Frost’s dad ended up in the hospital yesterday afternoon. His sciatic nerve was freaking out and he was in so much pain he was crying of the floor of their house.

After a few attempts to get a hold of his personal doctor we decided he needed to go to the hospital.

What followed was probably one of the most annoying days of my life.

First we had to get him to the car, but his wife was in her pajamas and had to get ready to go before we could leave. That was understandable. What wasn’t understandable -or cool-was the look she gave me as she walked over her crying husband to get to the bathroom and had this look… like “Oh god, really?” on her face.

Already upset because someone I care about was in pain, I got even angrier and offered to drive him to the ER myself, an offer that was quickly accepted. The wife and daughter stayed home.

After a very painful drive to the ER for everyone involved, we waited for 40 minutes before we were admitted. Only, Frost’s dad couldn’t sit or stand, but they refused to bring him a gurney. Instead they put a man who couldn’t sit down, who was screaming he was in so much pain, IN A CHAIR, wheeled him into a “rivate” hole in the wall with an oh-so-nice curtain, and then left him there.

After five minutes of listening to this man cry about how he couldn’t stand the pain any longer, I started collecting armless chairs to make a makeshift bed for him to lie in while we waited. I was promptly told by a nurse that I wasn’t allowed to do that and that lying down wasn’t going to help him, despite the fact that laying down was the only comfortable position he’d been in so far.

This made me mad. My reaction to this was: “Well, you’re not helping him, so I guess it’s my turn.”

I was then told to leave, to which I responded, “Shove it.” I was threatened with security escort, to which I responded, “Bring it on.” The nurse tried to stare me down, but I was pissed and I wasn’t going anywhere.

After Frost’s dad said to go, I did finally leave, and by this time he’d gotten out of the chair on his own accord and was in a kneeling position on the ground, because he couldn’t sit down. At this point he was in so much pain he couldn’t move, even to lie down on the ground.

After waiting another two hours in the waiting room, we learned that it took another 40 mins for anyone to get to him, and that when they finally moved him to a room they demanded that he walk there. When he said “shove it” they tried to get him BACK IN THE FUCKING CHAIR.

After he said “uh, no” they finally brought him a gurney.

After he was finally able to lie down, which is all we’d asked for from the beginning and were denied, the pain became manageable for him.

When a doctor finally was able to see him they gave him morphine and sent him home. Three hours, and for most of it he was in immense pain.

I understand that they had procedure to follow. All of those tests could just as easily been done with him laying down on a bed as they were done with him kneeling on the ground. I understand that we were being difficult. A member of our family was in pain, and we were being ignored.

Really. How hard would it have been to send someone to get a stretcher? It would have taken four minutes, but we wouldn’t have had to go through all this shit. We weren’t asking for drugs. We weren’t asking for a room. We weren’t even asking for the doctor’s attention. All we wanted was someplace for this man to lie down while we waited our turn.