I don’t find your sometimes short replies ungratefully.
You and I (And others) are in the same boat. My rush to the ER on the 27th of December was scary and very painful as I couldn’t get comfortable no matter what position I placed myself in up until the morphine kicked in.

This was only done after spending 5 hours doubled over in pain in a wheelchair. There were no exam rooms available as the place was packed with people who seemed to just be there because they had the sniffles, wasting valuable time and resources.

What irks me is that they finally did all the work up’s once in the room, only to have the ER doctor and nurses work on dulling my pain, hydrated me with a bag of liquids then the ER doctor walked in to tell me.

“We are transferring you to another hospital “ and “your CT scan showed that you have a tear in your celiac artery and after a consultation with our specialist we have decided to transfer you to a trauma hospital for emergency surgery “ ok I said “no problem, you guys I trust”, While feeling scared. I figured they knew what they were doing. I had spent 14 hours at that hospital ER.

Once placed into an ER on wheels, off we went for a 10 minute ride to the trauma hospital. When I got wheeled into the triage area I saw tons of “standing room only “patients and I said to myself “oh great, here we go again” luckily I was passed through the crowd of drug addicts , alcoholics, people swearing at wanting to be seen and just other people lying quietly in their cots waiting to be seen. I took precedent over them but I felt guilty because the others were probably there for hours only to see me wheeled past them. I got a room right away but it took 12 hours total before they discharged me. Hooking me up to a monitor made me feel safe and they kept coming in and out the whole time until a cardiovascular Surgeon came in and we spoke for a while and said “you are going to have to come back to this hospital but because you’re not bleeding we feel that you are stable enough and we feel that you don’t need to be admitted to the hospital for surgery at the moment but you need to contact your cardiovascular surgeon ASAP.” That was December 28th. I contacted my surgeon and he said “oh the hospitals always say that” Then he proceeded to tell me my annual check up was coming up in March and "I’ll see you then” that was almost 3 months away!!

I had my nurse demand that he see me “now “! He caved and made an appointment for me to come in in 2 days.

His secretary was rude and condescending and she wouldn’t let me into the lobby of empty chairs so I stood at the doorway holding the door half open while she talked on the phone. Reason being is I didn’t have a mask on or with me. I forgot to bring one.

Finally she motioned me over and said “Don’t you live in an assisted living facility? I said “yeah” then she said “shame on them for not providing you with a mask” I felt like letting her have it but I held back. She’s worried about a mask and I’m worried about bleeding to death! What an ass! Sorry. Anyways to try to end this long post, I was taken into the “sonogram room” and after about a half hour I was taken to another room for weight and vitals by another “dry” person and told me “the doctor will be right with you “ and shut the door. So I sat and waited looking at big pictures of arteries on the wall when he finally came in and said “there’s nothing to worry about” we didn’t see a tear”
I said “two different hospitals and two different cardiovascular surgeons saw it!” Only when he was ready to tell me the truth when he said it was “no big deal” and that I don’t have to worry about it. I kept pressing him “can it bleed?” He said nonchalantly “it could but we have ways to treat that”
I think he was annoyed with me asking all these questions and I felt he wanted to get me out of here. “Ok? I’ll see you in March next year.” and left.
I followed him out and he went one way and I went back to the witch behind the desk. She didn’t even look up right away and took forever ( after she hung up the phone), to ask me “when does he want to see you again?” I thought, “you don’t know? You have to rely on me? Don’t you two talk or is he going to give me papers?
I said “in a year” and she’s just staring into the monitor in a gaze! Finally she said “is March the seventh ok? I said yes. “What’s a good time for you “ I said around 10:00 in the morning “ she says “I have a 10:00 or 10:30”
Ten I said. She gave me an appointment card and went back to “work “. In the meantime I’m still in pain.
I get back to my facility and our nurse gave me a “real “ mask with instructions that I go up to my room until Monday a week away!
“Why, what’s going on?”

“One of the residents has Covid” GREAT! I sat next to a woman earlier and it was her! Now I’m exposed to Covid!

The following morning they brought me my meal and she said “ there are six now that have covid!” I couldn’t believe it. Some people are walking around with masks and there’s 5 or 6 people in the dining room (we we’re not supposed to gather there) none were wearing masks. My meal server and staff had no masks on until I made a big stink about it by texting the owner/administrator at 10:00 at night. There’s 24 of us living here and we are all considered “high risk “.
Sorry again for this rediculestly long message .