The Emergency Room, One More Saturday Night.

Just a warning: This is not a fun blog. This is a frustrating blog about a frustrating time, a personal rant channeling personal frustrations.

One day I woke up and I was achy all over, stuffed up, couldn’t swallow or speak, and had a fever from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. I would wait until the fever broke before I went to bed which ranged from midnight to six am (a different time each night). So after four consecutive days of these symptoms and high fevers ranging from 102 to 104, I decided to take a trip to the Emergency Room. Everyone’s favorite place to visit on Sunday morning at 1am!

My parents and I chose University of Maryland. Its location is at the downtown business/tourist district of the city. UM meant that there were good odds not to encounter the gun shot victims, stabbings, or severe beatings that would occur the “more urban neighborhoods”. I’m not trying to separate myself from others misfortune but I’ve been to emergency rooms where people are screaming and bleeding everywhere. No way I want that when death is knocking at my door. After all, I’m trying to keep my spirits high.

So the E.R. needs a W somewhere in the middle. Something like: E.W.R. the Eternal Waiting Room. I showed up at 1am, register, explain my symptoms, see a nurse and then make my way to the waiting room. I waited…waited…. and waited until 5:00 am and then I was admitted into my own room within the ER itself.

There in my private alcove I waited for an hour until someone made an appearance. No real reason to wait that long. During that hour I was listening to two male doctors hit on a few Asian girls. They were trying to make them laugh by saying “Marylander’s have accents too, you should come up to where I live in Carroll County. We talk a little South like, can you tell”. AHHHHH FUCK YOU! If I could have lifted myself out of bed, I would have strangled that man with his stethoscope.

My first contact with a person inside the ER was a nurse showed up around 6 AM. She promised me she would be right back with Tylenol to relive the pain and bring my fever down. She didn’t show up until 8am. In fact she didn’t show up at all, it was a different nurse. The next thing I remember (I was a little out of it) around 6:30 a cocky fucking intern showed up and said “so what’s your story” in a bitchy tone (a fucking granola earth girl with an attitude… isn’t that an oxymoron?) She checked me out, took a few throat samples, and departed. I never saw her again. I finally saw a real doctor 20 minutes later and she performed the same routine as the intern. She mentioned that she would be back as soon as the throat samples were analyzed. She returned an hour later to inform me that I had a throat/tonsil infection (not strep) which was causing all of my pain and suffering. She was kind enough to give me a prescription and informed me that I must wait until her boss gave the okay on her diagnosis. That translates into MORE WAITING. Finally at 8:45 I was discharged.

The lesson to be learned 7hrs and 45 min later. Do not ever go to a University Hospital. University = Teaching Hospital = TIME CONSUMING and ADDITIONAL PAIN AND SUFFERING. Instead of leaving healthy, I took a few physical and mental health steps backward from the lack of sleep. From now on I'll take my chances with the gun shot victims, stabbings, and beatings.