3 wks out NAUSEA, VOMITING, HEARTBURN and EXTREME PAIN under skin at the largest...

I have been sick as a dog since the day before Christmas. I called my Surgeon's office and spoke to the incompetent office staff. Was told I could come in on Thursday to see the nurse because my doctor is out until the second week in January. After explaining the seriousness of my situation and the fact I can't wait that long. Plus what is a nurse going to do for me. She cant perform any test to tell me what's going on. Was told she would call the nurse who is on duty at another hospital and have her call me.Of course I haven't heard back from them yet. What do you think I should do? Go to any hospital's ER or go to one my doctor at least practices out of excluding the one I had my surgery at which was horrible. Please advise.

If you are having extreme pain, I would go to the ER.  If you are unable to keep fluids down, I would also go to the ER.

Only you know how you are - we have tons of "I'm dying" posts on here when honestly, if  you are well enough to come on here and post about it, you really probably aren't ER  bad ...  However, that is your call and not anyone on here!

If you really believe something is seriously wrong (ie the level of EXTREME pain) then go to the ER immediately.  

If, on the other hand, you are feeling a bit rough with some discomfort, then you need to keep to fluids and think about going to see a PCP or maybe Urgent Care or wait it out until Thursday!

 

Please go to the ER. If you are ok, they will send you home. I am appalled that one of our own WLS family members would say that if you are ok to post here, you are not "ER bad". Maybe there are some posts that people cry wolf, but yours certainly is NOT one of them. You may even have the flu. I would think that even a flu bug would be a reason to be seen this early out. Also, you could even have an infection, since you are having incision troubles. Please let us know how you feel and how you made out. We care. Shame on your weight center. There is always a surgeon on call. Go to the er, see the attending surgeon n call and let them know that you just ad RNY surgery. PLEASE come back and tell us you are better.

At least acknowledge or quote my entire post - picking and choosing sentences does not constitute the meaning of a whole post!

After the sentence you quoted, there were suggestions to go to the ER, Urgent Care, PCP or wait for the appointment she had on Thursday ...  

The ER is an Emergency Room, it is not for sickness or discomfort - it is for EMERGENCIES and if you go when you are not an emergency, they will just send you home with no treatment!   OH is NOT the place to be tooling around if you require EMERGENCY treatment!

If you require IV fluids, pain relief etc, Urgent Care is the place to go ...   Too many people use the ER as their Primary Care Physician.

Neither you nor I know anything about this woman, what's wrong with her, or how she's really feeling - telling her to go to the Emergency Room when it may not be necessary is no more helpful than ignoring her post!

 

 

I think your response was very appropriate, especially given the number of people lately who have posted about "dying" or going to the ER and being sent home after having nothing but a bunch of tests run.  Only the OP honestly knows how bad her pain is.

Yes, more people need to consult with their PCPs or go to an urgent care rather than go to the ER if their surgeon isnt available.  When people go to the ER when they don't need to, it just utilizes resources the people with true medical emergencies may need (and costs insurance companies a fortune).

This had always been one of my pet peeves, but after an ER took a woman with a single degree of fever and an entire family who had the flu ahead of me when I checked in with severe abdominal pain and lots of significant spontaneous bruising, now it really presses my buttons. 

I ended up driving myself 20+ minutes to another ER, and they saw me right away. I didn't realize until afterwards that what I should've done was stayed at the initial ER, made a scene if necessary and insisted on having someone with medical training coming out to the waiting room to explain to me why, given my bruising (including the bottoms of my feet and the palms of hands!), people with a slight fever and the flu were going in ahead of me.  Even if the family had no medical insurance and that's why they were using the ER, it was NOT an emergency.  Mine WAS (Dx with internal bleeding and a protime/INR so high the machine reported an error.)

People DO use exaggeration in their posts on here ...  

Who the heck knows what "EXTREME" pain means to the OP?   To me, it means calling a paramedic and having them pick me up and take me to the ER because no one, even post op, should be in EXTREME pain!

To someone else, it may mean they need more Vicodin, and to stick to fluids for a couple of days and that is certainly no reason to go to the ER.  

If the OP has a stricture or ulcer (both of which are possible at 3 weeks), her surgeon's office will need to deal with it by appointment - an ER doc is NOT going to treat either of those unless she's messing up the seating area with pints of blood! 

 

I have noticed all the posts on all the forums  that are OMG, then they return come back on here to let us know they were sent home  with no help or anti nausea, The sad reality of the ER is they are not trained to deal with RNY problems, I made sure my PCP was somewhat educated before i began this journey becaause i wanted to know i had someone in my corner and he has always been able to handle the issues with me, Most  Surgeons have little or no follow up care, after the 6 month follow up, they are cutters, So i would have talked to the On call Dr. or called my Pcp if i were her, Me i would have called my PCP,  I saw my surgeon twice after my surgery, never felt the need for him again,

I agree. We do not know enough to tell her whether or not she should go to the ER. I know if I called my surgeon's office and they thought it was serious, they would tell me to go to the ER and not to come in to the office on Thursday. 

If I were in doubt, I would go to the ER.

If the pain you're experiencing is just under one of the incisions as your title seems to indicate, it likely isn't a medical emergency. If you feel the pain is really severe though, then by all means go to the ER. If you go to the ER, though, and they don't find anything that is life-threatening, they will just release you with maybe a prescription for nausea meds and instructions to follow up with your  doctor. 

At only 3 weeks out, however, you DO need medical advice.  I would call the surgeon's office or your local medical society if there is one, and ask who is covering for your surgeon.  There HAS to be someone if the surgeon is out for several weeks.  Contact that surgeon for advice.

If you cannot contact the covering surgeon, I would suggest getting into see your primary care physician (or going to an Urgent Care) instead.  Your PCP can look at the incision in question, can prescribe meds for nausea, and can tell you whether or not you need to be seen in the ER.

Lora

edited for typos/autocorrect