Yeah, despite this being the first serious thing requiring medical attention in my life, I knew it was appendicitis from literally the moment I felt it; it just took them seven hours to first, listen, and second, confirm the diagnosis. They spent hours sending me to tests that were ultimately pointless and inconclusive. Then when I collapsed spontaneously and went into a cold sweat for the third time since arriving, the people dealing with me seemed genuinely surprised that I had collapsed and went into a cold sweat!

They sent me home with like... "16 hours worth" of ultra-low-dose hydromorphone (I couldn't find any dosing guidelines which even reference 1mg tablets) and left me to choose which hours of pain I wanted them for; I missed my followup because the front desk folks couldn't send me where the surgeon's note said I should go.

The best part was the ambulance ride, which only cost me fifty bucks and was conducted excellently; the surgery itself also went well, as far as I can tell, though for an appendectomy that's nothing to write home about (not to downplay the work involved, but like flying in airplanes, it has become routine).

Likely not a coincidence, the ambulance ride is the one thing I had choice in as a patient, and the one thing I paid for out of pocket (although non-emergency rides somewhat subsidize emergency ones, by policy).