Shell shocked after a and e visit

[Onethreefiveseven]

I am looking for advice on what to do next as I feel like I'm not coping

I started developing very severe neck pain yesterday. I am not inexperienced with pain, I've been through significant, life-threatening medical events. This was far worse pain than breaking a bone, for example, or an infected surgical wound. I've also had migraines and this was much worse. The closest comparison was when I went into hyperstimulation during a pregnancy induction and felt like my abdomen was in a vice. This time I felt like my skull was about to crack. It was so extremely painful and very frightening, I also had blurred vision on my left side. The pain was so intense I can't describe it.

I was sent to a and e by 111, got there at 8, told 3-4 hours wait. I sat in waiting room on a hard chair groaning and crying. By the time I was triaged the wait had become 5-6 hours and then by 11pm 8-9 hours. I spoke to a receptionist who made it clear that I wouldn't be seeing anyone until the morning. No pain relief until then. So I asked my partner to pick me up and we called 111 again desperately trying to get pain meds. Spent the night waiting for callbacks and begging for help down the phone. Sobbing and at times screaming from the pain. I finally got some codeine this morning, after 14 hours of indescribable pain.

This morning the pain is more under control and I thought I would feel relieved but instead I feel odd, psychologically, in a bad way. Kind of dead eyed and like I want to cry but can't. Hopeless. The fact that I interacted with so many people and no one helped. No one even really seemed to believe me how bad the pain was. I'm not writing this to blame them. Maybe they were doing what was necessary, prioritising other patients. It was still horrific though.

I will make a drs appointment for my physical health but I want to know what to do, today, to try to minimise the psychological effects. I've barely slept and I can't figure out what to do. Has anyone else been through a prolonged period of very intense pain and/or been denied pain relief, and found a way to cope with the emotional aftermath. Maybe just writing this down will help, I don't know.

Dont go to a chiropractor.They are frankly dangerous

Suing it should really help it function

You would too if they had used an experimental method on you, botched your surgery and you had not been able to work for nine years and still have no prospect of being well enough to work or even get out of bed.

You’re right. I’m sorry, I connected your last two sentences, perhaps unfairly.

I am concerned about encouraging people to exaggerate symptoms though, the systems are in place to prioritise people who need urgent care. I do understand there are frequently and increasingly situations where there are several urgent cases at once in A&E though. It is barely functioning, I’m with you there.

Could you not have brought some co-codamol?

Triage usually give you some sort of pain relief or have when I've been.

A simple as it sounds have you tried heat and ice?

What were you expecting them to do? The fact you went home regardless of how long etc says it was in some description manageable. Migraines can also affect your neck too.

Unfortunately A&E (NHS in general) doesn't work - my 80 year old father, terminally ill with cancer went to A&E with sepsis and was on a trolley there for 3 days - he then contracted MRSA.

Yes, I've had an extremely traumatic experience in A&E, left on my own for hours in extreme pain and vomiting, with rigors. I was bullied horrendously by a nurse practitioner, who lied to my family on the phone, telling them I wasn't alone and had pain relief! I'm a nurse too, which added to the trauma, as I was very aware of how badly I was being treated. I'm not a dramatic person, but it's true to say I was badly traumatised. I would NEVER go back to that department. I'm so sorry you have had this experience OP 💐

Oh OP I’m so sorry. I had the same, my gallbladder was infected and I was alone convinced I might actually die on the chair. I begged for hours and hours for pain relief. In the end, someone came out and squirted oramorph in my mouth. I ended up being admitted for 3 days after a 12 hour wait.
snd the worst part was so many people using a and e who shouldn’t have been there and for some bizarre reason getting triaged and seen before me.

the worst feeling is being conpletely at the mercy of strangers when you are in pain.

i wrote to PALS to get it off my chest.

also look up private urgent care centres. It makes me feel more in control of the situation to know hypothetically I can go without any sort of wait.

Also never go to an and e without your own pain relief - keep a grab bag with a charger, water bottle, snacks and pain killers

Private urgent care centres in the UK are like NHS walk in centres. They specifically say they are not for serious conditions. They treat broken bones, sprains, utis. And I am not sure exist outside London.
www.hcahealthcare.co.uk/our-services/urgent-care

Nice try, but I knew several people who got the treatment needed very quickly. My aunt got a hip operation within 4 weeks of seeing a specialist and she didn't have to wait long for that appointment either. Getting a gp appointment was much essier too. I also worked in the NHS.

@Onethreefiveseven my son had this last year. Scan showed two rupture discs C2 and C3 I think. He was in an awful state. Did it lifting something they thought.

You really do need a scan. I think that our hospital A&E really is a 9-5 clinic these days, nowt happens outside those hours.

I have a chronic condition. My treatment under Blair and now are very different.
The criteria for treatment of a flare up is much higher now. And I have to buy all my incontinence pads, whereas I used to get them free.

I was one of those who waited well over a year under the current government for an operation. It was very different under Blair. I know younger people will not remember, but although it was not perfect, it was not the third world service we see today.

Nice try? That was my experience, so good for you if yours was different. It was crap here and still is, but then it’s been written off as brexit land so maybe no one gives a toss about it.

And of course it’s worse now, as there are so many more people now.

Hip ops here came up on our local FB page. One person has been on the list for six years. My friend after waiting two years went private because she is a secondary school teacher and there are so many stair cases. Six months after her operation she got a letter from the hospital asking her if she still wanted the operation.

So they know people are going private I think

Covid seems to have been a turning point as well, nothing has quite recovered. One notable thing is a shortage of medication, even quite necessary medication that people can’t do without. It’s scary.

I waited 5 and a half YEARS for major spinal surgery finally had it last August - that's with 2 formal complaints being upheld.

The waiting lists are ridiculous.

My knee is beginning to be a bit dodgy. I hope the waiting lists have been reduced by the time I need an operation.

What the conservatives want is the NHS to only provide unprofitable health care. This means the NHS provides A and E, care to those with serious chronic conditions, birth care and NICU for babies, and elderly and disabled people with multiple health issues, especially those with dementia.
Private health care likes the fairly easy operations with no other medical conditions interacting to make it complex, and nobody with dementia causing issues because they are confused.

You can experience psychological and emotional changes as a result of a brain insult/ injury.

PLEASE go back to A&E and have your husband use terms like extreme head pain, blurred vision in one eye, and emotional changes.

*You need to be put through a battery of tests asap.

Very different under Blair. Have you ever heard of his PFI bollocks and lets not forget his GP contract in 2004 which allowed GPs to op out of out of hours care thus causing the chaos of today where we have to ring 111 and any mention of breathlessness or headaches has them sending everyone en masse ro A&E. Oh yes well done Tony Blair

I think you should have stuck it out and waited in A&E. The problem is now, with you discharging yourself after triage and going home is that they are going to think you were not that bad to start off with. Yes it is frustrating to be sat for hours and in pain but you would have been treated. If you go back now then you will just be going through it again. Unfortunately there is not a lot you or anyone can do to prevent waiting for hours.

I'm not quite sure what folk expect. If you've been triaged and found not to have a serious wound, burn and aren't fitting etc then of course you will wait. Because guess what those with life threatening problems such as serious wounds, burns or illnesses causing seizures etc are emergencies and will in fact get seen before you.

This isn't good advice.

Any severe head pain needs to be assessed.

Heat and ice are fine, but taking strong pain meds can
(1) cloud the symptoms and/ or affect vital signs, which can lead medics to erroneous conclusions, and
(2) limit the options for medics to prescribe or use other medications because of potential drug interactions.