Woke up nauseaous, vomited about five times, and the last one included blood so I went to the emergency room. I spoke to a doctor for less than five minutes and received no imaging. There was one routine blood draw and an IV with saline and Zofran.
God damn America. $3042 to walk in the door. I could have literally flown back to England and been seen at an NHS hospital for a 5th of the cost.
The only thing I wanted was a laryngoscopy to identify whether it was a simple esophageal tear- which it was- or something requiring surgery. They never even tried to visualise it with hand instruments and I already have zofran in my medkit. Just a complete waste of time. In the non-profit hospitals I've worked in that would be an immediate radiology transport and detailed examination.
The blood is scary yeah
Honestly one of the worst parts about it is the humiliation of when I have to go in, the first thing that crosses my mind isn’t will I recover, it’s how much is this gonna cost me
That was my immediate thought. Looked in the toilet, saw the blood, reasoned that if I keep vomiting it's probably going to increase the bleeding and it's happening every 30~ minutes without slowing down. "Well an ambulance would cost $1000 and I bet I can drive there before I start vomiting blood all over my car if I just drive fast."