[travelinjones]

I'm a nurse who was raised by a nurse, who was raised by a nurse, and most of my aunts and cousins are nurses. ER, OR, L&D, ICU, Peds, ortho... you name it, we've got it covered. In our family, if a kid was bleeding, the rule of thumb is we have to 'hear it bleeding' before shipping off to the ER. We also always had emergency medical supplies at home when I was growing up. IVF, sutures, etc... all the goods that would keep us out of the ER...all of us were delivered at home, and several cousins have done the same with their own.
I broke my foot in a foreign (developing) country on a surf trip. Got xrays and casted in the ER. It was cheap, and efficient. Go figure...

[stelon]

I have never gone to the ER for myself. Anytime I've had any bad pains now and growing up I've been taken to urgent care. The worst time was when I was about nine and experiencing the worst pain I'd ever felt in my life in my abdomen. It was bad enough I was at home screaming my head off and my parents still took me to urgent care.

Looking back now I have no idea if the pain was as bad as I remember it being--they ran a few tests and concluded that my parents could look for my first period to be coming soon.

Now it would take a LOT for me to go the ER personally. I did end up there for my dad last winter. He was having chest pain and a bp of something like 192/104. I was at home with him and he told me "I'll be right back!" And took off to the ER without letting me know. I wanted to kill him! I only found out because they wouldn't let him drive himself home.