So Much For Camping...Or My Experiences with the Swedish Health System

I was supposed to go camping this weekend since we had yesterday and today off from school for Ascension (gotta love the Swedish way of only following religion for the holidays). The plan was to go about 5 hours north to the High Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for some hiking and camping in one of the most beautiful parts of Sweden. But I'm not. Because I spent 10 hours in the emergency room on Tuesday. Last semester I had a strange pain in my left side. I had this pain for about a month and the doctors couldn't figure out what was causing it. Eventually the pain went away after a second round of antibiotics because a kidney infection was suspected- this after 3 CT scans and a trip to the ER in Lafayette. Last Friday my pain came back and hasn't gone away yet, even while taking pain killers which I have to do every morning. I also can't sleep on my left side because it hurts too much. In Sweden, in order to see a doctor you have to call a hotline where you talk to a triage nurse who tells you if you need to go to the hospital or the vårdcentral which is where you go for routine check-ups, follow-ups, or other non-emergency procedures. They recommended that I go to the ER as did my doctor in the States. We (Stephan and I) got to the hospital at 10:30am. They were very prompt in getting me a bed and to see a doctor. I had a blood and urine test which were both completely normal and I did not respond to an anti-inflammatory painkiller so they decided to take another CT scan. This was around 1:30pm. At this time they moved me into a cubicle in the hallway to wait until 6:30pm for the scan. After the scan, they didn't even bother to wheel my bed back to the ER, the asked if Stephan could do it. At around 8:30pm they finally told me they were just as clueless as the doctors in the US about the cause so they sent me home and just told me to take the painkillers I had brought with me from last time and to come back if I had any new symptoms. So instead of camping, I'm taking it easy here in Uppsala- getting some stuff done and relaxing (the weather isn't so great today thankfully). Maybe on Sunday Stephan and I will go to Stockholm when the weather is nicer. And hopefully by then I will have some access to my money. Which will be good since the hospital visit will cost about 6,300 SEK (that's 6,000 SEK more than what EU citizens pay btw) but it might include the CT scan which in that case is the cheapest CT scan I've ever had.