I can officially say that I have now had my own personal experience as a patient of an American hospital. And although we here plenty of horror stories about what goes in there, I have to say, I was very impressed on how things went for me.
First off, let me tell you what happened. At about 3:45am today, I awoke with some severe stomach pain. At first, I thought it was nothing more than gas pain and a good fart or a crap would help get rid of it. But after sitting on the can for 15 mins or so and nothing happening, and the pain getting worse, I knew I had to do something.
Having heard about the horror stories of being denied care in hospitals in the US, and just wondering how it all works since I don’t worry about coverage in Canada, I was almost more scared to go into a hospital down here and be turned away while being in severe pain. But, I got into my rental car, programmed the GPS to find a hospital and away I went.
Within minutes, I arrived, told the triage nurse I was in severe pain, and was admitted right away without question. They asked me what was wrong and I explained the pain was in my stomach and it was getting worse. They quickly got me to put on one of those gay gowns and then shortly thereafter, another nurse came in and asked me some basic questions about where I lived and what insurance I had. After telling her I was Canadian, she was a bit surprised but I gave her my insurance card, and there was never another question about coverage. I did have to sign a few papers but none of the prevented me from getting any care.
They took my blood, gave me an IV, did about 6 x-rays and even a CAT scan which ultimately resulted in me finding out that the severe pain was due to kidney stones. Thankfully, the doctor provided me a shot of morphine and some other pain killer which numbed the pain from the stones, and I was feeling much better.
They gave me some prescriptions for pain killers and something else to help speed along the passing of my 2mm and 4mm stones that they had seen on my charts. I’ve since been taking the mild pain killer as the big one is oxyconton and I do not want to take that unless the pain becomes very nasty. I’m also holding off on the other med that speeds up the passing of the stones, as I would like to get through my training class tomorrow as it is the last day, and then I am on my way home, and can worry about getting rid of the stones then.
I gotta tell you, the hospital staff was awesome and they were very nice and courteous and very helpful. I was taken god care of and had no wait time what so ever. However, there was no one else there at the time, and admittedly, I was white as a sheet, and in major pain. They knew I had to be looked at soon.
All that being said, as much as I hate going to a hospital, I can now feel a little bit more at ease if it should happen again. Thank God for group health plans through work as it was what paid for this visit. I am very anxious to see if I can find out what the actual cost of this visit was. It would be neat to find out.
Bottom line, I’m feeling very good. I head home tomorrow, and hopefully I can pass the stones this weekend.
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