When to go to the Hospital

First, keep in mind that I'm not a doctor and all of my recommendations just come from personal knowledge.

Every time I decide to go to the emergency room I have a major internal struggle. Or if I'm with my fiancé it's an external struggle. Or internal struggle externally? I don't know. Basically I always think that I'm just going to waste my time, the doctors and nurses time, and the nurses will all be annoyed with me. But then I think about what would happen if I don't go.
Before I had the surgery the not going to the emergency room side won out most of the time. Then I got an intestinal blockage, after I had been having severe pain for a month and while on Prednisone. I didn't even go to the ER that time, I just made an urgent appointment with my school's medical center. I went for my appointment, which was actually made because my joints hurt so bad from the prednisone. She saw my stomach, which looked about 5 months pregnant and touched it which hurt so incredibly badly, and decided I needed to get to the emergency room. It turned out that I had a blockage and needed to be hospitalized for a month with nothing solid to eat, and eventually needed surgery.
So now my perspective has changed a bit. Every time I'm in pain (which is the major sign of my disease) I ask myself what's the worst that can happen if you go and they find nothing? The answer is that the nurses and doctors will be annoyed with me. I'll be out $50. I'll have to wait around for awhile. I might get a CT scan. All pretty bad things.
Then I ask what's the worst that can happen if I don't go and something's wrong. I could die. That time I had the blockage if I had just left it alone it would have ruptured and I could have died. So really, you need to take this disease seriously. My best advice is do what I say not what I do and DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS ABOUT YOU, YOUR HEALTH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. So when in doubt go. But here are some, I hope, helpful tips.

1. You know what your signs of the disorder are. If they're starting to come back make an immediate appointment with your GI doctor. Hopefully it can be dealt with on an outpatient basis.
2. If any of these symptoms are unbearable to live with and you can't see your doctor right away go to the ER.
3. My disorder causes a lot of pain and I bet yours does to, so don't be afraid to go in to the ER if the pain is unbearable. And I mean, can't drive yourself to the doctor unbearable.
4. If there is blood coming out of somewhere there shouldn't be (not nose obv.) go right to the emergency room.
5. If you stomach is hugely distended and you can't get in immediately to see your doctor go to the ER.
6. If you get sharp severe pain.
7. If you get sharp severe pain in a new place.

So run through this list when you're making your decision. Know that if you go the worst will be that you'll get your pain taken care of, you'll get a good idea of whether your disease needs immediate hospitalization or a doctors visit, and you may get a CT scan. Be careful with those, they have 1,000x the radiation of an x-ray. You can always say you'd rather just get an x-ray or an ultra-sound instead if the doctor doesn't believe it's something life threatening going on.