Sore throat without a sore throat!

[Becca19962014]

Yes I know it's wierd!

Basically I've lost my voice for a few days, not totally but mostly. I can't use a phone but have been able to ask for pharmacist advice who just told me to see GP but they've nothing at all due to cuts until Wednesday before then it's emergency GP service which is based over two hours away and would require me to use a phone and is in England so not as simple as just turning up.

It's got worse and now I've swollen glands and feel dreadful but I've no sore throat it just feels kind of scratchy and my throat when I look at it is very red but no white stuff.

However, my mental health is really bad - PTSD attacks every day and night terrors all night that wake everyone in the building and neighbours bad. Mental health team don't want to know and GP appointments no longer possible for mental health, must go to mental health team direct for drop in (nightmare as you can imagine) or go to a&e (totally unsuitable).

Could I have damaged my voice from that? Last year I damaged my throat quite badly from screaming which caused a rupture in a muscle in my throat (I've Ehlers danlos which is thought to be why that happened). But Would screaming cause other problems? I can't control my mental health (nothing works anymore) so resting my voice isn't going well at all. I thought maybe throat lozenge (I've diabetes so can only use special ones) but don't know if that would actually help or not.

I had tonsillitis last year which turned into meningitis and I'm paranoid that'll happen again. Again wasn't allowed appointment and had to wait until I saw my GP by which time it had spread and I was in a bad way.

All ideas welcome!

Oh OP you're having a tough time of it. You've possibly got some sort of virus but really you'll need to see a GP to get a diagnosis. How you get some help soon

I thought that but unfortunately can't see anyone until at least Wednesday (assuming I can get through at 8am and gave a voice - doors don't open until 9 and it's too late by then as all appointments are gone) as there's no way NHS direct would put me through to out of hours with just a sore throat (that's what happened last time).

Thanks for replying!

If you can try to speak to 111 they should put you in for an out of hours GP appointment. They're usually pretty good

Our 111 service doesn't work like that. And I definitely don't have the voice for it right now.

You phone, get a call handler who is also a call handler for 999 so can take a very long time to connect (for obvious reasons), you then get triaged against every call for a nurse to call back, who decides if you need to speak to GP, if so you then speak to the GP at 111, then they decide if you should be seen locally so get passed to the local team which means a nurse phones and then a GP calls to see if you need to be seen. There's no appointments.

Last time took eighteen hours to see someone.

Honestly not surprised people just go to hospital. The pharmacist I spoke to said he'd gone to out of hours and it was empty and a&e was full of people (you walk through a&e to get to out of hours, if there's a clinic there, if not then it's a two hour drive).

Triaged against every call across Wales that should say. Not locally.