The Doctor is In
If you have kids, you’ll rush to the emergency room at least once during those early years. Someone will get hurt or become suddenly ill that will make you and your Number 1 debate for a few moments: “Should we go? We should go.”
And you go. Usually at about 10:45 pm.
And once there, you wait. And wait, and wait. Everybody seems to be there, and for the same reason. Their child is also in their pajamas, flopped over their parent’s shoulder, eyes watching the T.V. playing Finding Nemo. But mostly they’re just exhausted. And so are you.
You’re finally seen and the nurses and doctors run their tests and tell you it’s probably just this or that and to call us if anything changes.
Then you go home and go to bed and your kid has a miraculous recovery between 3 and 7:30 am.
It’s not always like this. Sometimes there are true traumas that need immediate attention, and yes, thank God for E.R. professionals.
As a parent, you love the people who have dedicated their lives to being there, always at the ready to take in the injured and sick.
But you hate the wait. Americans hate waiting. Actually, more than anything we love to complain about waiting, but in reality we don’t mind waiting at all. It allows us some quality time with our phones.
Beside the point.
The point is, we have to wait to be seen by healthcare professionals because everybody is need of care all the time.
During the pandemic, however, we’ve taught ourselves to stay home—to not rush to the emergency room. Good in most cases, I’d say, maybe bad in others. If you have to go, go.
But if you don’t, don’t. Our son took a fall early on in the pandemic. His back hit a sharp corner and a bruised bubble popped up right at his spine. We played the “should we/shouldn’t we go” game, but with a novel virus afoot, we didn’t want to go. But with that bump, we needed care.
Enter the video visit. Within 15 minutes, a doctor was on our laptop. Though we couldn’t see her, she could see us, and she had us move the camera to the injury. She had him move his arms in certain ways, hop up and down, etc. “Hematoma,” she said. “Just keep icing it and it will be almost all gone by tomorrow.”
We thanked the wise voice coming through at our kitchen table, closed the laptop, and went about our evening. It was easy. Almost too easy, and afterward, we agreed that all visit should be like that.
During this time, we’ve had a couple more virtual visits for other reasons, and each has been a good experience. I did have to go for my annual physical a few weeks ago; that’s something that just can’t be done via computer.
This pandemic, however, is teaching us that our healthcare needs might not be as urgent as we often think, and that doctors will still be our lifeline, albeit on the other side of the screen.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash