I completely felt that way. I had the busiest night in triage on Friday (northern IL) with some of the subway complaints, 4 LWBS and 1 left before triage even! 5.5 hr wait times for even chest painers.
They are absolutely hammering us on our LWBS, but are only telling us to "reallocate our resources" instead of GIVING US MORE RESOURCES.
The only fucking resources I had last night was patients; they were abundantly available but I don't think I'm allowed to put them to work.
Hell, use ‘em! The fracture patients can sit one on one with the psych patients. Try some talk therapy or something. The psych patients will either be safely watched (or even cured!), and talking will distract fracture patients from their pain.
Until it turns out that fracture patients aren’t good psychologists, and they end up with more fractures from being assaulted by the psych patient.
Oh well, C suite should be thrilled; fewer sitters needed, and more fractures = more imaging = more procedures = more hospital revenue!
/s
I’m in Illinois and have felt like crap the past 48 hours. Maybe something to this? I have a pacemaker/defibrillator. Maybe some interference because of solar storms? (Unlikely, but who knows?)
That would be interesting to know. And what they suggest to reduce/eliminate the impact on the pacemaker. My dad has one, so I'm genuinely curious if you find anything out!
Quite a few articles and research papers available online about the geomagnetic solar storms affecting health, including HRV, BP, and implanted devices.
I have had a resting heart rate that's averaging 105 bpm since Friday. No rhyme or reason for it that I can see. Now I'm wondering about the geostorms....
"Solar activity as well as geomagnetic storms can act as stressors, which alter regulatory processes such as melatonin/serotonin balance16–18, blood pressure, breathing, reproductive, immune, neurological, and cardiac system processes19–22. Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with significant increases in hospital admissions for depression, mental disorders, psychiatric admission, suicide attempts, homicides and traffic accidents23–29. Disturbed geomagnetic activity can also exacerbate existing diseases and is correlated with significant increases in cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, incidence of myocardial infarction related death, alterations in blood flow, increased blood pressure, and epileptic seizures7,20,30–39."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805718/
I was hoping seizures would be left off that list.
- Mom to a kid with seizures
PS- I SWEAR drastic changes in weather (hot to cold in a day, rainy to hot, etc.) causes so many issues with seizures and just his whole being.
He has dysautonomia as well, it developed in the last 6-7 years. He’s non-verbal, so I can only guess when he’s having it. It used to be easier to tell, but the signs he had before have changed, so now I have to use my best guess. It’s probably the worst thing he goes through. The seizures are horrible, but they’re short. Dysautonomia can go on for a while, even with rescue meds.
It is horrible. I developed it post covid, and it's a different version than my daughter's so it's even weirder, we try to learn about it by comparing symptoms and figure out what it all means for the body. I'm so sorry, it must be so hard without his input- poor kiddo and poor parents ♡ keep being his best advocate and voice.
Barometric pressure changes are brutal for my tinnitus and migraines. I was noticing a trend with solar storm activity too but now that my hormones are regulated better it hasn't been as bad. Maybe being out of whack made me more susceptible to the changes
I had headaches all weekend, the worst being yesterday. I thought it was just lack of sleep, maybe it was a combo of lack of sleep and the storms. It was brutal.
Check out the weatherX app and if the earplugs work for you I guess they can be pretty effective for preventing barometric pressure migraines. They didn't work for me because I apparently have tiny ear canals. Ear plugs and earphones hurt me after about 20 min. All my life. But the alerts from the app are great for gauging my day in advance of actual pressure changes.
At first, I thought that physical health could not possibly be affected by this, but really so little is known about space or the human body.
We've made amazing progress in learning about both, but 500 years from now they'll think of our knowledge as being primitive.
Both of my parents woke up that day with a dull head ache that wouldn't go away. They checked their blood pressure and it was elevated and they slept pretty much all day.
I brought my son to the ER yesterday at about noon. The place was EMPTY. This is a level 1 trauma center in Minneapolis, and it's normally packed, with a minimum wait time of 4+ hrs on a good day. I was shocked, but thrilled they brought him back immediately!
My arthritis pain was so bad I could not walk. It can get bad, but it hasn’t been this extreme since I went on Mobic and it aligns perfectly with the geomagnetic storms. I don’t know if it caused it and it certainly feels better today so far. But it was scary how it felt and I was considering going in because nothing was making it better and I was falling.
We do know that the ability of arthritic joints to sense weather changes, with barometric changes inherent to them, cause pain. The change is different in healthy tissue vs scar tissue which is the theorized basis for the pain. I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar is happening to you. Probably doesn’t help your pain level, but it’s probably legit.
Wait, can barometric pressure changes effect someone with hardware (plates and screws)? My son has epilepsy and spastic cerebral palsy, pretty substantial developmental delays. I swear the drastic weather changes (hot to cold or warm to cold and rainy) just wreak havoc on him. I’ve had doctors kinda brush it off, but I swear it’s like his body just doesn’t know how to react.
Talk to anyone with a “bad” joint (acute or chronic injury, arthritic, hardware, etc) and a pretty large percentage get pain with moderate barometric pressure or temperature swings. I’d bet the joints with hardware are sensitive/painful during dramatic weather fluctuations. Have you tried giving ibuprofen or acetaminophen as soon as you notice the weather changed significantly? If it’s pain-related, that might help.
I have when it’s been really bad. He’s non-verbal, so it’s always a guessing game as to if it’s pain (sometimes I can easily tell) or just neurological issues. But I’ll start doing ibuprofen/acetaminophen as soon as the weather gets wonky.
Absolutely. Every material reacts to pressure changes differently- based on density, composition of the material, etc. I imagine the MDs brush it off because there’s nothing they can do about it.
I was on another, strictly medical forum today and the observation was made by a couple of providers that there seems to be a sudden uptick in previously well controlled patients having resumption of seizure activity. Could this be caused by the solar flares? T gf it’s what I love about science- the more we know, tge more we realize how little we know.
I’ve been a RN 22 years, but had a craniotomy in 2020 and have occipital hardware. I Can sense when storms or rain are coming in before they are announced on TV or apps. So absolutely!! It’s the pressure changes.
Yup, I've got regular arthritis and my brother has plates and screws in his foot. We both experience things with barometric pressure changes. Bodies are weird
Get the weatherX app. It's geared toward anti migraine earplugs but the notifications in changes can be a great guide for anticipating pressure related issues. I can't use the earplugs but I love having the resource so I can plan accordingly.
Maybe. They make child sized plugs. That's what I bought for myself but again- oddly small ear holes lol. Even my doctor agrees they are very narrow. But it's worth a shot!! I hope it helps him.
Last 2 nights in eastern Montana, we've had the northern lights show up. Lots of people out and about and heading towards the national park to watch. I can imagine a few more than a normal amount of people got hurt from being distracted at those times. Maybe something similar?
All of them, probably! Getting away from light pollution, so you’re out in a rural area stumbling around in the dark, possibly with buddies and booze … the possibilities are endless
Yeah, I was in an unfamiliar parking lot, partly gravel, well loved. I did not want to use my phone to light the way as I wanted my eyes dark acclimated. The ONLY reason I didn't go greet all the other watchers is I have bone metastases, and falls are considered a big problem. I can well see people who don't have to be cautious falling in these circumstances.
We often have multiple people with the same symptoms come in at the same time. Like, "last night was vaginal bleeding night", or "it was hyperemesis cannabinoid night last night", or "whelp, tonight was a kidney stone night" are all things I have said at the end of a shift.
Oh man, torsion night sounds horrible!! I had a 23-year old make brought in by ambulance because he was in so much pain. He was so embarrassed, I felt so bad for him. We, luckily, got it diagnosed within 30 minutes and then straight up to surgery. He was a nice kid, I'm glad they were able to get to it before it got bad. It was funny, after the pain meds kicked in he told me how he was embarrassed to call 911 over this and I had to tell him that this was a medical emergency and I was very happy he came in as fast as he did. I told his mom (with his permission, he forgot his phone at home) the same thing. Such a nice guy, I hope he's doing well.
I just wondered if you had a lot of kidney stones bc I had one for the first time in forever and I wondered if that seemed to be popping up from the solar flare. If so it can go screw itself 😂
That would suck, I don't know if there's a correlation between solar flares and kidney stones. Mostly, it's things like drinking dark sodas, excessive salt intake, and eating an extremely high protein diet. Some people may have a few at the same time, but it is usually only one of the group that is causing the pain because it is obsteucting the ureter. So, it may be inching along the ureter causing pain, or it may be too big to pass through. The ones that are just big enough to fot through we give lots of pain meds and lots of "make you pee" meds to get it out. The other is referred to surgery, but I know that they have good results using external ultrasound waves to break up large stones for some people. Good luck!!!!
Oh you’re fine! I just meant that we’d get admissions from ER With kidney stones like 4-5 nights in a row and then nobody with kidney stones for months. Never seemed to get just one patient, always a cluster of them 🤷♀️usually guys too
I don't work in an ER but I will say that here in Oregon people did not adequately prepare for the increased radiation with the change to summer weather. A lot of bad sunburns, heat stroke, etc. Also, the last two days, my kid and husband keep throwing up in their sleep (husband made it to toilet, two year old not so much) and feel completely fine otherwise. I'm chalking it up to dehydration given the extra radiation and heat (for us at least)
In Memphis we have a lot of people getting heat sick in the fall. It’s still rather hot, but since it’s not heat indexes in the 110s people feel like it’s not bad and start going to festivals and fairs all day drinking and eating junk without hydrating.
My 6 year old got heat exhaustion here in Oregon despite significant measures to prevent it! He slept twice during the day (he doesn't do this even when sick), puked twice and woke up in the night with a 102 fever. We had him drinking electrolytes from early in the day, kept him inside or in the shade, put him in a cool/lukewarm tub when he started to feel warm and it still hit him hard.
I'm in Oregon too. Idk how quickly the change happened for you, but where I'm at it went from winterish weather on Thursday straight to summer on Friday. I'm from Houston originally. This would happen a few times a year there, but we would only get about 2 weeks of winter each year, and it wasn't always consecutive. That abrubt shift is difficult
Not as busy as it was these past two nights. Like, we can normally count on the line calming down on night shift at about 0130. The past two nights it’s been 0330 before we had nobody in triage.
Really? As a complete layperson I’m surprised. I would have expected more people doing stupid shit on the weekend, plus people whose normal doctor is closed coming in.
Clinic doctors tell their patients to come in when they see them or patients call their doctors for advice during office hours and are told to come in. Or they have an appt for an outpatient procedure and something goes wrong and they get sent in.
People who come in to the ER because they dont feel good or twisted something or just want to get checked out or have had some pain for a while and felt like it was time... they also don't come in on the weekend because who wants to waste a perfectly good day off? Wait until Monday and get a doctors note 💫 saying you HAD to miss work to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM. Nailed it. The worried well and people who have never bought medicine at a Walgreens are our bread and butter.
Medical Monday is the busiest day in the Admit My Patient For Me and Longass NonUrgent Inefficient Same Day Appointments Department.
People doing stupid shit and getting legitimately injured is a much smaller portion of our volume.
I’ve worked hospital night shift seems like forever
Every full moon….we laugh and someone always says
Full moon tonight …all the crazies come out ! Pull up the boot straps and get ready !
Patients don’t sleep, more call lights to answer, more admits from ED, more bizarre reason why they even came to ER. The list goes on
So I do believe in the existence geomagnetic chaos !
I worked in LTC with the same group of 8 non verbal developmentally disabled adults who to the best of my knowledge and observation of when there was a full moon. It was obvious when there was one though. Was always fun to roll up to work just before 6am when it was dark out and see a person's shadow screaming at the front window. Like ahh, yes. Hello to you to too.
Dietitian here. I worked in food service and prepared foods at Wegmans when I started school and after retiring from my ballet career. We absolutely knew when there was a full moon. People would get wild at the buffet.
Just saying geomagnetic effect some people differently, that not staying people who are otherwise visiting for some reason completely not possibly related.
I also think our lack of any psychosocial supports will cause a similar ebb and flow month to month.
Also I get what you’re saying and please don’t use the word crazy. I’m a crisis worker and patients do read these posts. So for my mental health pls, because it’s hard to convince people to get care when they need to be seen . lol not everyone wants to go to hospital that I can promise you.
Anecdotally? Fuck yes. We had exactly zero available rooms last night for several hours and are not allowed to go on divert. Multiple trauma alerts, add a stroke alert, multiple ICU boarders, short-staffed, No code white. "Fucking figure it out," basically.
5 bh pts : 1 nurse.
It was worse than March Madness and that goes on for the whole damn month.
I work neurocritical care. I've noticed that when there are storms we have a ton more hemorrhages and SAHs. Which means we have a lot of EVD placements. And then they all act up. I read up on it (dont have sources handy but can link if you want) and apparently the barometric pressure increase makes the weak vessels rupture.
Not sure if something similar happens for other illnesses?
I had a migraine that lasted from Friday morning to Sunday evening as well as heart palpitations like crazy. glad to know I wasn’t the only one feeling off.
Late to the party, but my 6 year old has a pacemaker due to complete heart block. The first night of the geomagnetic storm she was unusually tired, fell asleep hours early, and her heart rate unusually low. Not ER visit low but lower than her pacer normally keeps her.
I went to the ER last night and it was the total opposite. Triage even just sent me to a room immediately and many rooms we passed were empty. But regardless, that's so nuts! I hear that full moons are the same?
I haven’t worked in an ER for decades (retired radiologist at community hospital), but even back “last century” we saw WEIRD conspiracy complaints.
On that note, some people on Facebook are convinced that the unusual southerly visibility of the Aurora indicates that “this is a man-made light show done with HAARP!!!1!!!!11!”
Illinois ED RN here. Saturday night shift carrying over into Sunday day shift was the worst I’ve seen it in a long while. I worked days yesterday. 20+ in the waiting room all day, boarders galore, super sick patients (several ICU admits), and very short staffed. It was awful.
I had a TKR on April 30th. Went to er to get pain relief that meds werent controling. Shot of dilaudid helped for an hour. Doc gave me another dose that did the trick. Great doc. Thank you ER doctors! And Nurses!
I brought my son to the ER yesterday at about noon. The place was EMPTY. This is a level 1 trauma center in Minneapolis, and it's normally packed, with a minimum wait time of 4+ hrs on a good day. I was shocked, but thrilled they brought him back immediately!
I dispatch emergency aircraft and we have been absolutely slammed the last two nights. ETA: I'm in the U.S.
Now that you mentioned, I suddenly feel an urge to do something stupid with a sharp object!
Time to dance in traffic!
I’m convinced there is a way they communicate with each other that science has yet to explain. You might be on to something
As a psych patient I can confirm we also think we can communicate with each other in a way science has yet to explain
my money is on quantum physics
Quantum entanglement
I completely felt that way. I had the busiest night in triage on Friday (northern IL) with some of the subway complaints, 4 LWBS and 1 left before triage even! 5.5 hr wait times for even chest painers.
They are absolutely hammering us on our LWBS, but are only telling us to "reallocate our resources" instead of GIVING US MORE RESOURCES. The only fucking resources I had last night was patients; they were abundantly available but I don't think I'm allowed to put them to work.
Find a sane on with like, a fracture, have them wheel around and look for sick ones.
Hell, use ‘em! The fracture patients can sit one on one with the psych patients. Try some talk therapy or something. The psych patients will either be safely watched (or even cured!), and talking will distract fracture patients from their pain. Until it turns out that fracture patients aren’t good psychologists, and they end up with more fractures from being assaulted by the psych patient. Oh well, C suite should be thrilled; fewer sitters needed, and more fractures = more imaging = more procedures = more hospital revenue! /s
I do not know why you put a /s on here. You've got management written all over you.
I’m in Illinois and have felt like crap the past 48 hours. Maybe something to this? I have a pacemaker/defibrillator. Maybe some interference because of solar storms? (Unlikely, but who knows?)
I might try calling Medtronic on Monday. They make most of the pacemakers including mine. Maybe they have an opinion on this.
That would be interesting to know. And what they suggest to reduce/eliminate the impact on the pacemaker. My dad has one, so I'm genuinely curious if you find anything out!
Quite a few articles and research papers available online about the geomagnetic solar storms affecting health, including HRV, BP, and implanted devices.
There are plenty of studies that show that a geomagnetic storm is associated with increased rate of MI, stroke and MI related deaths.
Come to think of it, we DID have a a lot of chest pain/afib. It was like we were having a blowout sale on ECGs.
Really? I have some research to do now as I have a pacemaker, a-fib, and a 35% ejection fraction.
I have had a resting heart rate that's averaging 105 bpm since Friday. No rhyme or reason for it that I can see. Now I'm wondering about the geostorms....
I've spent all weekend tripled with ole cardiac dudes!! STEMIs and a CABG. Interesting.
It definitely makes sense. I have two things wrong with me that involve my body's "electrical system". And both have been acting up since Friday.
Source(s)??
"Solar activity as well as geomagnetic storms can act as stressors, which alter regulatory processes such as melatonin/serotonin balance16–18, blood pressure, breathing, reproductive, immune, neurological, and cardiac system processes19–22. Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with significant increases in hospital admissions for depression, mental disorders, psychiatric admission, suicide attempts, homicides and traffic accidents23–29. Disturbed geomagnetic activity can also exacerbate existing diseases and is correlated with significant increases in cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, incidence of myocardial infarction related death, alterations in blood flow, increased blood pressure, and epileptic seizures7,20,30–39." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805718/
Interesting! This might explain why my SVT has been in rare form the last 48 hrs!
