I was in last night due to a Crohn’s disease flare up, I knew what it was when I got there because I’m no stranger to Crohn’s disease. When I arrived their emergency room was full or so I was told, the nurse sent me to register and I really thought I was going to have a decent experience because everyone was super friendly. I waited in the waiting room for about 15 minutes but that wasn’t to bad. They brought me back and the nurse came in and introduced herself and gave me a couple blankets because I was freezing and basically just asked me what was going on. Once again she was very friendly. I waited in the room for over an hour before she returned and said she was just going to do blood work and start an IV since she knew the doctor was going to order it anyways. The nurse came back about another hour later and gave me Zofran for nausea, mind you I’m not nauseous. After a total of 3 hours the doctor finally came in my room to examine me. He says he’s going to send me for imaging although he knows it’s my Crohn’s and already knows what he’s going to prescribe me. I already knew what was going to happen because this isn’t the first time I’ve had to be treated for this. I’d say about a half hour or so later the radiology technician came and took me to get my imaging. Again, she was very nice and friendly. She explained that the outside company that reads the imaging was working slower and that she couldn’t promise it would be back quickly. When I returned to my room the nurse came in to give me pain meds and once again I sat and waited for an additional 3 hours. The doctor came in with my imaging results and said he was going to give me some prescriptions and I would be on my way, he asked if the nurse had given me my steroid yet and at that point she had not, he says well I ordered them over an hour ago...well I didn’t get them. The nurse comes in as soon as he walks out and gave me my steroid, something that I have actually never heard of or have had previously. As soon as she injected it I got extremely hot and my body started pinching all over I immediately told her what was going on and she gave me this confused look and responded with “hmm that’s weird I’ve never had that happen before it’s just a steroid” I’m sorry but my first instinct would be get the doctor if you have never had this happen before. It actually started subsiding about 2 minutes after the injection and she left the room. I spent a total of 7 and a half hours in this emergency room for something that can be taken care of in less than an hour. Now I have to set up an appointment with my family physician because the pinching from the steroid has now turned into my limbs being completely numb. After some simple side effect research I found that these are serious side effects of this particular steroid. Like I’ve said many times the staff is very friendly, They aren’t as knowledgeable as I would like to see emergency staff, and they have absolutely no sense of urgency. They had a total of 6 patients while I was there and they called it extremely busy. I wouldn’t waste my time or money going to this emergency room especially if it’s a serious condition. Drive the extra hour to a different hospital.
