I once sat in an ER waiting room in Yellowknife when I lived there, for 13 hours bleeding from a cut on my head that required 4 stitches (as it turned out I was also suffering from a second degree concussion) before being seen by any doctor, and when one finally did see me, he was NOT pleased I'd been left in the waiting room that long with a head injury, especially one that was bleeding heavily when I arrived and required stitches.
In 2006 while I lived in Edmonton, I slipped and fell on a wet floor while delivering full sized kegs of beer (250lbs each two at a time on a hand cart) to a restaurant, causing me to fall backwards landing on my back, those two kegs and the hand cart came down on top of me landing across my hips and groin (missed the important stuff) one keg rolling off to the left, the other to the right which was the first time I had serious back and hip issues. I told the restaurant manager I would be ok and just give me a couple minutes to compose myself. Of course she didn't listen, called my boss who told her to call the ambulance and not to let me move, to sit on me if need be to prevent me from moving until they arrived. I was strapped to a back board and on arrival to the hospital I was left strapped to it out in a hallway for the better part of the next 5 hours before being seen by anyone and once I was, all they did was take xrays, give me the next 4 days off, and Tylenol 4 for the pain. That was a Monday morning. When I woke up the Friday morning I was supposed to go back to work, I couldn't move at all and spent the next 6 weeks going to Chiro and physio. Being strapped to that backboard for that long did more damage than the initial fall, and the T4's only masked what was actually happening with my back and hips. What the xrays showed was soft tissue damage. What they didn't show was that my hips were ever so slightly dislocated at the hip joint on each side, and as a result my lower back was trying to compensate, which was causing the rest of my back to compensate, and as the week went on, I was making it worse by following doctors orders.
Those of you who have met me know that 7 years ago, similar but unrelated issues with my back and hips cost me a job which forced me to adapt my career slightly, and 5 years ago after those conditions worsened, I was forced out of my chosen career and into what amounts to a forced retirement because of those issues. I was told then (5 years ago) that I will deal with these issues and the pain that accompanies them for the rest of my life. I am legally considered one with a disability and that disability makes me unemployable (although I strongly disagree, I just can't do certain things I once could and took for granted, but that doesn't mean I can't work in an office setting IF given the opportunity, so I keep looking.)
Over the past 7 years, there is a reason I am and have been VERY hesitant to go to the ER let alone see a GP with the issues I have with my back and hips, because every time I have, what they say and recommend only makes it worse and I am not going to go sit in an ER in pain for hours, when I already know what they're going to tell me that doesn't do a damn thing, and my GP at the time who had taken over the practice from my initial doctor when I moved back to Ontario in 2008, didn't know or couldn't find very important and relevant information that should have been in my file, ie an extended hospitalization in late 2009 into early 2010 and the subsequent recovery program after being discharged, or the MRI I had on my back and hips in 2012, and she made it very clear that she was more interested in protecting her career than she was my health and well-being, so when my current GP agreed to take me on as a patient, I let my old doctor know she would no longer be my doctor, and essentially fired her, but it took me 5 years to find a replacement doctor who would take me on.
I am somewhat optimistic and hopeful that based on what she has said, my current family doctor has some ideas that may help, but she's been on mat leave and I haven't yet seen her since she returned, and although she has indicated she may have some ideas, she's also made it clear that in all likelihood, there is nothing short of surgery that can really do anything to even remotely "fix" the issues, and right now, surgery is not being discussed as an option, mainly because of my age. IF they decide that's the best route to go, they only want to have to do it once. For those who don't know, I turned 49 a week ago, so I'm still a little bit too young is what they're telling me. My body sure as hell doesn't feel like I'm "too young." especially when the seasons and weather change.
I refused care after they determined I wasnt at any immediate risk of death and made an appointment with my family doctor and got a referral for xrays. Emergency obviously doesn't mean what I thought it did...