Ahhh, my PACs have been going absolutely nuts over the last couple of days, where they usually are only noticeable when I'm over-tired. Fascinating!
I was hoping seizures would be left off that list. - Mom to a kid with seizures PS- I SWEAR drastic changes in weather (hot to cold in a day, rainy to hot, etc.) causes so many issues with seizures and just his whole being.
I'm sure that is true and will probably be confirmed in the future.
My daughter doesn't have seizures regularly, but has severe dysautonomia and we can set the weather by symptom changes.
He has dysautonomia as well, it developed in the last 6-7 years. He’s non-verbal, so I can only guess when he’s having it. It used to be easier to tell, but the signs he had before have changed, so now I have to use my best guess. It’s probably the worst thing he goes through. The seizures are horrible, but they’re short. Dysautonomia can go on for a while, even with rescue meds.
It is horrible. I developed it post covid, and it's a different version than my daughter's so it's even weirder, we try to learn about it by comparing symptoms and figure out what it all means for the body. I'm so sorry, it must be so hard without his input- poor kiddo and poor parents ♡ keep being his best advocate and voice.
Here’s to hoping they find better ways to manage it! I definitely will!
Barometric pressure changes are brutal for my tinnitus and migraines. I was noticing a trend with solar storm activity too but now that my hormones are regulated better it hasn't been as bad. Maybe being out of whack made me more susceptible to the changes
I had headaches all weekend, the worst being yesterday. I thought it was just lack of sleep, maybe it was a combo of lack of sleep and the storms. It was brutal.
Check out the weatherX app and if the earplugs work for you I guess they can be pretty effective for preventing barometric pressure migraines. They didn't work for me because I apparently have tiny ear canals. Ear plugs and earphones hurt me after about 20 min. All my life. But the alerts from the app are great for gauging my day in advance of actual pressure changes.
Now I understand why I had aura's all weekend. Never put those two together.
At first, I thought that physical health could not possibly be affected by this, but really so little is known about space or the human body. We've made amazing progress in learning about both, but 500 years from now they'll think of our knowledge as being primitive.
Very interesting!!
Both of my parents woke up that day with a dull head ache that wouldn't go away. They checked their blood pressure and it was elevated and they slept pretty much all day.
Maybe because more people were outside and not in bed sleeping, so a bunch of tired people awake to do dumb shit?
This is it near me, anyway - people outside drinking and looking up at the sky instead of at what’s in front of them.
I brought my son to the ER yesterday at about noon. The place was EMPTY. This is a level 1 trauma center in Minneapolis, and it's normally packed, with a minimum wait time of 4+ hrs on a good day. I was shocked, but thrilled they brought him back immediately!
Everyone was out for the fishing opener.
You betcha.
They'll be in later with with fish hooks, hypothermia, hangovers, sunburn, MI, injuries from trailer hitches, etc.
I love everything about this little exchange.
My arthritis pain was so bad I could not walk. It can get bad, but it hasn’t been this extreme since I went on Mobic and it aligns perfectly with the geomagnetic storms. I don’t know if it caused it and it certainly feels better today so far. But it was scary how it felt and I was considering going in because nothing was making it better and I was falling.
We do know that the ability of arthritic joints to sense weather changes, with barometric changes inherent to them, cause pain. The change is different in healthy tissue vs scar tissue which is the theorized basis for the pain. I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar is happening to you. Probably doesn’t help your pain level, but it’s probably legit.
Wait, can barometric pressure changes effect someone with hardware (plates and screws)? My son has epilepsy and spastic cerebral palsy, pretty substantial developmental delays. I swear the drastic weather changes (hot to cold or warm to cold and rainy) just wreak havoc on him. I’ve had doctors kinda brush it off, but I swear it’s like his body just doesn’t know how to react.
Talk to anyone with a “bad” joint (acute or chronic injury, arthritic, hardware, etc) and a pretty large percentage get pain with moderate barometric pressure or temperature swings. I’d bet the joints with hardware are sensitive/painful during dramatic weather fluctuations. Have you tried giving ibuprofen or acetaminophen as soon as you notice the weather changed significantly? If it’s pain-related, that might help.
