Do I go to the ER or not?

[ginnaericka]

I'm 23, female, and I've been in relatively good physical health (in terms of not being sick, not shape.) majority of my life. My only "problems" have been my mental issues.

What my problem is is kind of compounded. First, my stomach has been hurting pretty badly for the last 4 days or so. For a while, I figured I was just constipated. I'm not, because I've been able to have bowel movements, albeit infrequently, but they stopped being hard after the second day. Still, when I am trying to go, sometimes I feel a pain in what feels like my rectum/colon/whatever and that pain is best described as someone poking sideways with a pointy thing...but I'm not constipated. It's always the same spot. I've had the non-pokey pain shift on me a few times. First it was flank. Then it was purely lower abdomen. Now it's pretty much down the middle from my belly button to my pubic bone. When I touch slightly the area I think my uterus is, just a little pressure causes me to feel pain. Coughing hurts because my muscles tense up.

At first, I thought I had a bladder infection because this all started after my fiance and I had sex last, which was about 4 days ago. It wasn't rough or anything, but when I went pee, I glanced down into the toilet and there was a bit of blood in the toilet. It wasn't my menstrual period, and my anus wasn't bleeding either, and yet, I haven't had blood in the toilet since. It made me think we'd aggravated my urethra, because I did have urinating difficulty and pain for about a day, but that subsided. Now I just have these pains and I don't know what to do. Add insult to injury, I had an allergic reaction to a chemical in my deodorant, so not only am I dealing with my armpits being rashy, but my lower half is screaming at me too.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, as I haven't got $10k to blow on a maybe at the ER (I don't have insurance of any kind.), especially if I don't have to go.

[mungufuata]

May be a kidney stone.  Those can really aggravate those areas.  Several months ago, one of my stones got stuck and the ER thought it was my uterus/ovaries, so it can happen in that area if ones gets stuck in the urethra...and it can take awhile for the soreness to go away once it's passed because they cause such serious spasms of the urethra and the surrounding organs.

[ginnaericka]

How are kidney stones formed? Are they the things I've been hearing about that are like little pebbles that you wind up peeing out? I'm just freaking out because I don't want to have to go to the ER for treatment if it's not absolutely necessary. I'm the type that won't even take Nyquil if I have a massive cold and can't open my eyes or breathe from it. I don't do things unless it's absolutely necessary.

[spade22]

Are you able to see a regular doctor?  Some places charge on a slidding pay scale for those that dont have insurance.  Certainly a cheaper option than the ER, thats for sure.

[ginnaericka]

I'm not able to. I just got hired for a new job yesterday, but it's minimum wage, and my only options in terms of a doctor is going down to County Primary Care and waiting from open to close to MAYBE be seen by a doctor, and there's no promise I'll even be charged low for the visit. The only doctor types I can go see without being charged an arm and a leg are my psychiatrist (very low income and homeless people program.) and if I wanted to, Planned Parenthood.

[sheepfarmer]

you need to move to Canada

[spade22]

Is there ANYTHING else in your area?  I just moved from a small town in the mid-west w/ 10,000 people where even the KFC shut down by 9pm on Friday night.  In any case, we had 2 walk-in clinics that were open until 7pm at night and one that operated on Saturday mornings.

If something like that isnt available to you, a drive (even if it is 3 h away) to a center that is open on weekends (on whenever you dont work) is something you can consider.

Remember, there is ALWAYS a solution - are you prepared for a little inconvenience to save $10,000?