My dad is 74 years old with high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. About 10 years ago he had diverticulitis and needed a foot of his colon resected. He has a colostomy bag for white but they were able to reattach his colon in another surgery. He also had a blood clot on his liver.

Last night he woke me up and asked me to take him to the ER which is HIGHLY unusual. He is extremely stubborn with his health and doesn't even go to the doctor unless something is really really bad.

We sat in the waiting room for 6 hours while he was writhing in pain and once he finally got back into a room they did a CT and confirmed it was diverticulitis again, but this time it didn't look like his bowel was perforated.

They said this time it's in his small intestine which is apparently very unusual as it's usually in the large like it was last time. Doc gave him antibiotics and sent him home and said come back right away if pain gets worse.

About an hour ago he fell over In pain so I took him right back to the ER (we live literally 2 minutes from the hospital) we are once again waiting for the doc but the nurse said they're having a radiologist look at the CT from last night again.

I know something is very wrong because I've only seen him in agonizing pain that caused him to cry once in my entire life and that was when he had diverticulitis the first time.

What should I be asking doc? Why are they letting him sit in the waiting room for hours and then discharging him shortly after he's in the room?

I'm very worried his bowel is going to perforate again while he's waiting to be seen.