I got to get back in a pretty decent time frame, mainly because my symptoms triggered the sirens of crazed illness beyond just the viral or bacterial sickness. Of course, once you get back, that's when the waiting begins. I was poked and prodded every way possible. Blood work, head CT, strep test, x-rays, UAs, and a spinal tap (which failed because the doc didn't have the right needles, and just left me in pain). 

But, while I was waiting in the lovely clinic-like ER side unit that was divided by lovely curtains, and I was nestled in "room" D5 for about 8 hours this evening, I got to hear every single conversation going on in D1-D4 & D6. And boy were they interesting.

In D3, a 13 or 14 year old girl came in claiming that she had abnormal "spotting," so they did blood work. It turned out that she was pregnant. The mom stayed calm the entire time. They went for an ultrasound, and then came back and announced that there was no heartbeat, and the girl probably had a miscarriage. The girl had absolutely no response whatsoever. After the doc left, she told her mom she was going to get a candy bar. Her mom then got on the phone and started rattling off that she couldn't believe what was happening to her daughter: first, that she was already bed hopping, two, that she had no emotion about being pregnant, and three, that she still had no emotion about losing the baby. 

In D2, the man had kidney stones that were 4MM and were too small to do the laser beam explosion. Instead he'd have to pass them himself. He said he was worried about being doped up on pain killers when he had to present for his client tomorrow in court.

In D1, the girl had a doctor send her in for an abdominal CT, because she was "sick." She had a friend in with her, and they were cackling and chatting the entire night. Apparently, she had been tested for mono and it was negative, and other tests were negative as well. But, it all came back to the fact that she just needed more potassium.

D6… he had the flu.

Well, you get the picture. I got every bit of information going on in the section of the ER that I was in tonight. It was completely miserable. Which bears in mind the question: how in the world does HIPAA not go crazy nuts over curtained instances like this? They won't even let my mom call in and ask questions and get a status on me in the ER (there was no reception in there, and my mom wanted to know what was going on… you know, super nurse), yet they'll announce decisions by the doctors so that everyone can hear, and the nurse will ask you personal questions from her computer/nurse's station in the center of the room and expect you to answer. Oh, and don't let me forget to also add that the nurse announced lab results from said station. She told one patient that she was pregnant. I know everything about my neighbor, but my own mother can't find out about my status. All because of HIPAA. Sheer irony.

HIPAA??? Really? For hospitals, they're really more like HIPAA-crites in practice half the time.