Passionately Promoting A More Perfect World

osberend:

sinesalvatorem:

osberend:

sinesalvatorem:

sinesalvatorem:

I’ve had terrible stomach pains for the last six hours and I don’t know what to dooooo :( 

ahhhhhhh why is it like this ahhhhhhhh

My suggestion: Go to urgent care. It’s the middle ground between going to the ER and waiting to try to see a doctor during normal business hours tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice, but I don’t know how I’d get there, what I’d do there, or how I’d pay for it with no insurance. Am a driver’s-license-less immigrant.

Well what you’d do is go up to the check-in desk, and give them your name and a description of your symptoms and any highly relevant medical history. Unless it’s a really slow night or they decide you’re at imminent risk of death, you’ll be told to take a seat. Eventually (prioritized by expected severity), your name will be called, and you’ll go into an exam room, where a nurse will get your vitals and a more detailed history and description of your current complaint. At some point subsequently, a doctor will come in, and provide one or more of further questions, a prescription, a diagnosis, and orders for tests.

My general impression is that urgent care, unlike the ER, tends not to be too expensive unless you need expensive tests. (Certainly, it’s less expensive than the ER!) But I don’t know; does anyone else? @slatestarscratchpad?

Also, does your wife have medical insurance, and if so, are you covered by it? In any event, if this becomes a medical *emergency*, you should know that an ER has to treat you even if you have no way of paying, under EMTALA. But since ERs cost more than urgent care, and they can still try to get money from you after the fact, getting whatever’s wrong dealt with before it becomes an emergency (if it would) is certainly preferable if possible.

I can’t address getting there. Do you know anyone who does have a driver’s license and a car?

For that matter, do you know anyone who is a doctor, nurse, paramedic (or basic EMT, for that matter), or other individual with enough medical knowledge to at least say “yeah, you need to get your ass to a doctor, now” or “I’m not sure,” even if they’re not able to give a definite “yeah, you’re fine?”

Anyone reading this in the Bay Area able to give advice and/or free medical services, legally or otherwise?

Thank you! The internet has told me that this is probably a side effect of my having tried ecstasy yesterday (which is really shitty, because this pain is horrific, but the ecstasy didn’t have any notable effect on my brain, because no supposedly mind-affecting drugs seem to).

They claim it starts the day after consumption and then lasts about a day before dissipating, so I’ll probably survive the night in a ball of pain. Anyway, no Urgent Care for me. It’s not an emergency and I doubt they’ll be able to do anything to speed recovery.