I had a cycling accident, bike tipped over at 40km/h (25mph) and abraded my skin away on one hand in a 2cm (1 inch) circle
I got an appointment at my local doctor at zero cost, but it was almost a week later. Doctor confirmed it was healing well.
It’s cheap here in Australia, but there can be a wait when it’s not urgent
Though once in hospital for suspected heart problem (it was actually just panic attacks) someone was in for spider bites. Redbacks (practically the same spider as the black widow) had nested in the space between his bed head and the wall, and he had been bitten several times was trying to retrieve something that had fallen behind the bed. He was not having a good day
I went to Urgent Care because I got a cut in my hand from glass. It was pretty huge, but not bad, and I held it together with wraps.
In that waiting room was 20 people in front of me.
Most were disheveled. They look homeless or was struggling with mental issues.
It is absolutely insane how little resources we dedicate to not helping people with mental issues, and so they have to use other services and end up flooding these places. And my heart goes out to them. It truly does.
In fact this isn’t too wrong for lots and lots of spiders out there. Most of the time all you have to do is disinfect the bite location with some alcohol and drink lots and lots of water.
To be fair. In a developed country with free health care the doctor probably would have either sent him home to sleep it off or maybe to a specialist where it takes months to get an appointment.
I had this happen to me in Canada but the bite had swollen up to the size of a softball. Most painful bite of my life - like searing white heat agony.
Anyway, drove 15 mins to the closest clinic and got in within 20 minutes. Gave me a course of antibiotics and told me to go to the hospital or call 911 if it got worse.
Personally, I’ve got bitten by a spider around a month ago.
I know what spiders are dangerous here, it wasn’t one of those. My foot was swollen for a couple of days, and I could have gone to a doctor at any time. But getting out to the doctor, explaining something weird, making a battery of exams, all while sick, and for no treatment at all really sucks.
Just herniated a disc and was told it’s really bad. Can’t afford treatment so I go back to full duty at work with a physical bulge in my spine. Not really sure why I’m paying $600/m with no damn benefit
Oddly enough talk to your physical therapist. Their cash price is probably cheaper than what insurance pays them. My copay was $50/session. The cash price was $35/session.
That’s a really great price! I have really good insurance so fortunately I don’t have to worry about it, but the last time I had PT I overheard someone in the waiting room paying $150 a pop. 😬
I tried calling around. The cheapest is $40/session and could range from 10-20 sessions due to how bad it is. I don’t have the spare money for that. I make $120 at the end of the month and I can’t even save that most of the time due to surprise expenses all the time.
If you can afford the $40 once they will probably be willing to work with you on exercises that you can do until you can afford another session. Patients having trouble affording it is a very common problem, and they’re used to modifying plans on the fly to accommodate patient needs.
Sorry dude, I know it’s fucking awful to be living with a herniated disc.
Thank you for this advice! I spoke with them and they were able to help me by sending me home with a plan. I really appreciate your advice because I was really defeated over this.
I’m not American, and just wondering if it’s a requirement to have the $600/m taken from your pay, which I’m assuming is for health insurance? That’s a crazy amount to throw away every year, especially if you still have to pay extra for treatments that you need for functioning.
I’m not sure the laws and such but I only have the insurance because I have a 6y/o who does need medications and regular visits. Though we got a letter letting us know they will no longer be covering them. We have insurance through my wife who has to have it in order to cover our daughter and to add me isn’t much more so that’s the only reason I even have it.
If you are actively dying or at risk of sudden death you get to cut the line. If you’re waiting a long time in the ER it’s because there are people sicker than you, or a lot of people as sick as you in front of you. Stable but needs treatment is basically the bottom of the list.
Buddy, in America we could wait 12 hours, get a $1000 bill to look at it, then wait 12 weeks to actually get treatment if the radioactive spider bite requires referral to a specialist, followed by a $4000+ bill if the only radioarachnidologist is “out of network”…
Welcome to literally all emergency rooms anywhere. They’re emergency rooms, the bigger the emergency, the further up the line you move. A spider bite in many instances is not that big of an emergency. A spider bite from an experimental radioactive spider with who knows what done to it? That’s at the “getting a government agency involved” level of emergency.
Last time I was in a U.S. Emergency Room, I was there a good 10-12 hours. The time before that, it was 8 or 9. And both times I came early in the day when there was almost no one in the waiting room.
My wife was in hospital for six hours and the bill was $60,000. Luckily our insurance is great and covered it all except for our $100 copay for ER visits.
Very different from Australia where I’m originally from, where we wouldn’t have received a bill at all.
He actually tried to make an appointment, but he hadn't specified a Primary Care Physician through his HMO and none of the local doctors were accepting new patients. And radioactive spider bites are going to require a referral to a specialist. Good luck with that.
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