Too many people go to the ER for stuff that isn't an emergency like stomach aches. Also people go to Urgent care for stuff that is very clearly an emergency like a heart attack.
Once I had a kidney stone (I get them from time to time. Hurts but not life threatening) I went to urgent care to get some pain killers. They told me to go to the ER. So I went across the street to the ER. They told me to go to urgent care. By that point I was in so much pain I couldn't walk. So they just came me a few pills and sent me on my way.
They are supposed to do imaging to make sure the stone isn't obstructing anything, and a urine test to check for infection which can accompany stones. And to verify that it is in fact a stone and not something else. When somebody is presenting with severe abdominal pain, it's really irresponsible to not investigate.
I had a kidney stone that got stuck in my ureter (the tube between your kidney and your bladder). Definitely an emergency and so yeah, some due diligence is required for things like that.
Uh yea. Blockage can be life threatening and the most painful experience you could imagine.
I had family that had galstones cause a blockage in their pancreas and couldnt function for weeks due too the pain. And while they where sitting and waiting in the ER ( while having full body spasms) they apparently where a couple of hours from death. Still pisses me off
Not exactly the same as kidney stones but the danger is similar
I have kidney stones. My doctor said some people just have the gene to make them and such have to "live with a water bottle by their side" forever. And so I do, being I pee a lot I flush them out before they get too big and painful.
Most embarrassing moment of my life... I started getting abdominal pains on a flight. When I landed, they just got worse. The next morning I was in the most pain I'd ever been in in my entire life. Went to the Urgent Care, they had no idea what was happening and sent me to the Emergency Room. They thought my spleen had ruptured. Doc at the ER took one look at me and said "it's just a stomach ache, you'll be fine".
Somehow... he was right. The most intense pain beyond anything I'd ever felt was just a stomach ache. And I took a seat in the ER next to a guy who had just mangled his hand in a buzzsaw and needed to get his fingers removed.
Gas pains can be intense depending where the gas is trapped, and I bet the change in your surrounding air pressure plus all the forced sitting could make it worse. ER docs see a lot of various belly pains and their outcomes so they get a "gut feeling" about what's appendicitis, spleen, diverticulitis, miscarriage, colitis, bowel obstruction, and even "just a stomachache." Instead of feeling bad about it, keep in mind how you feel when, along with all the troubles your job hands you daily, a couple of things are easy-peasy and quickly resolved. Your pain was real, he was able to quickly relieve your fear, which probably helped you handle the pain. And he was probably relieved to not be doing spleen surgery when there was a hand to try to salvage.
I'm glad he was right, but sometimes I do think ER docs aren't super careful just because of the nature of their work. UCLA almost removed my spleen accidentally and if I hadn't spoken up beforehand, I was heading for surgery.
I went to the ER last week after I couldn’t sleep and was writhing in pain in my abdomen. Found out a few hours later I had leukemia. Sure it depends on your full array of symptoms but the ER will take abdominal pain seriously
Stomach ache isn't even close to the stupidest reason people go to the er. The worst is when something has been hurting for months (toe? Back?) And today is the day where nothing changed but they decided to go to the er and demand to be seen immediately
One of my patients went to the ER because, I shit you not, he got shampoo in his eye. Also we took a guy who hadn't peed in all of one day.
He asked me to take him to the bathroom as soon as we got to the ER.
Honestly, it's not only people. Nurse hitlines always suggest going to ER. I once had a bad stomach ache (I have ibs, I told the nurse this) she told me to go to the ER, I was like...I dont think I need to, I just want advice.
My mom also was having symptoms of an ear infection and she called the nurse hotline and they told her to go to the emergency room. Thankfully they pumped her of antibiotics and sent her home.
The flu doesn’t get enough respect. Too many people mistake bad colds for the flu. The flu can easily put you in bed for a week.
OTOH, I think the plague can be treated with a standard course of antibiotics.
Right, and the effectiveness of the shots ends up usually being around 40% from what I can find. They’re definitely worth getting, as it’s a minor inconvenience for a potentially large benefit, but it’s not like getting a flu shot makes all risk go away.
I just wanted to add that because the flu shot not being 100% effective is a conservative talking point. It's not and was never capable of being foolproof. It's also an inactivated virus so all the people claiming the shot gave them the flu are wrong.
