ER visits

Why does it always have to take so long to go to the ER?
No, not really an emergency...I was hoping to be able to go over to the Urgent Care center...BUT...at Cook Children's, they have you go register at the ER and then determine if you get to go to Urgent Care, or stay and be seen in the ER.

Em got her ears pierced 6 weeks ago. Saturday we changed her earrings for the first time. The new ones look really cool. Yesterday (Monday) after school, her ear was swollen and the earring was stuck. I couldn't get the earring out and it appeared that the earring back (a rubber stopper of sort) might have been stuck in the earring hole. My stoic child was in tears with me trying to get the earring out. So, after a couple of phone calls, off we went. We got there probably at about 7:15ish. We left about 12:30ish. Once we finally got back to a room & waited & waited & waited some more...finally a nurse came in a put numbing cream on the ear. The nurse was VERY sweet. Then the doctor poked her head in for a few minutes and told us that she really liked to let the numbing cream be on for 30-45 minutes...she wanted it good and numb. That was fine with us...I really don't like to see Em hurting. So, the doc finally came back in (she was really nice too) and proceeded to let Em know what she was going to do and do it. It was REALLY hard for her to get the earring out also. BUT finally she got it out. Then came the time to check for the earring back, because it didn't come out with the earring. The doc put a couple of different catheters through the earring hole to see if she could push it out...nope. So, we discussed several options and have decided it would be best to wait a few days and see what happens. We really don't think the earring back is in the hole...BUT...if it is, then they would have to cut a little "x" incision on the earlobe and dig around to get it...we could have done that last night, but all of us agree that it doesn't seem like it is in there. We were not sure that an xray would be of any benefit since the back is not metal. So we left he hospital with a very chatty girl (she was tired) and a prescription form for an antibiodic...and the earrings in a container.