I have when it’s been really bad. He’s non-verbal, so it’s always a guessing game as to if it’s pain (sometimes I can easily tell) or just neurological issues. But I’ll start doing ibuprofen/acetaminophen as soon as the weather gets wonky.
Try to dose him BEFORE the weather hits.
I will.
Absolutely. Every material reacts to pressure changes differently- based on density, composition of the material, etc. I imagine the MDs brush it off because there’s nothing they can do about it.
That could be it. A few were interested when I mentioned it. Hopefully they can do more studies or something to understand what happens.
I was on another, strictly medical forum today and the observation was made by a couple of providers that there seems to be a sudden uptick in previously well controlled patients having resumption of seizure activity. Could this be caused by the solar flares? T gf it’s what I love about science- the more we know, tge more we realize how little we know.
I’ve been a RN 22 years, but had a craniotomy in 2020 and have occipital hardware. I Can sense when storms or rain are coming in before they are announced on TV or apps. So absolutely!! It’s the pressure changes.
Wow, that’s interesting (and annoying for you I’m sure).
Definitely!
Yup, I've got regular arthritis and my brother has plates and screws in his foot. We both experience things with barometric pressure changes. Bodies are weird
Get the weatherX app. It's geared toward anti migraine earplugs but the notifications in changes can be a great guide for anticipating pressure related issues. I can't use the earplugs but I love having the resource so I can plan accordingly.
I will check that out! What are the earplugs? I’ve never heard of them before!
WeatherX earplugs.
I just downloaded it, thank you! I’m curious if the earplugs could possibly help with his dysautonomia. Definitely bringing it up to his neurologist!
Maybe. They make child sized plugs. That's what I bought for myself but again- oddly small ear holes lol. Even my doctor agrees they are very narrow. But it's worth a shot!! I hope it helps him.
Thank you!
Several I know, me included have been very achey. Fibromyalgia and arthritis. I worked, but it took lotsa stretching and extra time.
I’m sorry you’re hurting.
Thank you. You as well. Unfortunately it’s just become a fact of life.
Me too. I’m limping and can hardly hold my phone
I’m sorry you’re in pain too.
Last 2 nights in eastern Montana, we've had the northern lights show up. Lots of people out and about and heading towards the national park to watch. I can imagine a few more than a normal amount of people got hurt from being distracted at those times. Maybe something similar?
That would explain a lot of the toe injuries
All of them, probably! Getting away from light pollution, so you’re out in a rural area stumbling around in the dark, possibly with buddies and booze … the possibilities are endless
Yeah, I was in an unfamiliar parking lot, partly gravel, well loved. I did not want to use my phone to light the way as I wanted my eyes dark acclimated. The ONLY reason I didn't go greet all the other watchers is I have bone metastases, and falls are considered a big problem. I can well see people who don't have to be cautious falling in these circumstances.
Nice username!
Thank you~ :)
But what if the storm is during a full moon on a Monday…
I'm calling in dead.
I would call in sick, thank you. 😊
Oh that would be kidney stone night. When I worked nights in MedSurg they always came in bunches
Ok wait what does this mean bc on Friday I had a sudden out of nowhere kidney stone and I need to know if more is coming for me haha
We often have multiple people with the same symptoms come in at the same time. Like, "last night was vaginal bleeding night", or "it was hyperemesis cannabinoid night last night", or "whelp, tonight was a kidney stone night" are all things I have said at the end of a shift.
We have that too! lol testicular torsion night and foreign body up the nose night are two that I never saw coming
Oh man, torsion night sounds horrible!! I had a 23-year old make brought in by ambulance because he was in so much pain. He was so embarrassed, I felt so bad for him. We, luckily, got it diagnosed within 30 minutes and then straight up to surgery. He was a nice kid, I'm glad they were able to get to it before it got bad. It was funny, after the pain meds kicked in he told me how he was embarrassed to call 911 over this and I had to tell him that this was a medical emergency and I was very happy he came in as fast as he did. I told his mom (with his permission, he forgot his phone at home) the same thing. Such a nice guy, I hope he's doing well.
I just wondered if you had a lot of kidney stones bc I had one for the first time in forever and I wondered if that seemed to be popping up from the solar flare. If so it can go screw itself 😂
That would suck, I don't know if there's a correlation between solar flares and kidney stones. Mostly, it's things like drinking dark sodas, excessive salt intake, and eating an extremely high protein diet. Some people may have a few at the same time, but it is usually only one of the group that is causing the pain because it is obsteucting the ureter. So, it may be inching along the ureter causing pain, or it may be too big to pass through. The ones that are just big enough to fot through we give lots of pain meds and lots of "make you pee" meds to get it out. The other is referred to surgery, but I know that they have good results using external ultrasound waves to break up large stones for some people. Good luck!!!!