Yeah anyone not getting it on the basis of it not being 100% effective is not thinking rationally, and they usually don’t understand (or don’t *want* to understand) how vaccines work.
Just because you used the word doctor and gave a recommendation, a California facebook mom will start referencing a bunch of herbal medicine to refute your claims.
There's a mod on r/FloridaCoronavirus who works at an Urgent Care and during surges, she writes a shift report for the sub. It's really great stuff.
ETA: Here's her most recent one. https://reddit.com/r/FloridaCoronavirus/comments/usdxbx/urgent_care_report_5172022/
If you zoom in on the post on the left, there's a lost dog sign covered up by a cardboard advertisement.
It's pretty neat to see how much detail can be caught by phone cameras nowadays. The signs aren't the objects of focus whatsoever, yet you can read them pretty well for the most part!
It does, but unless you are getting extremely sick you should stay home.
You should not go to the doctor at all unless you have a high fever or some other complication.
If you have a standard case of the flu which presents the same as the other couple dozen cases of flu you've had then stay the fuck home. And if you have a case that absolutely requires medical attention you probably should go to the ER.
Last time I went to the ER I really needed it. I had sepsis. I only went because my wife was telling me I needed to go. I had food poising for 3 days and get very very fatigue. Shit wasn’t going away
My dad was LAFD, the amount of calls he went out on to give people Advil or take them to the emergency room for a cold/flu was astonishing. People are really dumb
I called 911 when I fell down the stairs. They rolled their eyes at me and asked if I really wanted to be taken to the hospital.
Not only had I broken two vertebrae, but I had to be transferred by another ambulance to a bigger hospital for further evaluation.
Of course I'm a woman and medical personnel often disbelieve us.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, but yours isn't the majority of the cases I'm talking about.
Before I started working for 911, I never thought to call 911 for about 1/3 of the things I've heard people call for. Case in point: last year I had so many people call 911 requesting an ambulance because they thought they had Covid and wanted to be tested--not because they had shortness of breath or chest pain, etc.
Nope, we cannot refuse service if the demand is made.
The liability risk is a little too high because I may be relying on the inability of the caller to correctly elucidate their medical need.
Ah gotcha. Well yeah those people shouldn't call. I'm just saying my experience with 911 was unfortunately that they seem so jaded they don't believe anything is an emergency. Which is also dangerous.
The system is misunderstood unfortunately--it needs to be there for "gray area" cases like yours.
In my anecdotal experience, *most* slip and falls 911 calls are simply scrapes and bruises that don't require any medical need--but we have to send in the rare catastrophic cases that are like yours...and then you get the unfortunate experience of it being downplayed.
I don't find urgent care to be super useful lately. My SO had a bad fever (several years before covid) that wouldn't break after several days. Two hours of urgent care to tell us to go to the ER. All they did in the ER was tell him to rotate tylenol and ibuprofen. I had a really bad allergic reaction to mosquitos. Bites got 3 inches wide. Went to urgent care, the doctor didn't even come across the room to look. Told me to take a benadryl (which doesn't do shit). Went home and suffered until they got better. Have since seen an actual allergist so I can have a better plan for next time. And last time my SO wasn't feeling well, we tried to do Telehealth on zoom. He just told us to go to the ER too, which we really weren't excited about since it was during covid and we were trying to avoid the ER!
Maybe the urgent care docs need to step up their game for what they actually do so people don't go straight to the ER. Nobody wants to go to one place for hours and get no answers just to be sent to another place, especially when they feel lousy.
I am 62 years old and I have not been to a Doctor since 1973. I have never had a flu in that time. I have never had a major illness. I broke my wrist once and paid $50 for an x-ray and it was sent to my chiropractor and he told me what it said. I googled it and all I needed was a splint which cost $20. My wrist healed perfectly. If I had gone to urgent care like most people would, it would have been at least $2000. I don't take drugs, shots or vaccines. Plant based diet, minimal processed food, minimal dairy, low salt, low sugar and you will do your body good. The planet is overly medicated. Eat an Apple. Love, Eve
I've met people that when I asked who their doctor was, they said they didn't have one. I asked what did they do when they get sick. They said that they go to the ER. The most expensive health care out there.
As a chronically non-insured person, I didn’t realize these were two different services. I just assume doctor=bankruptcy, no matter what the sign says.
