Need a virtual hand hold , husband vomiting blood

OP, this can be serious but don't let them send him home. I have had two enormous stomach ulcers which needed internal stapling. They were caused by heliobacter pylori. One of them needed life saving treatment and I nearly died. It is awful but if caught early very recoverable!

I’ve been on both sides of hospital incompetence which resulted in fatality. I dont mess around anymore. If I were you and didn’t get consultant contact this morning I’d be on to whomever is acting medical director this weekend and advocate in strongest possible terms for your loved one

That is a saying meaning „has got it exactly right“ not anything about money.

OP this is shocking. Yes you are his advocate and they need to make sure that his endoscopy is today or tomorrow at latest. It is an almost an emergency and the longer he is in hospital the more it is costing them - which is also a KPI for a hospital (not your husband!). Yes. Keep notes of everything. This will be a whole PALs saga when this is over. I wish your husband, and you, all the best.

OP what a complete nightmare. Is he getting any calories via drip, surely that should be possible?

As has been said, would be good if you could go and advocate, but at the same time, don't expect too much of yourself. Only you can judge whether or for how long you can put your eldest in charge.

And maladministered wards are a difficult beast to fight, all the more on a weekend. Don't try to fight windmills. Wishing you strength.

So many fussing about him not getting food lol.
As long as he’s on a drip and painkillers he can be kept comfortable until they assess what the cause is. If it’s a bowel obstruction they may consider surgery if it doesn’t clear, so he needs to be nil by mouth.

Been in this situation a number of times. First four times, obstruction cleared. Last time, needed an emergency stoma. Morphine was a godsend.

This must be horrendous for both of you. Definitely try to make some noise. Making him wait so long without food or medicine is appalling. I recently made a PALS complaint and tbh their "investigation" was useless but it did mean an appointment was magically produced, so worth trying to keep the pressure up.

Don't get me wrong, I love the NHS, but they're failing your DH here. 💐

I'm not a medical expert unfortunately, but I would say you need to get in there asap, advocate for him, ask questions (respectfully), keep asking questions, do as much research as you can, read the notes, keep on top of it. Until it has been diagnosed and treatment plan is organised there are many ways that things can slip through the net in a busy department with so many demands on the medics and nurses time. Good luck and I hope he makes a full recovery.

We have recently had to step in to advocate for my mother in hospital. Inaction and general faffing would have killed her. You can make use of Martha’s law (urgent review for a second opinion) or put something in writing to the ward documenting concerns.

We have found that things have happened pretty quickly after we’ve complained in writing but nothing happens if we ask over a phone call.

As everyone else has said. In the nicest possible way, you have to advocate for your husband because he’s too ill to do it himself.

Get your eldest to look after your kids and get up there. Insist on speaking to the matron or nurse in charge - even the Chief Nursing Officer if need be.

I’m amazed he hasn’t had a CT scan or MRI. This would be the easiest way to see if there’s a blockage (which would seem apparent since he’s not had a bowel movement, despite laxatives). Morphine makes you constipated, so that’s not going to help.

Weekends are the worse to be in hospital as they’re running on skeleton staff, but they still haven’t staff for emergencies - which this appears to be.

Also to say that if our friend hadn’t been given the meds sharpish, DH was willing to escalate it there and then.

Sometimes they are understaffed, sadly sometimes no one cares enough.

OP sometimes you have to make a polite but absolute nuisance of yourself to get some action. A couple of years ago we visited a friend who had been admitted to hospital in severe pain (he had survived cancer two years previously) and was in a ward. His pain medication was four hours overdue and he’d asked several times and was clearly in a lot of pain. DH went up to the nurses station and asked when he would be getting his meds and the nurse said ‘I’ll get it in a minute’ which is what they’d been saying for hours. DH said ‘Ok thank you, I’m just going to wait here until he’s had it’ and stood next to the nurses station until it was given to him. He got it within about ten minutes. You have to make it clear you’re not going to be fobbed off and stand your ground.

This is awful I'm so sorry. You need to insist on making an appointment to speak to Consultant in charge.

This is dreadful. I hope your husband is ok 🤞

I agree with others, vomiting blood and fainting 8 times indicates something is wrong, I’d advocate for him and urgently speaks to pals.
This hospital sounds bloody terrible.

What good is money if he doesn’t survive this or survives but with reduced quality of life? OP you need to be more than a squeaky wheel here …

Marvelousmonsters is in the money, I'd be asking the next specialist you see about exactly what she said, and also detailing it to PALS.

So he hasn't eaten anything since Thursday??

And for some reason they haven't go around to doing the endoscopy??

I'm sorry - but wtaf, NHS???

Do whatever you can to be there more often I’ve just spent three weeks in isolation and if it wasn’t for my partner, I don’t think I would’ve survived. He needs you to speak for him.

Please make a complaint with PALS immediately, he is not bring cared for, he’s in a serious condition and is being continually overlooked. Please please advocate for him, he needs urgent treatment, they are clearly not on the case, PALS complaint will be the quickest and clearest way to communicate this.

I don’t know specific guideline but I have been nil by mouth for up to a week personally, several times for similar reasons. They just keep you going with IV fluids.

But how long is ok to withhold food?

Surely there’s a maximum time where they need to push him through to get scanned etc so he can start eating again.

Hope H is well soon.
The suggestion of logging his treatment/lack of treatment is worth doing.
The state of the NHS is scary!!

Not eating is absolutely fine in this situation, in case of a bowel obstruction. As long as he is getting fluids.

So he’s waiting on an endoscopy despite the fact that his oesophagus/stomach are already damaged due to vomiting (the reason he was vomiting bright red) and his blood pressure keeps dropping, and he’s severely constipated and they have given him morphine which will stop all his bowel movements completely?? No blood results yet? No xray or CT scan to asses his abdomen?

wow.

huge PALS complaint brewing here.