Apytele@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
If it’s new shortness of breath or chest pain , particularly the crushing variety that feels like something is sitting on you, do not pass go, do not collect money, straight to the ER. Same goes for sudden severe lower back or abdominal pain or sudden heavy bleeding out of your orifices (more than a super maxi-pad full every two hours if you’ve got that genital configuration). There’s a few other little things like a continuous erection more than 4 hours. Also you should learn the signs of a stroke (Google “stroke” FAST). If you’re not sure, look up the local ERs number (not 911) and ask for the “triage nurse” and ask them.
If it’s been going on / steadily getting worse for over a month it can (probably) wait one more week if that’s all it will take to see your primary care physician or see a specialist.
If it’s sudden but you know exactly what you did like if you pulled a muscle or sprained a joint at work or cut or burned your arm while cooking (I specify arm, if you cut or burn your hand, face, genitals, or foot, measure how big it is and call that triage nurse) or if you forgot to pee after sex or did it with somebody sketchy and now it hurts to pee, go to the urgent care. Or if your petri dish of a preschooler brought home something and you’re not sure if it’s strep but you almost definitely need a note for work. Or if you have an old cut but now it’s looking puffy and oozing weird liquids (but it’s still localized to that one little area, you don’t have a fever or anything). If you can look at it and already have a general laymans idea of what they’re gonna do to it, go to the urgent care.
dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Great criteria. Another “straight to the ER” one is loss of consciousness; people get knocked out in movies all the time so it’s easy to assume it’s fine, but it’s not.
Fondots@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I work in 911 dispatch, it drives me nuts how many people lose consciousness for various reasons, and then when they come to they say they’re fine and don’t need to be checked out.
There’s maybe some very narrow exceptions for people with known conditions that they’re already managing with the help of a doctor and they know exactly what’s causing it.
But in general, if you’re losing consciousness that’s a bad sign and you need to see a doctor about that ASAP
Apytele@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Oh yeah I was thinking about adding head bumps but forgot / wasn’t sure where to add it.
dexa_scantron@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Losing consciousness for any reason = ER. A friend passed out during dinner and we weren’t sure what to do, so we called the triage nurse and they were like “ER now!” (He was fine, they never figured out what happened and it’s never happened again, but it’s definitely stayed with me.)
Fosheze@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s happened to me a while back because of a likely electrolyte imbalance. I actually passed out in the hospital urgent care because I had gone in for feeling so shitty. Then they call an ambulance to take me from the urgent care doors to the ER doors across the parking lot. Of course the first thing they did before the ambulance even got there was put a saline IV in so by the time I got to the ER I felt perfectly fine and the tests didn’t find anything. Doc said I probably just had low sodium. That’s also where I learned for the first time that SSRIs sap sodium from your body which seems like something they should tell you when they put you on them.