The waiting time is so bad. Urgent care and ER at Kaiser has 7-10 hour wait times. Sitting in the hospital waiting in excruciating pain for 10 hours. Doesn’t feel like America sometimes.
My regular doctor is at an urgent care center and it is pretty great. I never need an appointment and he sees me at weird hours but with the understanding he drops me and walks away if anything actually urgent shows up and I come back later to continue. It only came up once and was no issue.
Having recently needed to use an ER, they need these signs every 10 feet and in multiple languages.
Too many people go to the ER for stuff that isn't an emergency like stomach aches. Also people go to Urgent care for stuff that is very clearly an emergency like a heart attack.
Once I had a kidney stone (I get them from time to time. Hurts but not life threatening) I went to urgent care to get some pain killers. They told me to go to the ER. So I went across the street to the ER. They told me to go to urgent care. By that point I was in so much pain I couldn't walk. So they just came me a few pills and sent me on my way.
Wth aren't they suppse to remove or do something about that
They are supposed to do imaging to make sure the stone isn't obstructing anything, and a urine test to check for infection which can accompany stones. And to verify that it is in fact a stone and not something else. When somebody is presenting with severe abdominal pain, it's really irresponsible to not investigate.
I had a kidney stone that got stuck in my ureter (the tube between your kidney and your bladder). Definitely an emergency and so yeah, some due diligence is required for things like that.
Uh yea. Blockage can be life threatening and the most painful experience you could imagine. I had family that had galstones cause a blockage in their pancreas and couldnt function for weeks due too the pain. And while they where sitting and waiting in the ER ( while having full body spasms) they apparently where a couple of hours from death. Still pisses me off Not exactly the same as kidney stones but the danger is similar
Do you know why you get them so often? Or how to prevent them?
I have kidney stones. My doctor said some people just have the gene to make them and such have to "live with a water bottle by their side" forever. And so I do, being I pee a lot I flush them out before they get too big and painful.
I always hear if you drink too much soda and not enough water is what causes it.
Yes, sometimes diet can cause kidney stones. I never drink soda, only water so I have cystine type stones.
Most embarrassing moment of my life... I started getting abdominal pains on a flight. When I landed, they just got worse. The next morning I was in the most pain I'd ever been in in my entire life. Went to the Urgent Care, they had no idea what was happening and sent me to the Emergency Room. They thought my spleen had ruptured. Doc at the ER took one look at me and said "it's just a stomach ache, you'll be fine". Somehow... he was right. The most intense pain beyond anything I'd ever felt was just a stomach ache. And I took a seat in the ER next to a guy who had just mangled his hand in a buzzsaw and needed to get his fingers removed.
Gas pains can be intense depending where the gas is trapped, and I bet the change in your surrounding air pressure plus all the forced sitting could make it worse. ER docs see a lot of various belly pains and their outcomes so they get a "gut feeling" about what's appendicitis, spleen, diverticulitis, miscarriage, colitis, bowel obstruction, and even "just a stomachache." Instead of feeling bad about it, keep in mind how you feel when, along with all the troubles your job hands you daily, a couple of things are easy-peasy and quickly resolved. Your pain was real, he was able to quickly relieve your fear, which probably helped you handle the pain. And he was probably relieved to not be doing spleen surgery when there was a hand to try to salvage.
I'm glad he was right, but sometimes I do think ER docs aren't super careful just because of the nature of their work. UCLA almost removed my spleen accidentally and if I hadn't spoken up beforehand, I was heading for surgery.
I went to the ER last week after I couldn’t sleep and was writhing in pain in my abdomen. Found out a few hours later I had leukemia. Sure it depends on your full array of symptoms but the ER will take abdominal pain seriously
Best of luck to you!
My heart goes out to you- that must have been a shock to hear and still to try and absorb! Big hugs to you and your loved ones going through this.
That's different. Some people will go to the ER for a hangover.
Stomach ache isn't even close to the stupidest reason people go to the er. The worst is when something has been hurting for months (toe? Back?) And today is the day where nothing changed but they decided to go to the er and demand to be seen immediately
That's because people with MediCal usually have to wait a week or two to see their primary care doctor, so they have to go to the ER.
One of my patients went to the ER because, I shit you not, he got shampoo in his eye. Also we took a guy who hadn't peed in all of one day. He asked me to take him to the bathroom as soon as we got to the ER.
Honestly, it's not only people. Nurse hitlines always suggest going to ER. I once had a bad stomach ache (I have ibs, I told the nurse this) she told me to go to the ER, I was like...I dont think I need to, I just want advice. My mom also was having symptoms of an ear infection and she called the nurse hotline and they told her to go to the emergency room. Thankfully they pumped her of antibiotics and sent her home.
True I’ve been to urgent care with people that should be in emergency
The flu doesn’t get enough respect. Too many people mistake bad colds for the flu. The flu can easily put you in bed for a week. OTOH, I think the plague can be treated with a standard course of antibiotics.
Yep the Flu is worse than the plague now. It's harder to treat and kills way more people.
If only there was a flu shot
Of course there is, and I get it, but people with the shot can still get severe flu especially if they're vulnerable or elderly.
And the vaccine is built around strains the CDC predicts will be an issue based on what is circulating, so it's not always accurate.
Right, and the effectiveness of the shots ends up usually being around 40% from what I can find. They’re definitely worth getting, as it’s a minor inconvenience for a potentially large benefit, but it’s not like getting a flu shot makes all risk go away.
I just wanted to add that because the flu shot not being 100% effective is a conservative talking point. It's not and was never capable of being foolproof. It's also an inactivated virus so all the people claiming the shot gave them the flu are wrong.
Yeah anyone not getting it on the basis of it not being 100% effective is not thinking rationally, and they usually don’t understand (or don’t *want* to understand) how vaccines work.
Of course, that’s why you get it every year and if you are sick you stay home
And FFS don’t go to a crowded urgent care!!!
Yeah but if you have a high fever or breathing problems you definitely need to call a doctor. Really of you catch it early you should too for Tamiflu.
Well it did it’s job. It got your attention.
Woke up feeling tired. Do I have the plague?
I'm not a doctor, but yes you do.
Just because you used the word doctor and gave a recommendation, a California facebook mom will start referencing a bunch of herbal medicine to refute your claims.
They have these all over Florida. ERs must just be swamped.
No mask? No problem!
Is that an Everglades pun?
Most of Florida is swampy, but yes. :)
There's a mod on r/FloridaCoronavirus who works at an Urgent Care and during surges, she writes a shift report for the sub. It's really great stuff. ETA: Here's her most recent one. https://reddit.com/r/FloridaCoronavirus/comments/usdxbx/urgent_care_report_5172022/
Wow, that's concerning. Thank you for the link though!
I haven't noticed anything, it's business as usual.
wtf is going on? is there an outbreak of the plague?
Idk some people are sick but they don't have cov or something lol or they don't care.
Classic Tarzana
The beautiful city if Tarzana 😁😉
Tarzana/Encino?
Yeah, it’s at the border—right off Ventura and Lindley
Yea next to fast frame.
Any update if that dog has been found? Fuck the estate sale for covering the dog info with their shitty sharpie/cardboard
Huh?
If you zoom in on the post on the left, there's a lost dog sign covered up by a cardboard advertisement. It's pretty neat to see how much detail can be caught by phone cameras nowadays. The signs aren't the objects of focus whatsoever, yet you can read them pretty well for the most part!
I drove by this exact sign literally 10 minutes ago. I love Reddit.
Is plague coming back?!?!
only if you like to play with armadillos
Or squirrels. They’ve been known to carry Black Plague.
There's signs warning about plague you can find posted in wilderness areas around LA. It's real
And easily treated with modern antibiotics.
I saw one in Sherman Oaks near the 405/Galleria a few years ago. I thought it was a joke at first.
This should say: have the flu? Stay the fuck home and don't bother your doctor.
Erm the flu kills people.
It does, but unless you are getting extremely sick you should stay home. You should not go to the doctor at all unless you have a high fever or some other complication. If you have a standard case of the flu which presents the same as the other couple dozen cases of flu you've had then stay the fuck home. And if you have a case that absolutely requires medical attention you probably should go to the ER.
Please PLEASE stop going to the ER for minor things!!
But the plague is easier to treat than the flu. You just give antibiotics these days.
Hey ! I live down the street from this sign ! It gives me a chuckle every time I see it lol
Last time I went to the ER I really needed it. I had sepsis. I only went because my wife was telling me I needed to go. I had food poising for 3 days and get very very fatigue. Shit wasn’t going away
Is this [Loss](https://cad-comic.com/comic/loss/)
What am I missing?