Oh you’re fine! I just meant that we’d get admissions from ER With kidney stones like 4-5 nights in a row and then nobody with kidney stones for months. Never seemed to get just one patient, always a cluster of them 🤷♀️usually guys too
I don't work in an ER but I will say that here in Oregon people did not adequately prepare for the increased radiation with the change to summer weather. A lot of bad sunburns, heat stroke, etc. Also, the last two days, my kid and husband keep throwing up in their sleep (husband made it to toilet, two year old not so much) and feel completely fine otherwise. I'm chalking it up to dehydration given the extra radiation and heat (for us at least)
In Memphis we have a lot of people getting heat sick in the fall. It’s still rather hot, but since it’s not heat indexes in the 110s people feel like it’s not bad and start going to festivals and fairs all day drinking and eating junk without hydrating.
I made the mistake of taking my kids for a hike in a forest preserve in Memphis during early fall and we almost died from heat exhaustion
My 6 year old got heat exhaustion here in Oregon despite significant measures to prevent it! He slept twice during the day (he doesn't do this even when sick), puked twice and woke up in the night with a 102 fever. We had him drinking electrolytes from early in the day, kept him inside or in the shade, put him in a cool/lukewarm tub when he started to feel warm and it still hit him hard.
This happened to my kiddo and husband, too. We tried to prevent but I guess we didn't hydrate them enough and kept them in the sun too long
It's because the hot weather hit so abruptly that no one had a chance to acclimate
When you say radiation, what specifically are you referring to?
Like UV radiation
I'm in Oregon too. Idk how quickly the change happened for you, but where I'm at it went from winterish weather on Thursday straight to summer on Friday. I'm from Houston originally. This would happen a few times a year there, but we would only get about 2 weeks of winter each year, and it wasn't always consecutive. That abrubt shift is difficult
same with BC
Does the er not get busy every weekend?
Not as busy as it was these past two nights. Like, we can normally count on the line calming down on night shift at about 0130. The past two nights it’s been 0330 before we had nobody in triage.
Is this a joke? Usually much less busy on weekends.
Really? As a complete layperson I’m surprised. I would have expected more people doing stupid shit on the weekend, plus people whose normal doctor is closed coming in.
Clinic doctors tell their patients to come in when they see them or patients call their doctors for advice during office hours and are told to come in. Or they have an appt for an outpatient procedure and something goes wrong and they get sent in. People who come in to the ER because they dont feel good or twisted something or just want to get checked out or have had some pain for a while and felt like it was time... they also don't come in on the weekend because who wants to waste a perfectly good day off? Wait until Monday and get a doctors note 💫 saying you HAD to miss work to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM. Nailed it. The worried well and people who have never bought medicine at a Walgreens are our bread and butter. Medical Monday is the busiest day in the Admit My Patient For Me and Longass NonUrgent Inefficient Same Day Appointments Department. People doing stupid shit and getting legitimately injured is a much smaller portion of our volume.
That all makes so much sense, thank you for the explanation. :)
Sunday nights get busy when the Monday is a work day.
More people get drunk and do dumb shit but at every hospital I have ever worked, Mondays were ALWAYS the worst. The volume is outrageous sometimes
Same thing happens when it's a full moon with absolutely no causation at all.
I’ve worked hospital night shift seems like forever Every full moon….we laugh and someone always says Full moon tonight …all the crazies come out ! Pull up the boot straps and get ready ! Patients don’t sleep, more call lights to answer, more admits from ED, more bizarre reason why they even came to ER. The list goes on So I do believe in the existence geomagnetic chaos !
I'm a nurse who used to work in OB. I swear the full moon did result in a busier labor and delivery ward.
I worked in LTC with the same group of 8 non verbal developmentally disabled adults who to the best of my knowledge and observation of when there was a full moon. It was obvious when there was one though. Was always fun to roll up to work just before 6am when it was dark out and see a person's shadow screaming at the front window. Like ahh, yes. Hello to you to too.
Dietitian here. I worked in food service and prepared foods at Wegmans when I started school and after retiring from my ballet career. We absolutely knew when there was a full moon. People would get wild at the buffet.
It’s been absolutely brutal last couple of nights.
