Friday, May 6, 2011

A rant about emergency rooms . . .

Boy oh boy . . . so much for New Year's resolutions.  I'm weeks behind in blogging.  I had so much to say and I probably won't remember most of it by the time I get caught up.

I've been spending a lot of time hanging around hospitals lately and I feel a rant coming on . . .

In My World . . .

Doctors are service providers, determined to use all their humanity and experience and knowledge to diagnose and cure people.  Doctors should care for the whole person, not just the illness.

In the real world women are told to go for a second mammogram, but don't worry.  In the real world women with serious conditions are told to take a laxative, drink more, get used to it, etc. rather than being diagnosed and treated.

I've seen it happen three different times in the past year . . . a woman (I was one of them) goes to the emergency room with serious symptoms.  In each case after hours of tests and waiting and waiting and waiting a doctor comes into the room and says well it wasn't a heart attack, well it wasn't a stroke, well we don't know what it is . . . so you can go home now. 

So what caused the chest pains, the dizziness, the pain? 

(insert the sounds of silence here)

They don't know, don't care . . . and so you go home . . . undiagnosed, dismissed, ignored and still with chest pains, dizziness, pain . . .

Does anyone else see the craziness that is emergency medicine?

Okay rant over.

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