Really?!

I'm super annoyed with my regular doctor's office right now. They tried to get me to go to the Emergency Room for a non-emergency problem. Not cool. And I'll explain why.

First, the problem I called them about:  For about the last week or two (I haven't really kept track of how long this has been going on), I've been experiencing moderate pain that goes from the base of my skull, down the right side of my neck into my right shoulder, and down the rest of my arm into the saddle joint at the base of my right thumb. It's hard to open and close my hand because it is weak and painful. Since I am staggeringly right-handed, this has been a bit of an inconvenience in my life, but I am able to get through it every day and still maintain some level of functioning at work and in my personal life. 

Now, anyone who has regularly read this blog/anyone who has any knowledge of me on a person-to-person level/anyone who cares to go back in the historical archives of this blog will know that I've been to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hand, wrist, and elbow problems in the past two years for breaking both my right and left wrists, roughly a year apart from each other. Clearly, I've got some ongoing issues with my hands and wrists, so the fact that this part of my body would be bothering me again should come as no real surprise. 

When I called my regular doctor's office to make an appointment, they had me speak to the nurse practitioner on duty, and she told me that I needed to go to the ER for a complete workup on this problem. 

Bullshit.

Given my past history with injury/problems with this area of my body and the fact that I've been dealing with this issue on a constant basis for about one and one-half to two weeks, this is not an emergent problem! Yes, I know a sudden onset of pain and weakness localized to one side of the body is usually a serious symptom of a stroke, but if I were truly having a stroke, I would've been dead by now given the length of time I've been dealing with this problem without any other medical attention other than taking ibuprofen and forcing myself through my day. All they would've done in the ER is order some baseline blood and orthopedic tests and tell me to follow up with my regular doctor. Which is what I was trying to accomplish by calling my regular doctor in the first place. 

The fact that the nurse practitioner told me to go to the ER for this problem really galls me because, first and foremost, I am not dying/having a stroke or heart attack/not in labor/bleeding out/experiencing a severe allergic reaction/not an accident victim/running an extremely high fever. This is an ongoing, albeit annoying, problem, but clearly, it is not life-threatening. (I am, after all, taking the time to vent about this on this page as opposed to calling 911.) In fact, in my line of work, many people experience pain/injury to their hands/wrists. At least two other co-workers and two bosses at my job at the craft store are routinely in and out of braces/splints for carpal tunnel syndrome issues. This is more than likely what is going on with me given my history of problems with this area of my body and the nature of repetitive injury that other people in my line of work seem to suffer from. Therefore...

I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE FUCKING ER!

All I would do in the ER is sit there for a really long time (think hours) because I have a non-life-threatening problem, only to get a few blood test and possibly an x-ray and be told by the attending ER physician that I should see my regular doctor. I figure I'd save the complete sucking away of my precious time on one of my few days off from work by just calling my regular doctor and making an appointment to see him. 

I did not appreciate when the nurse practitioner at my regular doctor's office said, "Well, if that's how you feel about it," in response to my rather firm but polite reiteration that, no, I'm not going to the ER for this problem because it's probably a tendonitis/repetitive motion injury and not something more serious and life threatening because I've worked in the ER in the past and going to the ER for a non-life-threatening issue is really an abuse of the ER system. 

Yes, by federal law, no ER is allowed to turn away anyone who shows up for any sort of treatment, no matter how minor, but just because you have a hangnail while your regular doctor's office is not open or is all booked up with appointments for the next week doesn't mean you should go to the Emergency Room! The whole concept of an Emergency Room is that they treat emergencies:  life threatening allergic reactions, childbirth, serious accidents, sudden high fevers, severe and sudden onsets of grievous and intense pain, heart attacks, strokes, and the like. Basically, if you can live and tolerate your medical problem until your regular doctor's office is open and can work you in, you shouldn't go to the ER. It's just that plain and simple. People who show up to the ER with non-life-threatening complaints like "leg pain for two months" and "itchy bumps on genitals" (two things I have actually seen people admitted to ER treatment bays for) just clog up the ER system and cost all of us extra money, since most tests that could be ordered on a routine basis by your regular doctor cost at least three times as much as those same tests when ordered by an ER attending physician on an emergent basis. 

But the tone of the nurse practitioner at my regular doctor's office was like I was inconveniencing their medical practice and that because I have Medicaid through my state, I shouldn't care about having to go to the ER. 

Well, guess what, bitch, I do. 

Just because I receive financial medical assistance from my state government due to the funding provided by the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. "Obamacare"), I don't believe in just pissing away government monies by going to the ER for a non-emergency issue. I respect people whose taxes help pay for my impoverished butt's medical care, and referring me to the ER for a non-emergency issue is a disrespect and abuse of my fellow tax-paying citizens' monies. 

It's also a disrespect of how you apparently feel that I, as a Medicaid recipient, should spend my time. I work very hard at a low-paying job, trying to save what little monies I can in order to attempt to improve my current lot in life, and I get very few days off. The fact that you feel that I should piss hours upon hours away in the ER on one of my precious days off instead of coming in for a 15 or 30 minute appointment with my regular doctor during a time that is convenient to me is disrespectful. Just because I am poor and don't have a regular 9 to 5 job doesn't mean my time isn't as valuable and precious as yours is as a person who holds a substantially better-paying job than myself. 

I might be poor, and I might be on government assistance, but I am not lazy, stupid, worthless, and undeserving of care and respect. 

I am a human being. 

You should treat me as such.