So, just when DO you go to the Emergency Room?

This is not a how-to. It is not advice about medical care, or when to seek it. Today I’m STRICTLY chatting about the ever-changing situation of aging and trying to decipher how the system works and what’s best for one individual.

All my life the decision to visit an E.R. has been fraught with uncertainty. The older I get the more confounding it becomes.

About 10 days ago I started feeling the effects of catching whatever bug our Great Grandkids were carrying. I didn’t mind. Still don’t MIND. But that doesn’t mean that the last 10 days have been easy — or that the saga is done, even as I type this.

Before Medicare the thought of an E.R. visit was life changing. We never had a fat bank account and knowing the way the U.S. healthcare system works (or doesn’t work) we always approached the need for an E.R. visit with fear. In my entire lifetime I doubt I visited the E.R. more than two or three times. Once I looked up towards the sky during a Milwaukee Braves baseball game and someone threw something up into the air and I ended up with an eye full of grit — the outcome came out OK but I know my dad was scared witless. I visited E.R.’s a few times for dad’s. heart problems, but not as a patient. I fell off my truck once while loading steel bars at a company in Northern Indiana — and drove to Milwaukee with a broken wrist. The next morning I was in agony and made no quibbles about the E.R. visit that time. I had gall bladder surgery that started out in the E.R. but that was memorable because the surgeon had hands like a truck driver and my surgical scar from the mid 1970’s looks like a heart surgery zipper that started at my sternum and ended at my naval. And that’s about it.

Since retiring and hitting the magic age for Medicare I have been more willing to take up precious medical resources but never at the drop of a hat. Out of 5 or 6 visits in the last 10 years only one ended up being a case where there was nothing actually needing action — the doctor prescribed some pain killers and basically told me to live with it. But…. the other visits were all necessary and I’m glad I went.

Since COVID I have avoided any kind of cough/flu/cold completely. COVID scarred the bejeezus out of me. All my life I have been prone to deep lung infections. I always struggle through them. Until this one I don’t think I’ve ever taken anything for the congestion or mucus — just choosing to live with the discomfort rather than ingest a bunch of chemicals that only address symptoms not causes. The result is that my cough lasts a good long time. A really good long time. A really really good long time. So, when I started feeling punk recently I had my misgivings.

There have been a couple times that I wondered, “Should I?”

Thus far I haven’t, even after 5 days of Mucinex (which has done a passable job controlling some of the symptoms). I know I’m stubborn. But I really don’t like clogging up the healthcare system with nuisance visits.

We are scheduled for a routine 6 month visit to our GP in another 11 days. I thought maybe I should try to reschedule that visit earlier, but visiting a GP for something more involved usually means the GP referring you to some other professional who’s office is pretty fully booked and you have to wait one or two or three months to get an appointment — at which point it’s no longer a relevant visit.

I don’t know. Maybe in a few days I’ll end up there anyway. Or not. All I know is that healthcare in the U.S. is a quagmire in MY brain. Others may have it sussed out. I’m sure a lot of people show up at the E.R. a lot sooner than I do — and that’s their choice. It’s just not me.

I don’t need to be told: “go to the E.R. right now.” Depending on what happens to my symptoms I’ll figure it out myself. Yeah, I’m stubborn.

Talk to you tomorrow, I hope. With a fuzzy head it’s been a challenge writing. That’s part of the reason I hate taking meds that mask symptoms — they also do other things to your body like cloud your brain.

Oh well. Take care of yourself. I’m trying to do the same.