Details of the ER Trip

I went to Urgent Care yesterday morning, because my throat was not responding to the usual treatments, gargling, lozenges, slippery elm tea etc.  I wasn't running a fever, but the pain was intensifying and a couple of other symptoms suggested in could be a bacterial infection.  The UC did a rapid strep test (which was negative).  They gave me antibiotics and some stuff to numb my throat, that does nothing.  After that, they sent me home with some instructions.

I went to the ER because I was told if I started to run a fever and/or my throat closed up, I was supposed to seek attention.  I took a nap and woke up with my throat so closed that I had difficulty swallowing water and I was running a fever of 102.  Thus my trip to the ER.

By the time i went through ER triage my temperature had gone down to 99.7.  I spiked a fever of 102 while I was being seen, which seemed to make them a bit worried.  They kept me for observation until they could get my fever down and made sure that the steroids worked.

The doctor made me feel like I shouldn't have gone to the ER for something so trivial as tonsillitis. They didn't seem to believe when I said that I was having trouble swallowing water.  I believe the doctor was an ass and was wrong.  I think his poor opinion was because the staff took a shitty case history and i don't think the doctor even bothered to really look at it.  (As an example, as someone diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease, it means that tonsillitis can be a big deal.)

No one asked me if I had received a steroid shot, I guess that they just assumed it had been given, since I had been seen earlier in the day.  I didn't know to tell them one way of the other, because I don't have allergies, so the idea of steroids to treat swollen lymph nodes doesn't occur to me (and again, as someone with Hashimoto's steroids aren't something I can take lightly).  They also didn't seem to understand that I didn't have a fever when I had been seen earlier in the day.  It was later that I was spiking a fever or 102, despite having taken ibuprofen.  (And guess what, delayed fever reaction is another thing typical of Hashimoto's, which I didn't know until I spent this morning reading about it.)

In the ER's defense, they were slammed.  Part of the problem is that there are only two hospitals in my city, one Kaiser, one for everyone else.  The ER is always crowded.  If it had been an hour earlier, I could have been treated by Urgent Care, in fact had the Urgent Care doctor given me the steroid, I probably wouldn't have needed to go at all.

On the upside, I have learned that I really need to clarify that I have Hashimoto's when being seen by medical professionals.  Doctors are most likely to note the medication I take, and assume that I have something more common with fewer medical complications.