeve pajama top to make a fashion statement at the hospital. I get on the stretcher and they load me into the ambulance where they check my blood sugar level, then blood pressure, and then they ask where the pain is, and I reply my right side is sending out tidal waves of pain and nausea. I also can't stop shivering, so they wrap me in blankets and turn up the heat before taking me to the ER. They wheel me into this dark corridor where they appear to be undertaking construction work. I'm not sure if they give me the ambulance blanket or if I just take it, but I have it with me and then sit in a chair.



There is only this one nurse and no one else in sight, and she swabs my nose and promises to return soon. So here I am in this dark corridor, shaking like a leaf and it's like something out of the Travel Channel's Haunted Hospitals. I keep look up and down the halls and see no one and half expect a ghost to walk on by.



  After about 30 minutes, she returns and says I am clear and gives me a sticker that says "covid free," which I stick on my pajama shirt, and then she brings me to the ER waiting area, where I sit down again. It's about 4 a.m. at this point. About 20 minutes later, I am summoned and ordered to lie down on the exam table in this room, the nurse begins pressing all over my stomach and abdomen and asks whether this or that hurts, to which I respond, "Not really." Then she asks if I still have my gallbladder and appendix, to which I respond, "Yes."



 Then she hands me a cup and tells me to pee in it. So I do that, then return to the ER waiting room. During this time, I'm gripping my blankey, trying not to move, and take notice of where a garbage can is located in case I start dry heaving again. I also consider collapsing to the floor in agony and screaming in the hope of getting a room sooner, but then I remember my friend who did just that and did not receive a room any quicker, and they probably had him wait even longer for doing so. Another nurse summons me ten minutes later for a slew of blood draws. After around another hour, I eventually receive the call to follow this nurse to a room, where I get on the bed and that cardiac monitor is hooked up.



 The nurse then inserts an IV and I don't feel anything. She was a great nurse.  A female doctor then enters and begins poking me again, asking if I normally shake like this, to which I respond that I do not. She asks what is my pain level and I say 8.



 She says I'm scheduled for a Cat scan.  So they roll me into the Cat scan room, inject some dye into my IV, and slide me onto the machine. I'm finished in two minutes and wheeled back to my room. After about 45 minutes, the doctor returns and informs me that I have blood in my urine, my right kidney is inflamed, and I have a kidney stone that is working its way out. Then she starts some pain medication and tells me they're going to give me a second bag of fluids.



 So all you can really do is close your eyes for several hours as the IV fluid bags gently dribble down. The doctor then returns and gives me a strainer to pee in and tells me to take Tylenol every 4 hours for discomfort, drink plenty of water, and it should pass. I don't have a transportation back home, because honestly I did not want to call anyone and then try to find them in the parking lot or wait for hours for them to figure out how to even get into the Hospital parking lot since they had the main entrance blocked for more construction. The doctor says she'll call an ambulance to pick me up. After a few more hours, I'm discharged and sit next to the nurses station until the ambulance drivers arrive.  I get back on the stretcher and am brought back home at around 6.30pm. After three days of scarcely eating anything and drinking a lot of water, I notice this black thing drop into the strainer so I put it into the specimen bottle they give you and look at it and its the stone. My right side still sort of ached for another week after that.



Interesting Facts



The wait in the ER at 3 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving was around 2 hours. In the waiting area, there were maybe four individuals ahead of me. It's reasonable to estimate that the wait time is now closer to 4 or 5 hours, especially if you go in the afternoon. Because it is the largest hospital in the area, most people choose it over the smaller hospitals.





If you have a sore throat or something similar, they recommend you go to a walk-in clinic. I contacted one to see how long the wait time was for something like a throat culture, and they said 3 to 4 hours. So covid, combined with a nursing shortage, has made getting seen by a doctor in a reasonable length of time much more difficult. They used to provide same-day care at this one medical building, but they discontinued it owing to a lack of employees. Most walk-in clinics are hit or miss depending on their online ratings.

Quote from: Poppy post_id=431909 time=1640359613 user_id=3287
This post contains a lot of words. If that is not your thing it's ok, no really it's ok.



 Around 8 p.m., I start getting slight cramping on my right side and assume that the probiotic I had taken was causing a lot of gas and that I shouldn't take it anymore. The cramps were getting stronger by 10 p.m. I go to bed at 11 p.m. because the cramps are unbearable. At 12 a.m., I get mild nausea and waves of pain down my entire right side, and I suspect that the turkey we had at the restaurant was contaminated, and I contracted food poisoning. At 2 a.m., I'm curled up in a fetal position, hoping the pain will go away. At 3 a.m., I try to roll onto my left side and get the need to chuck my cookies and race to the bathroom, where I grip the toilet and dry heave for over a minute. The pain is stabbing and is not getting better. At this point, I decide that taking an ambulance ride to the emergency room sounds like a lot of fun, so I dial 911.



