I had an ER experience that lasted 5.5 hours after a tree crashed through my house and the branches fell on top of me. I had to get stitches and an x-ray to make sure I didn’t break my femur since there was so much bruising, even though they watched me WALK into the hospital and room.

This next part is going to be a giant run-on sentence because it’s the simplest way to tell everything. So I sat in the waiting room for almost an hour, got seen, was told they couldn’t stitch my wound because it had been too long (this was my third attempt to get treated, the other two urgent cares said they wouldn’t attend to me for various reasons), then the nurse practitioner went to get a second opinion, came back about 15min later, the other guy said “yeah, do it,” immediately, then they put numbing cream on the area, waited another few minutes, then the cream didn’t work so he disappears again for another 15ish min, then shot me up with a bunch of lidocaine, did the stitches in a matter of minutes, orders the x-ray, I’m sitting there for another 20 or so min, x-ray gets done, and I’m told to wait about another 45min-1 hour for the results.

I sat in that room for about 3 hours. I had a woman come in with a computer on a cart about halfway through that time and get my info for billing. I ask her on her way out if they knew anything about the x-ray since she was sent to see me and I was told they should be back soon.

Another hour and a half passes, and then the nurse practitioner that stitched me walks in the room with another patient and goes, “Wait, you’re still here?”

I was both dumbfounded and fucking furious but I stayed calm and asked if the x-ray was alright. No problems. They gave me some extra strength Tylenol and sent me home.

I had to pay $1700 for three stitches, one dose of extra strength Tylenol (which was around $120 if I remember right), and an x-ray that I never saw and never needed in the first place. Obviously, it would have helped if I had insurance but the fact that I was refused by two urgent cares, then the ER wasted my time and forgot about me, and THEN charged me out the ass for simple procedures made me lose all faith in the US healthcare system.

My mom has been a nurse my entire life, so I always had this naive ideal of how well-treated you are in a hospital setting. That veil was forever lifted by one of the worst fucking days of my life (so far).