"My ED experience"

I'd spent many hours in ED in pain and anxiety, feeling ignored and basic needs not met. 

Stress and pain exacerbated by extreme noise, harsh light, chaotic environment and lack of information. Even finding a staff member for help or food or water was extremely difficult, and it seemed my disability support worker was ignored.

Avoiding urinating myself was a close call, and if not for my disability support worker basically carrying me to toilet I believe I would have had humiliation of that in addition to the prior humiliating rectal examination. I feel it would have been nice to have a staff member consider that I may need toilet assistance since I'd been transported into treatment bay in wheelchair and had extreme mobility issues. Instead the rails of my bed were locked up so even getting out was hard, and staff were nearly impossible to find. I found having a student instead of a nurse was acceptable, but even they were unavailable. I didn't see a registered or enrolled nurse following admission, other than a random nurse who wasn't involved in my care stepping in to organise paracetamol after many hours without analgesia.

Fearing partial paralysis (and I feel not given reasonable info by doctor following rectal and reflex exam) and overwhelmed. Hungry and thirsty, and though told fine to have food no-one could find me any. Told I should have asked hours prior.

Autism and sensory processing disorder are not great for emergency departments, add in a spinal injury and as I understand it, extreme under-staffing made it hell.

Transported to MRI, a procedure I was dreading due to the noise,  claustrophobia and pain attempting to lay still with extreme back pain. The hours without information and without my disability support worker being acknowledged was adding to my anxiety.

The rest of my ED experience is below, Carl the radiographer I mentioned in my second story was an anomaly in the system.

- I felt my basic needs not met, nil food (though was permitted) nil water (though was permitted)

- I saw virtually no staff to help, no questions answered

- no assistance to toilet. bedrails locked, poor mobility pain, technically required wheelchair but was removed, my disability support worker had to manoeuvre me out of bed walk me to toilet.

- invasive rectal examination needed to be helped to toilet but wasn't. Almost had incontinence episodes

- I felt the pain management delayed & inadequate, requested paracetamol multiple occasions took many hours. discharged with different analgesic to that discussed by attending doctor, meaning had to return following day for appropriate medication