Stop telling people to go to A&E!

I guess I must have been lucky.

I had been getting shooting pain in my mouth and managed to get an appointment with my dentist. Nothing the matter with my teeth.

A few days later the pain got worse, like having a blunt knife jammed up through the top of my mouth into my eye. Absolute agony. I could barely talk but called 111 who said A&E and so got my DH to drive me to the hospital. It was a 3 hour wait and the pain had started to subside when I made the mistake of having a drink of water and that set it off again. About an hour later a Dr saw me and started to suggest I should see a dentist. I told him about the appointment just a few days earlier and he did some poking and prodding, diagnosed neuralgia and prescribed some tablets. He was ever so kind.

Our local A&e has GPs there as well so they triage on the door, GP, Nurse or full on A&E.. it's frustrating GP practices don't have to pay for A&E time to focus the practice on getting people seen

What other posters are saying about interstitial cystitis.

It is absolute agony, like a bad UTI hat never goes, I was in absolute agony, so feel for you, but not life threatening I don't think

Amazon Prime for next day delivery D-Mannose.

I've used Naturesupplies brand in the white plastic box

The system is a bit broken. I see a private gp. I shouldnt have to and i am lucky i can do so.

Another poster posted this a while ago.

Meanwhile my GP surgery told me to go to A&E for painkillers because there was no one available to issue me a repeat prescription. I imagine A&E staff are getting pissed off with this kind of advice but they wouldn't have shouted at you OP.

Leg pain can be if it's a DVT.
Pain in any part of the body can be an emergency if it's an abscess and has turned into sepsis.

Op I'm sorry you didn't get better care or compassion from the doctor in A&E but telling people not to go if they're in pain is just irresponsible. You said yourself "They checked my heart, temperature, blood pressure, said I was stable and told me to go away."

Despite the fact that you left without treatment they did carry out a clinical assessment. If people take your advice and sit at home the consequences could be life threatening. They have no way of knowing if they are stable without going to see a medical professional.

Do you have an urgent care centre near you? We have about 3 within a mile radius that all take walk in appointments. Failing that try what others have said 111 or the GUM clinic. If I was in that much pain I wouldn't give a shit who saw me where.

@Miriad was your urine sent off for culture? If not, that's a mistake, as even if urine comes up clear on a dipstick, it should be sent to be cultured.

Your symptoms sounds similar to mine when I suffered recurrent UTI’s. Tests often came back clear but pain was unbearable. Saw a couple of consultants along the way. One said infection can still be present but doesn’t always show up on results - prescribed daily antibiotic. Also has surgery to widen urethra. Also found d-mannose powder which can be bought online to be excellent - mix with water and drink - you can’t drink enough of it - definitely worth a try.

Do you know if you have fibroids? Because I experienced a degenerating one recently and the pain was indescribable. Pharmacists can provide co-codamol at a higher strength than you can buy.

Probably but that's going to take at least a month so might as well try the GUM clinic, it can't hurt

OP you don't actually know for sure you don't have an STD. Those symptoms could be pelvic inflammatory disease, there is no swab for that. You need to see someone who knows what they're doing not just a nurse swabbing you.

This is awful OP. Very poor care.

I saw a tiktok doctor who was talking about what to do if you can't get seen, and he mentioned call 111 and if one of their clinicians thinks you should be seen by a GP they usually inform your GP so when you call them the next day at 8am for an on the day appointment you are seen as that's within their expected time frames. He explained there can be delays to this but essentially 111 have already triaged and referred so they have to pick it up, however you must still call.

Here is a link the OP might find helpful:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/interstitial-cystitis/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354362#self-care

this. I don't know why the OP keeps parroting back over and over again what the nurse and a&e said. You need to send advocate. there are other ways to get seen. You shouldn't have to explore them but you are where you are.

Same here. I wonder who is getting paid for what.

GUM means "genitourinary medicine"

You're being daft and I'm starting to think this is just another NHS bashing thread which is a shit thing to do.

She needs a urologist not a sexual health clinic.

Yes but more broadly speaking, it's for issues with your genitals and undercarriage.

Which this is.

If it's not bacterial, antibotics won't help. They can in fact make interstitial cystitis worse. I had to stop taking a very low dose for acne when I was first diagnosed as it stirred things up.

Grow up

Well you’d better tell hospital medics this too… their logic fails me.

Coil went in by general ie. Surgery for very good reasons by a gynaecologist situated in a hospital.
I am now signposted back to my GP… knowing people who haven’t birthed babies and cervix’s like mine are refused the coil.
I have to take up a GP appointment (you know for someone sick) whilst a GP takes the awful thing out in an allotted 10 minutes. 🤬 unlucky them knowing another hospital already tried this under gas and air failing - and this isn’t something a small surgery where it’s down to GP’s to take out dare say entinox is not held on site.

Forgive me that person needing the GP who I’m going to block may be forced to go to A&E..

I would go sit up an and e as private services tell me for more urgent wanted coil removal but I would be in the knowledge I’d be sent to early preg and loss unit seeing scenes I desperately don’t want to see.

I imagine when I finally get to see a GP for this removal who may fail and say what the hell you doing here if you’ve had this in by ga then I’ll be waiting many months for the next turn. So hospitals can fail patients too.