ER: The Reality Show

So what it is about emergency room medical care? There is a reason you need a primary care physician no matter where you go. If you travel, be prepared to pack your own MD.

I think 8 hours in an emergency waiting room might be some kind of a record for me. It was worse because I was wearing a watch, and was hungry and cranky. By midnight I was just plain tired. In spite of the steady stream of characters that came and went while my father in law was being tested, tested, tested, the night was a total wash...and not because of the torrential rains.

We had normal people....who came and were diagnosed with appendicitis about 6 hours after they arrived; we had an elderly gentleman who had been seen in the Quick Care section...hours earlier...who was told "you need to be seen in the other section...sorry about that. "We had a tattooed drug addict demanding to be seen because he could not stand the itching any longer- going through withdrawal symptoms -crashing the examining room area. We had a patient leave the confines of the examining room area and wander outside in his slippers and johnnie...Where's the security in these places??We had a nurse manager who was kind of an ER Nazi of sorts. We saw her shift end at 11pm. We were still there when the midnight visitors arrived...whole families who arrived and hung out in the waiting room waiting for some Tylenol.

And then there was my sister in law and me...who, by virtue of seniority, owned the waiting room after being the first and last ones there.(8 hours) We had birthday cake in the truck for my mother in law, but it felt kind of rude to be eating cake in front of indigents. SO we waited, and we waited, and we were really bad about being patient.

We watched the Red Sox beat Seattle in 12 innings; we watched Hurricane Dolly over, and over, and over again on the Weather Channel, and we waited....

In the end...around 1am, it was determined that all the dreaded possibilities that could be, did not exist...and all that was left was a really hurting back...so with 3 pain pills and an umbrella, we all left. We headed back to the RV for birthday cake and a very short night's sleep.

ER...for real. Could have been a mini series or an epic, but there wasn't enough action.