WIBU to give the hospital a phone

[namechangeformypost]

My son had an operation to unblock his tear duct on Thursday.
Since then he isn't eating, has vomited and keeps sneezing and bleeding from the nose
I keep thinking I'll be a pest to the hospital/children's ward but they didn't earn me of any of these side effects

[possum18]

I'd try and call 111 for advise, failing that then take him down to the hospital - better safe than sorry. Hope he feels better soon

[Foffyouwanker]

Yes call the ward, you should still have open access and its best to speak to the experts

[Graciescotland]

I'd definitely phone them; our give you their direct number to call as they know the case etc. I think they call it discharged with open access so you can go straight to ward if you feel it's necessary. Much easier for them to reassure or ask you to come back rather than calling 111.

[Graciescotland]

crossposted

[MadameJosephine]

Don't bother with 111 they won't have a clue about your son and his history. I'd definitely give the ward a ring, they won't mind

[TheCrumpettyTree]

Ring the ward, but please don't just turn up there as that may not be their policy.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

I'd ring the ward, that sounds like something the surgeon/ consultant should know about and be able to comment on.

If they won't engage with it then get an emergency appointment with your GP first thing tomorrow. They may send you back to hospital but will hopefully deal the bureaucracy / hoop jumping for you.

I wouldn't be reassured by a blanket 'oh it's fine', but get more specific advice.

I say that as I almost died from septicaemia following a routine operation, because the ward fobbed off my parents when they phoned and told them that the symptoms were too unimportant for them to have bothered the ward with and to please don't call them back. After I almost died and had many days of emergency treatment, none of which needed to happen if it had been picked up on earlier, the ward again fobbed off a query about their behaviour by saying it had been after 48hrs after discharge and it wasn't their job to help. Except they didn't tell my very worried parents that on the phone ... Apparently we were all expected to magically know the ward saying 'it's normal and you are wasting our time, we have properly ill people to deal with here' actually meant 'we can't help you now as its too long after discharge but that doesn't sound right so please call xxx who can help with an out of hours emergency'. Grrrr. Oh and I think when pressed again they said there was a shift change etc etc.

Now, Im sure your little boy doesn't have anything similar and I don't mean to imply he has, but he might have an infection that needs prompt treatment, or the op needs a quick adjustment of some kind from the consultant.

And it's always better to be sure, especially if there is any confusion about who's remit it is to help.

Good luck

[yorkshapudding]

OP, I'm a Nurse and I think it's perfectly fine and sensible to ring the ward in these circumstances. I hope your little boy is feeling better very soon.

[ginplease83]

Definitely ring them. If it's nothing then at least you played it safe

[Monstertrucker]

Call the ward or if you have no luck there call the consultants Secretary and leave a message. All of the doctors I worked with had no problems either offering reassurance or asking patients to pop back in for a further check. More problematic were the patients who felt something may not be right and left it!