Hand hold -waiting for an ambulance

[stillvicarinatutu]

I can't breathe and my chest is making noises like a deflating balloon 🎈

Rang 111 and didn't expect to be told there's an ambulance coming

I can't get hold of my dd or ds or ex hubby. I'm alone and I do y want to go to hospital as I e 2 dogs here.

I'm meant to be at a funeral Monday. (Hopefully not my own )

I fucking hate hospitals .

(@OverArmour, I meant delete the posts of people who come on to say "why did you call an ambulance". Not "delete all medical posts.")

Am so sorry to read this @stillvicarinatutu have see your absolutely level headed and useful advice to many other posters in crisis and wouldn't have recognised you in the op as it doesn't sound like the usual you.
All those having a go can bugger off. Absolutely believe Vicar isn't being unproportional here in her anxiety. Sending you all the best.

Sorry… I should have read more carefully!

Hope you feel better soon @stillvicarinatutu and please call back if you feel as though you're getting worse.

We're the crew able to arrange contact with an OOH GP for you?

For what it's worth, if I'd have taken the call either through 111 or 999 and you couldn't get a sentence out you'd have got an ambulance

That's not how the system works (thank god), that would cause awful delays to patient care and quite honestly be dangerous.

They think I do have a chest infection, but I'd be waiting ages in a&e, and there's no one for the dogs . The nebuliser helped but I'm still wheezing and as soon as I move my sats drop . They've told me to bypass 111 and to g 999 if I am any worse later . My plan is to g gp first thing Monday if I can get through today . Today my plan is lay down and do not talk or move . I can't do either . Let alone drive .
My bp was high , my sats were low , my ecg was normal , I've said I'll stay here - they wanted to take me in after they saw my sats fall after walking upstairs.
I've never ever had an ambulance to me .

I been told plenty of jobs where someone ri gs every week saying they're suicidal or "just need checking out " - I am a police officer yes , so I would never waste resources. I am really not well . I'll get it on my headstone .
If I can get any of my family to come sit with dogs I may go to a£E later but if I can get through today I will - they said I definitely do need antibiotics, and the inhaler . The nebuliser had definitely helped my breathing. I apologised to the crew who said absolutely do not apologise, I needed that nebuliser. I was really struggling for breath and the wheezing was very obvious. When crew saw me one said "oh god" cos she could hear me , it's both lungs , anyway I'll leave the debate as to
Whether I needed them or not raging because im off to bed propped up on 4 pillows. Nite.

@OverArmour exactly, not as severe but in my first pregnancy I had horrific sickness and couldn't function or think straight, posted looking for advice and got some usual snarky, 'it's pregnancy you're not ill, if you can't cope with this how will you cope parenting' thankfully had some actual good advice and DID go to hospital where ended up treated for hyperemesis ketoacidosis. Glad didn't just go and 'sleep it off'.

It's how it's always worked when I have called and I used to call a few times a week from work. If we thought we needed an ambulance we called 999. If we weren't sure or if we just needed medical advice/an emergency GP/a prescription we would call 111 and a Dr or nurse practitioner would call us back usually within an hour but there were times when they called back within a few minutes.

111 never sent ambulances. In OP's case I would have probably called 999. When residents were not able to speak to me in full sentences at work it was 999 and I stayed with them until paramedics arrived.

@stillvicarinatutu if you're family can't sit with dogs is their a local dog walker who could help in this emergency or could they take the dogs to a local kennel if there was space?

Your not you're but not important!

Also
If I'd let them take me in they'd have been late off .I'll get there later if I can't hang on till morning but I'm meant to be at a colleagues funeral.

Life threatening emergencies are always ruled out first before the actual symptoms are assessed then an appropriate referral made, whether that be pharmacy, GP (in or OOH), nurse practitioner, urgent care, CAS services, dentists etc or ambulance.

Someone needing an emergency ambulance wouldn't be put on a queue for a GP to call back, unless they had categorically stated that they do not want that ambulance, and been made aware of the risks on a recorded line and accepted the same.

111 isn't one single service that operates in the same way. It's run by different entities across the country - some areas by ambulance services some by private companies. When I worked for 111 we were part of an ambulance service. We didn't dispatch ambulances but we'd transfer people through to the ambulance service if needed. Being so breathless you can't speak in sentences being one of those situations where you would absolutely transfer them through.

One of my colleagues had worked at 111 in London and they were run very differently and would effectively turn into a 999 operator and dispatch ambulances if they had a caller who needed it.

Anyway, I agree with a pp, I think some of the messages telling the op to cancel the ambulance are dangerous and should be deleted. These are people's lives at stake.

I cannot believe the stick you've been getting on this thread. This sort of thing - sudden virus-enduced asthma attack - kills people. Ignore those idiots.

Hope your breathing restriction settles, or if not you do get yourself to a & e later - it sounds terrifying. You may need a course of prednisone, also.

Don't lie down stay propped up and try to move a little also drink lots of water

Feel better soon xx

111 almost always send for an ambulance. I agree with pp , the lady could have called a cab .

@Lizzy1328 I don't mean to be mean to OP but I was thinking the exact same. You wouldn't be able to type long messages if you couldn't breathe

Some real pieces of work on this thread 😳

Vicar. Please rest and follow the medical advice given. Take care ♥

Hope you feel better soon OP, you did the right thing calling 111 that's what it's there for. To the people who say she didn't need an ambulance, the ambulance crew and 111 both say she did. She didn't call herself an ambulance 111 dispatched one.
Hope you manage to get some sleep OP and manage to get to a&e or a walk in centre today

Why not? You don't know how long it's taken her to write some replies

When are you actually allowed to call an ambulance in your opinion @Smallonesaremorejuicy?
I've called 111 a couple of times for other people and not once was an ambulance sent 🙄
The OP is a 50 year old Police Officer who is well aware of the pressure on the emergency services, she will no doubt deal with people calling ambulances daily because of their mental health issues and neurosis.....should she have kept that ambulance free for them?
I'm lucky in that I have never needed to call for help with my health but if I need it I will, we don't all have to die quietly because the NHS is fucked through no fault of our own.

Again - fuck off.

the ambulance arrived and paramedics treated her so clearly she needed them. People like you make it harder for others to call for help - she didn’t stub her toe fgs

you are being obtuse. if she actually couldn't breath, she would be dead within minutes wouldn't she. obviously, she is struggling to breath

You really don't need to justify yourself. Being unable to breathe is definitely a reason for an ambulance... Breathing is quite a serious bodily function afterall!

Get well soon 🙂

111 really don't 'almost always' send an ambulance. As I said in the previous post 111 is often PART Of the ambulance service and so the people working knit are often acutely aware of the pressures on ambulances.

In fact the 111 nurses would sometimes get lower priority ambulance calls passed through to them for assessment to see if they definitely needed an ambulance.