No Mercy Health Support

After my latest fall, I found myself in my doctor's office. My right leg hamstrings were screaming angry. I knew I must have messed up something serious. My doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer and sent me home.

Tuesday morning I got up and fell again, this time in excruciating pain, unable to put any weight on my leg, unable to move at all. My screams scared the boys quickly out of bed. They brought me the phone and I called for my husband to come home from work.

My husband carried me to the chiropractor and I was grateful after that first adjustment, I could at least shuffle my feet. The pain never went away entirely however.

Thursday morning I had to call my husband home again. I have experienced 44 hours of labor and 20 minutes of pushing out an almost 10 pound baby. I have experienced passing kidney stones. The pain I experienced Thursday was like nothing I could have imagined. I screamed most of Thursday and when I could form words, I asked for God to take me. The pain was consuming me. I felt I was in hell. My husband and family were the only reasons I was choosing to fight on.

Calling my doctor, the nurse told me to call 911 and go to the Emergency room rather than an Urgent Care center. Her logic was they would call my neurologist down for a consult. I choose to skip the expensive ambulance and my husband drove me to the ER.

When we arrived at Mercy Hospital ER, no one was there. No receptionist, no one in the waiting room, no one around anywhere!! For a long 5-10 minutes, I cried and whaled, as we contemplated now calling 911. Where the hell was everyone? The receptionist finally showed up and checked us in. I was brought to an ER room where in tremendous pain, I could not sit or lay down. I could only stand up and bend over the sink.

After waiting forever, I was given a percocet and shot of anti-inflammatory and sent home. The pain was still present and I was in agony.  I was only given a prescription for a day's worth of oxycodone. They told my husband my foot was numb because I was breathing too fast. They never called neurology for me.

Thursday night the pain became worse and I really wanted to die, thinking nothing could take me from this misery. We called the ER doctor back and all she said was, "It should be working. We've done all we could do for you."


Friday morning I called my regular doctor's office to follow up as instructed by the ER doctor. My regular doctor was closed. The answering service refused to put me through to the doctor on call. I called the ER at Mercy and told them I couldn't see my regular doctor to get a regular prescription for pain relief. The ER doctor refused to refill the order for the weekend to get me to Monday. Saturday, I ran out of prescription pain killers and resorted to taking Advil.

It was Tuesday before an MRI was done of my spine. Wednesday I learned I have a herniated disc at L5 S1. The sticky, jelly like material that is suppose to cushion my vertebrae had oozed out all over pushing my nerve out of place in the process. This is why I can't feel my foot and part of my calf and why I have excruciating pain in my upper leg and lower back.

I am very frustrated with how I was treated at the Mercy Emergency room. Why they didn't x-ray or scan me that day I don't understand. I feel like they viewed me as a drug abuser trying to score.

I am equally frustrated with my doctor's answering service for not putting me through even to a nurse when I asked.

I did call my doctor on Monday and complain. What good it did, I don't know.

I understand policies are in place to prevent medications from being abused, but I feel like I've been abused in the process. After experiencing such a depth of pain, I cannot understand why we don't do more to help people.