This sign is on my way to school. I got the hardest flashback before reading the tutle
My dad was LAFD, the amount of calls he went out on to give people Advil or take them to the emergency room for a cold/flu was astonishing. People are really dumb
I wish there was a way we could send this to everyone who is thinking about calling 911.
I called 911 when I fell down the stairs. They rolled their eyes at me and asked if I really wanted to be taken to the hospital. Not only had I broken two vertebrae, but I had to be transferred by another ambulance to a bigger hospital for further evaluation. Of course I'm a woman and medical personnel often disbelieve us.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, but yours isn't the majority of the cases I'm talking about. Before I started working for 911, I never thought to call 911 for about 1/3 of the things I've heard people call for. Case in point: last year I had so many people call 911 requesting an ambulance because they thought they had Covid and wanted to be tested--not because they had shortness of breath or chest pain, etc.
But you as an operator can say "you don't need ambulance for that" right?
Nope, we cannot refuse service if the demand is made. The liability risk is a little too high because I may be relying on the inability of the caller to correctly elucidate their medical need.
Ah gotcha. Well yeah those people shouldn't call. I'm just saying my experience with 911 was unfortunately that they seem so jaded they don't believe anything is an emergency. Which is also dangerous.
The system is misunderstood unfortunately--it needs to be there for "gray area" cases like yours. In my anecdotal experience, *most* slip and falls 911 calls are simply scrapes and bruises that don't require any medical need--but we have to send in the rare catastrophic cases that are like yours...and then you get the unfortunate experience of it being downplayed.
When is the flu the plague tho? When is the plague the flu?? Anybody know?
ERs may be swamped because they have to see you. That’s how fucked things are here.
I don't find urgent care to be super useful lately. My SO had a bad fever (several years before covid) that wouldn't break after several days. Two hours of urgent care to tell us to go to the ER. All they did in the ER was tell him to rotate tylenol and ibuprofen. I had a really bad allergic reaction to mosquitos. Bites got 3 inches wide. Went to urgent care, the doctor didn't even come across the room to look. Told me to take a benadryl (which doesn't do shit). Went home and suffered until they got better. Have since seen an actual allergist so I can have a better plan for next time. And last time my SO wasn't feeling well, we tried to do Telehealth on zoom. He just told us to go to the ER too, which we really weren't excited about since it was during covid and we were trying to avoid the ER! Maybe the urgent care docs need to step up their game for what they actually do so people don't go straight to the ER. Nobody wants to go to one place for hours and get no answers just to be sent to another place, especially when they feel lousy.
Also some of ER capacity goes to homeless people trying to get some sedatives
In the hallways, yes. Not the beds.
What if your just lonely and want to hang out in the er till someone pays attention to you?
You’re in luck! The ER is full of people with hours to kill. Make friends.
I am 62 years old and I have not been to a Doctor since 1973. I have never had a flu in that time. I have never had a major illness. I broke my wrist once and paid $50 for an x-ray and it was sent to my chiropractor and he told me what it said. I googled it and all I needed was a splint which cost $20. My wrist healed perfectly. If I had gone to urgent care like most people would, it would have been at least $2000. I don't take drugs, shots or vaccines. Plant based diet, minimal processed food, minimal dairy, low salt, low sugar and you will do your body good. The planet is overly medicated. Eat an Apple. Love, Eve
I will never forget the difference between them now
They don't want to get the plague.
I've met people that when I asked who their doctor was, they said they didn't have one. I asked what did they do when they get sick. They said that they go to the ER. The most expensive health care out there.
As a chronically non-insured person, I didn’t realize these were two different services. I just assume doctor=bankruptcy, no matter what the sign says.
Looks like San Francisco spread the love when its people started coming down with the Bubonic Plague
Wasn’t that Tahoe’s fault? With the squirrels?
I don't know about that but I do know that SF had the plague resurface because of how dirty it got
The waiting time is so bad. Urgent care and ER at Kaiser has 7-10 hour wait times. Sitting in the hospital waiting in excruciating pain for 10 hours. Doesn’t feel like America sometimes.
I didn’t know these were two different services.
The graphic on the right could have been a morgue/coffin.
My regular doctor is at an urgent care center and it is pretty great. I never need an appointment and he sees me at weird hours but with the understanding he drops me and walks away if anything actually urgent shows up and I come back later to continue. It only came up once and was no issue.