If it’s urgent, I go down there. If not, I schedule an appointment (how soon usually depends on the severity. Can be the next day, or the next week).
Example: My oldest kid (12 years old at the time) fractured his arm while in school last spring. I was notified right away, so I picked him up at school and took him to the local clinic (3 minutes away) . The doctor wanted some xrays done, so he referred him to the local hospital and gave him some painkillers for the one hour trip (we live kind of in the middle of nowhere).
We arrived at the ICU (it was after “office hours”), so we had to wait 30 minutes for the x-ray tech to be available. Turned out a titanium rod insert was needed, which requires anesthesia, so they couldn’t do it the same day because of fasting requirements. Operation “scheduled” for the next day. He was given a temporary cast.
Day arrived, and while there was a bit of wait since it was something they’d just have to insert into the schedule for the day whenever possible. Surgery went according to plan, and he was given a sandwich upon waking up, as he hadn’t eaten since the day before. He had a new cast on that he had to keep for a couple of weeks. The local clinic could remove it, but they wanted to do it at the hospital so they could do a follow up xray to see that it was healing properly.
A few weeks later, and things looked good. Cast removed.
A couple of months ago he had the titanium rod removed without much ado.
My only expense was the fuel cost for driving to the hospital.
The only negative feedback I have is that my son didn’t get to keep the titanium rod as a souvenir after they removed it. I guess the doctors have better things to do than washing gore off of scrap metal.
If it’s urgent, I go down there. If not, I schedule an appointment (how soon usually depends on the severity. Can be the next day, or the next week).
Example: My oldest kid (12 years old at the time) fractured his arm while in school last spring. I was notified right away, so I picked him up at school and took him to the local clinic (3 minutes away) . The doctor wanted some xrays done, so he referred him to the local hospital and gave him some painkillers for the one hour trip (we live kind of in the middle of nowhere).
We arrived at the ICU (it was after “office hours”), so we had to wait 30 minutes for the x-ray tech to be available. Turned out a titanium rod insert was needed, which requires anesthesia, so they couldn’t do it the same day because of fasting requirements. Operation “scheduled” for the next day. He was given a temporary cast.
Day arrived, and while there was a bit of wait since it was something they’d just have to insert into the schedule for the day whenever possible. Surgery went according to plan, and he was given a sandwich upon waking up, as he hadn’t eaten since the day before. He had a new cast on that he had to keep for a couple of weeks. The local clinic could remove it, but they wanted to do it at the hospital so they could do a follow up xray to see that it was healing properly.
A few weeks later, and things looked good. Cast removed.
A couple of months ago he had the titanium rod removed without much ado.
My only expense was the fuel cost for driving to the hospital.
The only negative feedback I have is that my son didn’t get to keep the titanium rod as a souvenir after they removed it. I guess the doctors have better things to do than washing gore off of scrap metal.