Megan writes:

I was having excruciating back and pelvic pain along with muscle spasms for a few days, even after having rested and taken muscle relaxers. I thought, because it had been almost a week and the pain was intensifying, that there might be a serious underlying cause. When I woke up and could barely move, I went to the emergency room of a local hospital.
I waited two hours to be seen (they kept taking other patients, who arrived much later, before me – and there were only a couple other patients). I also observed many visitors going back and forth, unchecked, into two different entrances of the actual emergency room. When I asked the receptionist if I had time to get a drink or go to the bathroom, she asked if I wanted to provide a urine sample. This seemed out of place, as I was in the waiting area and had not been seen by anyone. I said that giving a urine sample was not my intention, I just wanted to check to see if I had the time to leave the waiting area for a bit, and she responded by saying they could give me a catheter. It seemed strange, so I just went and sat down – I did not want a catheter and I could barely concentrate at that point because of the pain.
When I was taken to my room, it had plastic wrappers and miscellaneous stuff on the floor, and when I went to throw away a tissue, the garbage can had food and drinks in it. It didn’t seem particularly sanitary, and at this point, I was nervous. The people who took my vital signs and the nurse insisted on my sitting on the hospital bed even though it was extremely painful to climb onto it because of the height. They estimated my height and weight – no concrete measurements of any kind and certainly not because I couldn’t step up on a scale – they just omitted actually measuring me for no reason. The doctor had a nurse prepare three shots for me without asking if I was willing to take them. When I asked what the shots were, and why they were necessary, and the answer was “Pain.” She wouldn’t tell me anything else about the shots. That was a paltry description from someone who wants to inject something near or in my spine, and the place already looked unclean, so I asked for an alternative oral medication. They said they would have to charge me for the shots regardless of whether they gave them to me, and at that point, I was scared and hurt and I didn’t care about the cost. This was before the test results came back from urinalysis and before my x-ray was taken. The initial pain medicine did not help very much, and they x-rayed me even though I could not achieve the positions they wanted because my pain was so bad. During all this time, I could see and hear the nurses and receptionist and various other staff members standing around talking about their personal lives and chatting on the phone about their personal lives. People were eating and socializing throughout the ER. The nurse with the shot was right outside my door and said she wanted to quit, but stayed at King’s Daughters because she liked socializing with her work friends, and said she had her hands full with a “difficult patient.” I think she was referring to me. I heard other patients’ visitors complaining to the nursing staff because they felt the patients’ treatment was subpar and that they were being ignored. I only had my friend in the waiting room, and I was intimidated – if I complained, they seemed like mean people who would treat me even worse, so I didn’t at the time.
During this time, my friend who took me to the hospital wandered in the back to tell me she had to run out. No one asked for her information or who she was going to see when she came back to the ER. A little after three o’clock in the afternoon, the doctor came in to tell me they were going ahead and charging me for the shots I did not want or take, that I have a urinary tract infection, and that I have scoliosis. When I asked him about the diagnosis of scoliosis (we had scoliosis checks all the time throughout high school and my chiropractor, as early as last year, checks for it as well), he said, “You are obese. This is what happens to obese people. Obese people have back problems.” When I asked him about the recommended treatment for scoliosis and the back pain, he said, “Lose weight” and told me to take pain medication. Never mind that I am not obese (although I am overweight, I am on medication to deal with symptoms of PCOS and have been losing weight steadily over the past few months) and they did not even weigh or measure me. Mind you, I totally understand extra weight can cause back problems, but this came on full-force in about five days, out of the blue and it’s hard for me to believe it’s because of my weight, if I wasn’t having back problems when I was heavier. He still seemed angry that I would not take the shots, and walked out without giving me any explanation about the x-rays or my treatment. It is hard for me to believe my x-rays could have turned out a reliable reading, as I could not achieve the positions they wanted. They also did not do any testing in regards to how this might relate to previous conditions I told them about, such as polycystic ovaries. All told, my visit took over six hours.
A new nurse came in to discharge me, and when I asked her about the diagnosis of scoliosis, she said that the scoliosis was caused by muscle spasms, not obesity, gave me my prescriptions, and left. No one led me out of the ER or showed me the exit, so I walked around to find an exit by myself. Again, the staff were spending their time socializing and gossiping.
By this time, I was still in pain and mentally foggy from the pain meds they gave me, so I filed a complaint with the department of health. I feel bad, in some ways, about having done that, but seriously, there’s a problem if they can’t even keep their rooms clean with the huge staff they had. I was also super mad and hurt that they seemingly pulled the obesity card out of their hats because they couldn’t come up with a better answer. If they treat me like this, I can only imagine how they treat people who are bigger than me – and there were plenty of them in the waiting area.

Christina writes…

I’d like to start by saying I work with doctors. I’m pretty lucky…my PCP and Gastro know me as a person first before a patient, and I think that helps them see more than my 290 lbs.

However, that doesn’t mean all my experiences have been good. I went into the ER with possible appendicitis. I hurt. I have a damn good pain tolerance, but this was bordering on the “shoot me now” level of pain. I usually will “tough it out” before I go to the ER, but this was bad. They did all the tests, CAT scan, blood work, etc. My blood pressure was high. Of course it was high, I was in pain! As I’m lying there on the gurney, still trying not to move so it wouldn’t hurt too much, the ARNP comes in. I was expecting her to give me my test results, but no. She proceeded to tell me that she had food problems too, and that I should go to Weight Watchers and I would feel better. If I hadn’t been in pain, I’d be in jail for decking a nurse. I called the hospital the next day and complained and informed them that her comments were inappropriate and that I didn’t appreciate her berating me in front of my husband and other patients. From what I understand, her mood has changed considerably.

I’m not ashamed of my weight. You have to love yourself before you can make any change in your life. I once told a surgeon that if the only diagnosis he could come up with was “fat”, then he really needed to go to medical school and retake a few things.

I did have a good experience though. (more…)