Health Problems

As long as you don't need a dose of potassium chloride. Went through that shit to save my heart and it was literally the worst. Usually they use that to kill poor fucks, but I survived that shit.

Had to spend a couple hours at the hospital today.

I swear, the people who work at the counters and deal with people up-front, are not paid enough money for that nonsense. Listening to multiple patients with room-temperature IQs interact with staff during my 30-45m wait was literally the worst part of being there. And I'm saying that when I was there for groin/testicle pain.

Kuriin said:

Triage is one of the worst aspects of ED nursing. Someone will say they are 10/10 pain while looking completely comfortable and on their phone. People do not understand that emergency department is meant for EMERGENCIES, not "I couldn't see my PCP in time to see this..." or stupid pregnancy/STD tests. :|

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This was a waiting room for imaging stuff. One woman must have been there for some sort of GI CAT scan. They brought out something for her to drink.

Patient: What is this?
Nurse: well, it's contrast so we can get a good image...
Patient: is it radioactive?
Nurse: No, no, it just has iodine in it...
Patient: but isn't that radioactive?
Nurse: I mean, no, it just helps with the image (insert mild technical jargon here)
Patient: ...so it *IS* radioactive!

I was just sitting there like "Damn, woman, what the fuck is wrong with you?" And that went on for a few minutes more, which was completely unnecessary.

The nurse left and she just sat there, staring at the bottle. She did not drink it. After maybe 10m, she gets up and marches her way to the front desk (where the lady is checking in another patient). She completely ignores the other patient checking in, and starts complaining about the bottle of contrast dye.

Patient: Ma'am...ma'am...MA'AM...
Front desk: Yeeeeeeesss?
Patient: OK, well, this bottle is open <holds up the bottle, so show lady the 'seal' on the plastic cap that's been broken>
Front desk: Well I'm sure she just..
Patient: ...and I just wanted to check, you know, to make sure...
Front desk: ...opened it for you, I'm sure it's safe...
Patient: ...because I want to make sure it's safe to drink...

Another lady in back says she'll go ask the nurse. But this woman wouldn't sit down. Wouldn't budge. She's hovering over the other patient who is trying to sign in, and everyone is staring at her. The lady at the front desk is like "you can sit down, she'll be back" but she refuses to budge. Fucking bizarre.

Woman comes back after several moments, with this "kill me now" look on her face: "She said she opened it for you" (broke the seal). So the lady looks down at the bottle and says "ok" in the saddest fucking voice possible, and waddles back to her seat. It was pretty clear she didn't want to drink it, but damn, LOL. She kind of reminded of the guy from Sling Blade.


There was an elderly woman who got wheeled in, and she was just going the fuck off. Apparently she didn't want to wear a mask, and was sperging out giving umpteen reasons she didn't need to wear one. One reason was "Don't you people know you don't need to wear a mask if you wear an oxygen mask? That's just the CDC guidance" <she has no mask, no oxygen; wtf?> and staff is clearly trying to not engage with her, besides saying "yes you need to wear a mask". The best was when she was like "go ahead, call security!" and I was thinking "Yes...YES! FUCKING DO IT!" But she HAD a mask and did start wearing it (kind of). She also was bitching up a storm because they wouldn't let her grand daughter come in with her (which I did think was odd; there were other people there in 2s and 3s) and she had to go wait in the car. Knowing grandma, her grand daughter refused to wear a mask and they booted her. Then I got to listen to her call her grand daughter and listen the THAT dysfunctional convo. That was a discussion spanning 3 generations of "None of you should have reproduced"


There was a woman who came in that didn't have a referral. Just bounced in there and tried telling them she needed something. When they told her you can't just walk in and ask for a scan, the woman told then to call her Dr and went to go sit down. No idea if anyone called her Dr though, LOL.


I couldn't get mad at the old dude that had his entire arm down his pants and kept grunting occasionally. That was weird, but maybe he was in pain? Or just rubbing his raisins? Fuck if I know.

I've been dealing with what I thought was a hernia for 8 days now. I woke up on the 18th, felt fine, got into the shower, and at one point the pain hit me like someone kicked me in the balls (pain throughout my entire groin, and ballsack). I toughed it out and went to work. Pain was intense for a couple of hours, then went away. Friday, it wasn't as intense, but it lasted pretty much the entire day. So I told myself I'd wait until Monday, and if I still hurt, I'd make an appt.

The pain was kind of on-again, off-again, all weekend and early into this week. After that, it became a kind of constant pain in my balls, with a definite pain in a spot in my abdomen, right below my waistline.

I saw my new GP on Tuesday. He did the whole 'turn and cough' thing, then tells me he isn't sure what was up but that he didn't think it was a hernia. He scheduled me for the ultrasound/sono on Thursday.

I didn't think I would hear back until Monday, as they told me a radiologist was going to have to look at my results, and then contact my Dr about it. But I got a phone call from the office around lunch, and a lady tells me that I have Epididymitis. I guess, somehow, my right testicle (and all of the associated plumbing) is infected, and that the disctinct pain I felt under my waistline was some sort of horribly swollen lymph node (?).

So I guess I have an infection in my balls. Fucking FANTASTIC, LOL

I just stopped to pick up some antibiotic I've never heard of (Levofloxacin, 500mg, once every 24hrs for 10 days). I'm eating dinner now, because they told me it would be a good idea to eat 30m before taking one because...and I'm paraphrasing here...'it might tear you up'.

I guess it can give you nausea and diarrhea, along with a fuckton of other possible side effects, but I can live with all that as long as it works and this pain subsides.