This is what worked for me...it might not work for you
- Wait to determine if the injury is bumps, bruises, etc. or something that needs treatment. I decided to sleep 1 night and reevaluate in the morning.
- Check with your insurance provider if you have a question about treatment. I was out of town and knew that might be more tricky with insurance.
- Urgent care or ER? For me the difference was several hundred dollars for what would probably be very similar treatment...a splint, brace, or cast. Urgent care it was.
- Keep your priorities straight. I had a helmet on, a bruise on my knee and a throbbing, stiff elbow. For an accident on a road bike on the road at a decently fast speed I am very thankful nothing else was injured. I got hurt near the Mayo Clinic, a highly esteemed hospital. But they don't have an urgent care clinic. So instead I went to a very small county hospital. I was in, seen, x-rayed, treated, wrapped with a splint and out in under an hour and a half. I don't get to say I received treatment at the Mayo Clinic but I did save several hundred dollars with what I can imagine would have been the exact same outcome.
- Think ahead. I left the urgent care with copies of my x-rays to take to my doctor back home. I was on the phone a lot with my insurance, doctors offices, etc. to have a treatment plan when I got back home. I also realized I will very likely have a cast on my arm for well over a month and that alters my daily life a lot. Started figuring out how to stock up on big bags for my cast when I shower, meals I CAN cook with one hand to avoid eating out etc.
- Do what the doctor says. Adding anything to this injury is the last thing I want to do. Doing it right and following the first time will always save money, time, pain, and frustration.
- Don't waste time. Most tasks take me at least twice as long to complete one handed. I'm trying to choose what needs to be done very carefully.
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