Anyone awake? Am I ill? Freaking out

[iwillnotletyouknow]

Sorry for the title but I'm so tired and feel so ill so couldn't think of how else to put it.

Has a baby four weeks ago. Straightforward other than some retained placenta which I didn't know about until two weeks pp when I bled an awful lot. Recovered well.

Tonight, I feel so ill. So lightheaded, head hurts, so nauseous. The weirdest thing is both of my lower forearms (between elbow and wrists) are both so numb and a bit tingly. It's just so weird how BOTH arms are exactly the same. What the hell could this be? I have absolutely no way to get to hospital for 8 hours and I could just be generally unwell given I'm EBF and knackered? Any advice as to what this could be or just general tiredness? DH thinks I'm fine

Can you contact out of hours? Numbness doesn't sound normal along with other symptoms.

Why can't you get to hospital for 8 hours?

I would phone 111

Call 111 for advice.

@EAIOU it's just weird how it's both arms in same place!

Car broken, no-one nearby

No taxis or buses or trains- live in the middle of nowhere. Which right now I'm cursing.

Well I wouldn't take the chance. Give them a phone and see what they say!

Can I ask what people think it could be if they think I should call/if they had the same thing?

Ring 111, and take your temp while you're waiting. Not the time to be mucking about.

No taxis? Do you live in an island?

@Attache genuinely middle of nowhere. Buses during the day but nothing at night, nearest supermarket other than premier is an hour by car etc.

Just call them, worst case if you need to be seen and can't get anywhere then they'll send someone out to you

Not really OP, in the middle of the night Google will not be your friend. But so recently post partum you need proper medical advice. No one over the internet can say whether it's something or nothing.

Call 111 for advice, I cannot emphasise enough that this is very important as you could potentially have sepsis due to retained products.
See
www.nhs.uk/conditions/sepsis/

At the very least I would want to get your blood pressure checked.

OP - just ring 111. You sound ill to me. I understand the no taxis/ buses thing - we are in similar situation. Do you have a neighbour who could help out?

You need to call 111 and be guided by them. We can't triage you or do anything for you here.

As for what it could be? Anything! You're at your healthiest when you carry a child, so it's not like you've dodgy arthritis. For that reason, call.

Yep 111 not us!

Definitely call 111 if they think it's something they'll send the paramedics out or an ambulance wherever you are,

Er, 111

111 from me Op too ...

111 from me too. Now.

So Im going to give you a guess at what it might be, but you HAVE to call for professional medical advice as well.

You may have bottomed out your electrolytes with the blood loss from your retained placenta and been unable to replace them from your normal diet as you are BF. Numbness in both arms suggests some issue with your nervous system and electrolytes are needed for that. Being exhausted and shakey also is also consistent with that. What will happen if you continue bf and dont replace the electrolytes is that you will continue to feel worse and worse, you wont be able to reliable hold your baby, then you are going to start getting heart arrhythmias and/or rapid heart rate and then your body processes will start to shut down. If my guess is correct, you need IV electrolytes to correct the concentration of your blood stream and you need it in the next 6 hours max.

Tell DH to pull his finger out and think of a way to get you to a clinic /hospital/has to be somewhere that can run blood tests tonight

You need to call 111 for the simple reason that it's not easily explained. It doesn't sound like a standard symptom that frequently occurs - I've never heard of it before. Don't panic because BF and lack of sleep can do funny things to the body! However, given the recent medical history you need to be checked out because giving birth is such a monumental event for the body to go through, often we don't give it enough consideration because it's something that women do every day.

Let us know what 111 say?

@SeaToSki why the next six hours??

Its a guess, because i cant see you and take your blood pressure and heart rate. I cant check your reflexes and ask you any other number of questions, I dont want to petrify you by saying in the next hour BUT you must be seen with some urgency. 6 hours could mean you have deteriorated badly, or you could still be hanging in there for a bit longer. I could have guessed completely wrong and you have caught a random virus and been holding the baby at a weird angle so that both your arms went numb simultaneously

The chances are that both arms going numb and your feeling crap all simultaneously are because something is happening to drive that inside your body. Why will that suddenly stop?

If it was just one numb arm, or just feeling crap, or you hadnt had a retained placenta two weeks ago, I might be suggesting a pinched nerve, or a cold virus or not enough sleep with a newborn. But you have a very worrying constellation, you need to make decisions based on the theory of cost benefit. The cost of not going to a doctor is maybe your ongoing health/seizures. The benefit of not going to the doctor is not having to manage the crappy problem of how do you get there. Look at the long term picture here.

FFS OP - get your DH up and call 111.

Yes, just call 111