EMERGENCY!

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so, last night at midnight i was rushed (sorta...we got lost finding it and nancy hadn't driven stick in almost 6 mos.) to the emergency room since i've had a fever of about 100-103 for the previous three days and last night my heart was thumping like crazy (when we got there they told me it was going about 150 bpm or something wholly insane like that.) turns out i was just majorly dehydrated, and so, after pumping me full of painkillers and four liters of fluids, i felt marginally better and was discharged.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so when was your last trip to the hospital and was it serious? or did it just turn out to be a serious case of "drink more water, you lummox.)

― jess, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

you nitwit jess: for goodness sake look after yourself

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

that's not answering the question, mother.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

About a year ago I had been sick for about a week with high fever, chills/sweats, aches etc. Thought I had the flu. Flu wouldn't go away. Became delerious with fever and did not realize how incredibly sick I was. My mom finally threatened to leave work and make the three hour drive down to Austin if I didn't get to the ER.

Turns out I had a raging kidney infection and to quote the ER doctor, "You're *really* sick." They admitted me and pumped me full of IV antibiotics.

fever blows.

― Samantha, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i had a non-painful soft tissue hernia into my bellybutton abt three yrs ago, for which i needed my first ever real surgical operation: the incision itself was made apparently made by INSANE CLOWN POSSE, utterly spoiling the perfection of my torso

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ack! That sounds awful. Every time I go to the hospital I end up coming back with an organ missing. Or getting 2 cm long titanium screws implanted in my mouth. Surgeons. You just can't trust them.

One friend of mine got sent to the ER for "bizarre behavior". Er, of course he was fine; he was just on several hits of acid, and while peaking, he had jumped into a tank filled with penguins at the local Aquarium in an attempt to escape Satan...long story, all true. Anyway, he was fine after a few hours.

― geeta, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Three years ago, after I got beaten up. I looked a mess, wasn't actually that bad, discharged after a few hours.

― Tom, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hope you feel better, that sounds pretty fun though. I like going there..when I was a toddler I was in there so much they knew my name and then asked me if my parents were abusing me (it was a series of bad accidents...). I like it there though.

My last serious trip to the emergency room was on the account of a pseudo-seizure. I had accidentally taken some of my migraine medicine that was tainted with crushed tylenol (never put the two together in a case that doesn't prevent them from knocking each other). That was fun. They called an ambulance for me and everything, and this was at school!

A fellow swimmer carried me all the way to the nurse's office as well...fantastic. Really, it was something to remember. I panicked a little along the way because my friend tried to keep me awake by saying if I fell asleep I'd go into a coma. That scared the shit out of me.

In any case...all ended well enough. I missed a swim meet we were having...but that's okay. I just got to the emergency room, they took my pulse a few times and I went home. Some trip.

― jen, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Went several times to an emergency room in the mid-nineties, though mostly due to me overly worrying about something. One time wasn't, though -- completely blacked out and seized up while reading some article about heroin abuse. I think it was a combination of that and my not having much food that day which did a number on me -- friends said I was twitching about in my chair uncontrollably and that when I snapped back I was completely white as a sheet. I remember being terribly confuseda about where I was and wondering why the world looked so flat and two-dimensional. Thankfully nothing really came of it, the doctors looked at me and concluded it was a one-off, if you will.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Moped accident in 1979 that left me unconscious for about 18 hours, but no lasting damage. I still can't remember from about 30 minutes before the accident to when I woke up in the hospital. I've never been operated on (unless you count the circumcision).

― nickn, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Last time was when I ran into the back of a car on my pushbike last June. Nothing serious, just a very bloody arm from a few small but deep glass cuts and a bit of a sore head.

― RickyT, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I probably shouldn't answer the actual question, but I did get to go in a wheelchair for a while. Wheelchairs are fun. My best friend wants a wheelchair and a rug for his knees and some sea air. There's nothing wrong with him or anything, he just likes the idea of being pushed around everywhere.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

One day, two Novembers ago, I came into work feeling perfectly fine. Three hours later, I was back on the train going home, throwing up violently into a plastic bag. Three more hours later, I was still puking, even though I had long since puked up everything I had swallowed in the last day. So, off to the hospital with my ma. Had to sit in the waiting room for another hour an a half, which was not at all hellishly uncomfortable, nosiree. I was disoriented and babbling and singing Magnetic Fields songs to myself. Children were visibly bugged out by presence. I started to feel better with every additional...ah..."purgation." I finally got to see a doctor who (wisely) hooked me up to an IV for dehydration. I was let go after a while. Nobody was quite sure what I had. There was a bug going around, but nobody got it as bad as I did. Whatever it was, it seems to have been the source of several unpleasant (but harmless) gastrointestinal problems that I've already said too much about, thank you.

― Michael Daddino, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My last trip to the hospital was the first time I'd been there since being born. I got my gallbladder removed. Surgery. With scars!

― Mandee, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

spent five months in psych hospital circa 97, beofre that it was 94, after a no eating thing for three days, i went to a party, drank al ittle thens omoen spiked my drink - my folks found me on their driveway not breathing, mum had to give me mouth to mouth, in the ambulance i assured everyone only jesus knoew my name and then proceeded to throw up in 17 different directions, including all over the heart monitor...

needless to say mymother was not impressed

― Queen G, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five years pass...

i just got my wounded leg (cut it on broken glass) dressed at the ER. They said it didn't need stitches even though I thought it was pretty fucking deep, so they just closed it up with those wound strips. it's been a couple of hours and I think the wound has reopened because the bandages are turning red. i don't fancy waiting yet another 2 hours to get it redressed/stitched. WAAAHH!

― Roz, Sunday, 18 November 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

make your own 'wound strips' out of duct tape and gauze

― rrrobyn, Sunday, 18 November 2007 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

don't move around a lot

remember: scars are cool

― rrrobyn, Sunday, 18 November 2007 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

ice and sitting with the leg up stopped the bleeding. the bloody wound strips look pretty gross now, am thinking of going back to the doc's in the morning.

― Roz, Sunday, 18 November 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

Yeesh, Roz. How did it happen?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 18 November 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

i was reaching for a plate that was on the same shelf as my glasses. A couple of glasses fell and shattered, one big shard flew up and cut me across my leg, slightly above the ankle, plus a few smaller cuts. My left foot is a mess right now.

― Roz, Sunday, 18 November 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

Certainly post 9/11 there was this wave of OMG duct tape and plastic wrap. But since then there's been a more rational, reasonable recognition that having an emergency preparedness kit is not a bad idea in case of disaster - earthquakes, floods, contaminated water/air, etc. In fact, my wife just the other day suggested I get one together, and I still pretty regularly come across articles recommending the same. My problem is, I can't think of any disaster scenario that would require, say, three days worth of water that wouldn't also require much, much more than that. I guess the idea is that you should have enough to hold you over until you get to safety, but again, I'm not even sure how long that would be if they had to evacuate a city of 6 million.

So do any of you have emergency kits? Have you at least considered it? What's reasonable, and what's not? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around more than just the practical minimum - first aid kit, crank-operated radio, that sort of thing.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:18 (fourteen years ago)

Whoops.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 August 2011 17:18 (fourteen years ago)

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