 They arrive within 10 minutes, so I decide to wear jeans and my long sleeve pajama top to make a fashion statement at the hospital. I get on the stretcher and they load me into the ambulance where they check my blood sugar level, then blood pressure, and then they ask where the pain is, and I reply my right side is sending out tidal waves of pain and nausea. I also can't stop shivering, so they wrap me in blankets and turn up the heat before taking me to the ER. They wheel me into this dark corridor where they appear to be undertaking construction work. I'm not sure if they give me the ambulance blanket or if I just take it, but I have it with me and then sit in a chair.



There is only this one nurse and no one else in sight, and she swabs my nose and promises to return soon. So here I am in this dark corridor, shaking like a leaf and it's like something out of the Travel Channel's Haunted Hospitals. I keep look up and down the halls and see no one and half expect a ghost to walk on by.



  After about 30 minutes, she returns and says I am clear and gives me a sticker that says "covid free," which I stick on my pajama shirt, and then she brings me to the ER waiting area, where I sit down again. It's about 4 a.m. at this point. About 20 minutes later, I am summoned and ordered to lie down on the exam table in this room, the nurse begins pressing all over my stomach and abdomen and asks whether this or that hurts, to which I respond, "Not really." Then she asks if I still have my gallbladder and appendix, to which I respond, "Yes."



 Then she hands me a cup and tells me to pee in it. So I do that, then return to the ER waiting room. During this time, I'm gripping my blankey, trying not to move, and take notice of where a garbage can is located in case I start dry heaving again. I also consider collapsing to the floor in agony and screaming in the hope of getting a room sooner, but then I remember my friend who did just that and did not receive a room any quicker, and they probably had him wait even longer for doing so. Another nurse summons me ten minutes later for a slew of blood draws. After around another hour, I eventually receive the call to follow this nurse to a room, where I get on the bed and that cardiac monitor is hooked up.



 The nurse then inserts an IV and I don't feel anything. She was a great nurse.  A female doctor then enters and begins poking me again, asking if I normally shake like this, to which I respond that I do not. She asks what is my pain level and I say 8.



 She says I'm scheduled for a Cat scan.  So they roll me into the Cat scan room, inject some dye into my IV, and slide me onto the machine. I'm finished in two minutes and wheeled back to my room. After about 45 minutes, the doctor returns and informs me that I have blood in my urine, my right kidney is inflamed, and I have a kidney stone that is working its way out. Then she starts some pain medication and tells me they're going to give me a second bag of fluids.



 So all you can really do is close your eyes for several hours as the IV fluid bags gently dribble down. The doctor then returns and gives me a strainer to pee in and tells me to take Tylenol every 4 hours for discomfort, drink plenty of water, and it should pass. I don't have a transportation back home, because honestly I did not want to call anyone and then try to find them in the parking lot or wait for hours for them to figure out how to even get into the Hospital parking lot since they had the main entrance blocked for more construction. The doctor says she'll call an ambulance to pick me up. After a few more hours, I'm discharged and sit next to the nurses station until the ambulance drivers arrive.  I get back on the stretcher and am brought back home at around 6.30pm. After three days of scarcely eating anything and drinking a lot of water, I notice this black thing drop into the strainer so I put it into the specimen bottle they give you and look at it and its the stone. My right side still sort of ached for another week after that.



Interesting Facts



The wait in the ER at 3 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving was around 2 hours. In the waiting area, there were maybe four individuals ahead of me. It's reasonable to estimate that the wait time is now closer to 4 or 5 hours, especially if you go in the afternoon. Because it is the largest hospital in the area, most people choose it over the smaller hospitals.





If you have a sore throat or something similar, they recommend you go to a walk-in clinic. I contacted one to see how long the wait time was for something like a throat culture, and they said 3 to 4 hours. So covid, combined with a nursing shortage, has made getting seen by a doctor in a reasonable length of time much more difficult. They used to provide same-day care at this one medical building, but they discontinued it owing to a lack of employees. Most walk-in clinics are hit or miss depending on their online ratings.

Quote from: Bricktop post_id=431956 time=1640471171 user_id=1560
Stoned???



 





(You'll get it when you sober up and read the OP)

Quote from: Poppy post_id=431910 time=1640359630 user_id=3287
https://i.ibb.co/8YMkc6Y/stone.jpg">