A Trip to the ER – 10 Best Practices
Our Halloween was a bit different this year. My husband lost a fight with an electric saw while working on a house project resulting in a trip to the local ER. As an earlier article implored do everything you can to avoid the hospital! But when an accident or injury occurs embrace the modern healthcare system for everything it does well: saving life or limb.
Be mindful however, that hospital protocols still apply as covered in that previous article. We had to employ some critical thinking skills and judgement during the ordeal which I thought would be helpful to summarize should you or a loved one find themselves on a trip to the ER.
10 Best Practices For ER Visits
You don’t necessarily need a big hospital or trauma center for home injuries or sudden onset of acute illness. Many Urgent Care facilities have all the necessary equipment and skill to deal with common situations. We have recently moved to the Hill Country of Texas and are a bit of a drive from anywhere. So I had scoped out the nearest Urgent Care center just in case: shorter wait times and fewer people carrying germs.
We were presented with what appeared to be a relatively low fixed price for our visit when we got into the exam room. We no longer have any insurance (a topic for another day) so handed over our credit card but there were forms available to cover any hardship application. A few days later we received a very much larger bill itemizing every procedure, equipment and supply used. We will be fighting this larger bill which was extortionate beyond comprehension for the one-hour we were there. In your advance scoping make sure to ask about their pricing and policies which vary substantially between companies.
Make sure you get fully educated on your situation. If you don’t quite understand, ask for more details. If they give you a course of action, press them to see if there are alternatives, what happens if we do X or don’t do Y. The decisions and actions you take in the moment have the potential to affect your long-term health.
The radiation from X-rays and CT-scans are not benign and can contribute to later cancer risks. There was a very real possibility of a fracture in my husband’s case and a bone fracture at an open wound is high risk so we agreed to an x-ray of the hand. The doctor treating my husband and the radiologist who was consulted, disagreed on whether there was a bone fracture or not. I looked at the images and my untrained eye thought it looked broken so we agreed to proceed as if that were the case.
Doctors are all too quick to hand out broad spectrum antibiotics to limit the risk of infection from an open wound. This objective needs to be considered in light of the long-term damage antibiotics do to our microbiome. If the device inflicting damage was dirt-free (a tool with a brand new blade in this case) and you have the ability to keep the wound clean, a wait and see approach is a better strategy. Keep a close eye on the wound, apply a localized antiseptic like Betadine spray with iodine or chlorine dioxide, and manage your body health to give it the support it needs to fight any potential infection. See #9.
Pain is the body’s way of alerting us to a problem. Blunting pain, especially with narcotics, so that we can keep using the injured body part instead of letting it rest and heal, is a step in the wrong direction. There are many drug-free ways to manage pain. I haven’t found a statistic on the high proportion of drug addicts who got started from a prescription handed out for an injury, but I can tell you it’s high. Even in the short-term, pain medications have adverse side effects on the body which are best avoided. My husband accepted a non-narcotic pain killer for the first 2 days and has then relied on essential oils (frankincense and peppermint) plus doTerra’s Deep Blue.
The other pharmaceutical likely to be pressed on you out of an abundance of caution is the tetanus shot. You are at risk of tetanus (also called lock jaw for its nervous system affects) if you have a deep puncture wound that was exposed to soil or animal waste. Tetanus is caused by the Clostridium tetani bacteria and the neurotoxins it excretes. Early treatment is important, most typically with tetanus immune globulin (TIG) and vitamin C is highly effective. The problem with the prophylactic shot is that only combination vaccines are available these days that combine additional antigens such as DTaP which includes diphtheria and pertussis and has a high incidence of adverse affects that can permanently alter your long-term health.
The doctors and nurses are usually focused on stopping bleeding and preventing infection. They may not be worrying about the practicalities of you getting back to life or the best way to encourage healing with minimal long-term effects. In my husband’s case they bandaged all four fingers together so tight he was in pain just from the blood restriction. Once we got home we redressed each finger separately, adjusting the details to meet the differing needs (shape of the wound, with/without stiches etc.). Rest for the injured body part is important but blood flow to the area is needed to bring vital nutrients that will encourage healing and fight infection.
Once the initial emergency is handled we may be tempted to get back to our busy lives. But every accident or injury affects the whole body. It needs extra support to heal while also managing the regular stresses of daily life. Make sure you eat well, hydrate obsessively (eight full glasses of water a day, plus broths and herbal teas), avoid sugar, alcohol and processed food, and add supporting nutrients like vitamin C (1,000mg 2-3 times a day). Return to a professional to have any stitches taken out or wound checks. Physical therapy is a good idea to avoid permanent limitations. Other specialists may be recommended.
You may have to wait to be seen in the ER so bring your own snacks if you get a chance to grab them. The food and vending machines are likely to be detrimental to your health (an issue that continues to amaze me). But beyond the visit, healing takes time. Settle in for the long-haul. Figure out what God wants you to learn from the ordeal.
