Actually the day started out fairly normal. I finally got myself up and out the door at an early hour to go have some fasting blood work done. I was in and out of the outpatient department and lab in less than an hour. Winter Haven's outpatient dept is wonderful but their ER, shall we say, sucks!
Because that went so well, I figured I'd do a food run at Wally World. Once I was done with that I'd have the rest of the day to take it easy. Things didn't go that way though.
When I got home my son staggered out of his bedroom and said we need to go to the hospital now! Here's the TMI part. He's had some significant problems whenever he gets stomach viruses. Where most people feel like death for 24 hours or so, he just gets worse and worse. On four other occasions, he's let it go thinking it would resolve itself. Each time he's ended up getting IV's and the last time he got so dehydrated they thought he was having a heart attack!
The two of us made our way back to Winter Haven's hospital and waited in the ER. And waited and waited. Now I certainly understand the concept of the sickest get seen first so I wasn't upset. He was sleeping in a chair. Finally, after some 2 1/2 hours we got into the treatment area.
Well I timed it. For 1 hour and 15 minutes, two orderlies and one nurse did nothing but talk about how to cook various foods. The nurse did pop out of her chair on several occasions to make 30 second rounds of the rooms. The orderlies did absolutely nothing that entire time but talk among themselves or chat on the phone. In the meantime, babies are crying and there's an elderly man screaming. Not their problem I guess when you're talking about important things like how to cook catfish.
Finally after another 2 hour wait, we got to see the doctor who felt my son only had a generic stomach virus this time. Lousy but no where near as debilitating as what he's gone through before. We finally exited the building some 4 1/2 hours after we arrived and the orderlies were still chatting away when we walked out.
Should I ever need emergency room services in the future, I will go to Lakeland. That was one of the most unprofessional displays I've ever seen in nursing.
Because that went so well, I figured I'd do a food run at Wally World. Once I was done with that I'd have the rest of the day to take it easy. Things didn't go that way though.
When I got home my son staggered out of his bedroom and said we need to go to the hospital now! Here's the TMI part. He's had some significant problems whenever he gets stomach viruses. Where most people feel like death for 24 hours or so, he just gets worse and worse. On four other occasions, he's let it go thinking it would resolve itself. Each time he's ended up getting IV's and the last time he got so dehydrated they thought he was having a heart attack!
The two of us made our way back to Winter Haven's hospital and waited in the ER. And waited and waited. Now I certainly understand the concept of the sickest get seen first so I wasn't upset. He was sleeping in a chair. Finally, after some 2 1/2 hours we got into the treatment area.
Well I timed it. For 1 hour and 15 minutes, two orderlies and one nurse did nothing but talk about how to cook various foods. The nurse did pop out of her chair on several occasions to make 30 second rounds of the rooms. The orderlies did absolutely nothing that entire time but talk among themselves or chat on the phone. In the meantime, babies are crying and there's an elderly man screaming. Not their problem I guess when you're talking about important things like how to cook catfish.
Finally after another 2 hour wait, we got to see the doctor who felt my son only had a generic stomach virus this time. Lousy but no where near as debilitating as what he's gone through before. We finally exited the building some 4 1/2 hours after we arrived and the orderlies were still chatting away when we walked out.
Should I ever need emergency room services in the future, I will go to Lakeland. That was one of the most unprofessional displays I've ever seen in nursing.