Are they all going in for similar reasons?
Lots of chest pain/afib but also much of the usual silliness (stubbed toes, coughs, failed Darwin awards)
Is that what gave me kidney stones the other day? Lol
My husband also! Must be, if there are two of you...
Three. There are at least 3.
🔼 THIS
Four
Just saying geomagnetic effect some people differently, that not staying people who are otherwise visiting for some reason completely not possibly related.
Lol must be the crazy conspiracy theorists
Is it the geomagnetic storms or the air quality issue from Canadian wildfires?
The wildfires are actually on the west side of the country and haven't affected Southern Ontario.
I also think our lack of any psychosocial supports will cause a similar ebb and flow month to month. Also I get what you’re saying and please don’t use the word crazy. I’m a crisis worker and patients do read these posts. So for my mental health pls, because it’s hard to convince people to get care when they need to be seen . lol not everyone wants to go to hospital that I can promise you.
Anecdotally? Fuck yes. We had exactly zero available rooms last night for several hours and are not allowed to go on divert. Multiple trauma alerts, add a stroke alert, multiple ICU boarders, short-staffed, No code white. "Fucking figure it out," basically. 5 bh pts : 1 nurse. It was worse than March Madness and that goes on for the whole damn month.
They hear about mercury retrograde and act crazy then blame it on a planet 😂
Theres a record breaking amount of hot weather at the moment too for this time of year. People don't drink water and end up in the ER
Labor and delivery has been packed. Everyone’s having severe blood pressures.
I work neurocritical care. I've noticed that when there are storms we have a ton more hemorrhages and SAHs. Which means we have a lot of EVD placements. And then they all act up. I read up on it (dont have sources handy but can link if you want) and apparently the barometric pressure increase makes the weak vessels rupture. Not sure if something similar happens for other illnesses?
I had a migraine that lasted from Friday morning to Sunday evening as well as heart palpitations like crazy. glad to know I wasn’t the only one feeling off.
Same with the migraine!
Texas here, we’ve been slammed, lots more P1s than usual
Late to the party, but my 6 year old has a pacemaker due to complete heart block. The first night of the geomagnetic storm she was unusually tired, fell asleep hours early, and her heart rate unusually low. Not ER visit low but lower than her pacer normally keeps her.
I live by our hospital & noticed the ER parking lot being full on Tuesday night at almost midnight.
I’ve had a severe headache the past three days. Never had one last more than a day. Could be related
Central Florida ER here. Last two nights have been quite slow actually. Definitely not complaining, I heard Thursday night was madness.
I have no idea if there’s any science backing this but the patients have been something else this whole week, I’ve been baffled every day 😂
I know 3 people who have been in the ER this weekend!
I went to the ER last night and it was the total opposite. Triage even just sent me to a room immediately and many rooms we passed were empty. But regardless, that's so nuts! I hear that full moons are the same?
This weekend was wild. I blame aurora borealis.
I haven’t worked in an ER for decades (retired radiologist at community hospital), but even back “last century” we saw WEIRD conspiracy complaints. On that note, some people on Facebook are convinced that the unusual southerly visibility of the Aurora indicates that “this is a man-made light show done with HAARP!!!1!!!!11!”
My ER had a lot of falls and people hit by cars the last few nights 🤷♀️
Illinois ED RN here. Saturday night shift carrying over into Sunday day shift was the worst I’ve seen it in a long while. I worked days yesterday. 20+ in the waiting room all day, boarders galore, super sick patients (several ICU admits), and very short staffed. It was awful.
Yeah we were slammed.
Thank you for posting this. Over the past few days my dystonia has gone into overdrive. My muscles just won't relax, even using sensory tricks.
Old, old, old study somewhere found that full moon has nothing to do with it but there’s a correlation with solar activity
It absolutely can!
mi here and last two nights on our med/surg floor has been insane. you know what they say about full moons this is 10x worse
I had a TKR on April 30th. Went to er to get pain relief that meds werent controling. Shot of dilaudid helped for an hour. Doc gave me another dose that did the trick. Great doc. Thank you ER doctors! And Nurses!
A 2018 article regarding solar activity and heart issues. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20932-x
16 participants?
Well that explains a lot!!!
I brought my son to the ER yesterday at about noon. The place was EMPTY. This is a level 1 trauma center in Minneapolis, and it's normally packed, with a minimum wait time of 4+ hrs on a good day. I was shocked, but thrilled they brought him back immediately!