New experience.....not my favorite

I had a very new experience this afternoon/evening. I had finished my portfolio introduction meeting and was headed back to my apartment when I get a call from my roommate. She asks where I am and if I can come get her and take her to the ER. Well of course I said yes, where was she, and how do I get there. After circling 2 parking lots looking for the NC license plate, I found her and we headed to Loma Linda's ER.

On the way she told me she was having trouble breathing, always a scary thing, most likely some sort of allergic reaction but not so bad that she was fading fast or anything! She was doing decently when we got there so I dropped her off at the door and went to find a parking spot. She told me I didn't need to stay, but I felt like I needed to! So I parked, and headed back inside the hospital. She was in a wheelchair filling out forms so it wasn't hard to hang beside her and make sure everything was going the way it was supposed to, as far as I was aware anyways. She complained enough to get her stats taken right away and they were good so again we had to wait.

I'll suffice it to say we waited from 6:15pm to 10:56pm and never saw a doctor. After having oxygen for a couple hours breathing had become easier and by 9:30pm we were both itching to get out! She made the call to leave, I tried not to pressure her at all! But I officially HATE the ER!

This was my first experience being in the ER. I've never had to go and I haven't gone with anyone before either. I have to say that waiting almost 5 hours is a little overkill! I was not impressed by the system at all! I wish I could be an ER doc and move things along in a timely manner! But since that's not my path I'll try to stay as far away from that place as possible!

As a last note, my roommate is currently doing fine. We are heading to bed and I hope that she will have a good night with no complications, however if she does we'll be heading back out to the stupid ER only this time I'll be a little bit louder about what we need to have happen! And we might just call EMS cause it would certainly be faster!