On the patient side at the ER

I was a patient in the ER last week. It was a fun, yet unfortunate weekend.

Friday night we had a delayed New Years Party with Keiko's Japanese friends and families. It made for a party with 6 adults and 3.5 kids including Ao (keiko's nickname for our child). It was a mix of American and Japanese games but it is great to see Keiko make good friends in all the cities we have lived in.

Saturday my brother, Chris, and his family came down. We always have a good time together. Chris's wife, Corie, does an excellent job of talking with Keiko; she makes sure Keiko understands everything she says. Chris and I generally play with their baby, Emily, and play video games a lot. Good times all around. for pics see: http://chrisandcorie.blogspot.com/2010/01/last-weekend-we-went-to-visit-uncle.html

Emily was unfortunately a little sick... But we still managed to have a Japanese BBQ which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Unfortunately, starting Sunday mid-morning I started to feel a little sick and nauseated. It got worse and worse until without going unto details, I lost a lot of fluid. I'm not sure if it was something I ate or caught it from my cute niece, but it was bad. I started to get pins and needles throughout most of my body like my whole body was asleep and it was painful. This has never happened before so I called my boss, who is an infectious disease doctor. She instructed me to go the ER.

I have terrible insurance. Med student insurance seems to be pretty bad on the whole. It generally doesn't cover anything until you have paid a ton of money first (a large deductible.) So I avoid going to the doctor like the plague.

However, I was getting worse and worse and had some unusual symptoms and couldn't keep any fluid down for about 5-6 hours. I finally had a glass of some sugar-water but only felt worse. So I had some people from my church come over and give me a priesthood blessing. I was so weak at this point I couldn't walk so they had to carry me to the car to take me to the ER. During the car ride, I started to feel better and better. By the time we reached the ER, I was able to open my eyes and carry a conversation. By the time the nurse saw me, I started to have "buyer's remorse" as I called it about going to the ER. They gave me an IV and I began to feel pretty chipper in about an hour. I ended up being a pretty annoying patient because I knew what I had and REALLY didn't want any tests that I would have to pay for so I rejected about anything they offered except the IV.

I had some fun talking with the physician's assistant who examined me and reviewed some of my medicine skills. Luckily, we were out of the hospital a few hours after we arrived.

I wonder if I'll run into patients who really regret ever coming to the hospital the moment they arrive...