Don't panic. This is a tale in which it turns out there was no need to go to the ER at all. I cut my finger Friday night while slicing onions and bandaged it up without much thought. It was bloody but didn't hurt.
I took the Bandaid off tonight after cooking dinner and it was still gushing blood and it stung. It had sort of splayed open. Sam very kindly offered to stitch it up himself, which I declined, thank you very much.
The thing is, due to a bureaucratic snafu which I will not bore you with my health insurance is going to expire tomorrow until they decide whether or not they in fact should not have cancelled it after all in two months time. Hooray for the American Healthcare system!!! When I asked the woman at the health office what I should do if something happens to me while my paperwork sits on someone's desk for the next two months she said "got to any ER and they'll treat you". Um??? This is exactly what is bankrupting our healthcare system. And I'm pretty sure that ERs don't administer chemo or prescription meds so I have to avoid any illness that involves either of those.
The irony is that I don't even care. I had such an atrocious experience when my health insurance refused to pay for Lula after I diligently paid my premiums for a decade that it seems pointless to have it. Insurance is supposed to provide you with security but it seems more like a scam akin to 3 card monte.
But I digress. I worried that my finger might get worse and that I would feel stupid for not taking care of it sooner so I walked down to the ER. I brought my iPad. I watched a movie. I peed in a cup (unnecessarily, it turns out). 3 hours later I saw a doctor who looked at it and said " oh, we might have put a stitch in there yesterday but because it's been 24 hours we won't do anything to it". Turns out the risk of infection is worse when you do get stitches at that point than if you don't.
I didn't want to leave empty handed so I asked for a tetanus shot and I got a wonderful parting gift from the nurse:
I took the Bandaid off tonight after cooking dinner and it was still gushing blood and it stung. It had sort of splayed open. Sam very kindly offered to stitch it up himself, which I declined, thank you very much.
The thing is, due to a bureaucratic snafu which I will not bore you with my health insurance is going to expire tomorrow until they decide whether or not they in fact should not have cancelled it after all in two months time. Hooray for the American Healthcare system!!! When I asked the woman at the health office what I should do if something happens to me while my paperwork sits on someone's desk for the next two months she said "got to any ER and they'll treat you". Um??? This is exactly what is bankrupting our healthcare system. And I'm pretty sure that ERs don't administer chemo or prescription meds so I have to avoid any illness that involves either of those.
The irony is that I don't even care. I had such an atrocious experience when my health insurance refused to pay for Lula after I diligently paid my premiums for a decade that it seems pointless to have it. Insurance is supposed to provide you with security but it seems more like a scam akin to 3 card monte.
But I digress. I worried that my finger might get worse and that I would feel stupid for not taking care of it sooner so I walked down to the ER. I brought my iPad. I watched a movie. I peed in a cup (unnecessarily, it turns out). 3 hours later I saw a doctor who looked at it and said " oh, we might have put a stitch in there yesterday but because it's been 24 hours we won't do anything to it". Turns out the risk of infection is worse when you do get stitches at that point than if you don't.
I didn't want to leave empty handed so I asked for a tetanus shot and I got a wonderful parting gift from the nurse: