AIBU to be very upset GP wont see me for a week despite me being really worried (plus WWYD)

[owlelf]

Apologies if this is TMI, and possible AIBU is wrong place but I am hoping for a few responses fairly quickly.

I have been experiencing a pinky discharge for a few weeks. Its not my period, or ovulation and I am not pregnant. This weekend it got worse and I am now bleeeding lightly.

Called GP at 8am this morning, this is the earliest you can call for an appointment. I was held in a queue and by the time I got through there were no appointments left. Receptionist agreed to ask GP to call me.

I spoke with GP on the phone, he said they need to see me to take a look at cervix and take some swabs etc. He said to speak to receptionist to make an appointment.

Receptionist said the earliest I can be seen is next wednesday. She said that I can't attend a standard morning appointment instead (thses are given out first come first served over the phone from 8am) as I need a longer than standard appointment, and that he would put in my notes that I should be given an appointment.

I am scared and uncomfortable. It feels wrong that I should have to wait for a week. I have explained this to the receptionist, she was very nice but said there was nothing she could do.

DP thinks I should go to A&E, and be seen today. I would love to do this but I think that would be wrong of me.

AIBU to be tempted to complain?

I also had antibiotics. An initial swab taken came back positive for Group B Strep.
Alphabite, that's quite an off hand attitude. OP may be overreacting, but then she is also scared.

oh great if you've got AB's already yeah i'd just wait for gp's appointment. you may not even need it. did they remove the bit of tampon? sorry.

Thank you for your understanding saggy.

Yes, she removed rogue bit of tampon (yuck), she said was v small like a bundle of fibres.

don't panic Owlef... I'm sure it'll be the tampon causing your bleed.
I had something very similar except it was the little dome shaped bit of plastic from the top of a lil-let I obviously wasn't looking what I was doing!
Anyway had some super strong anti b's and no more problems

ingles I am really relieved to hear you had something similar (although sorry to hear you've been through this too). Easily done I think, the top plastic bit is quite hard to see.

Did it cause bleeding or spotting in your case?

have a nice long soak in the bath with a handful of salt and 15 drops of lavender in it. and relax.

I think you should keep your GP appointment and explain the receptionist couldn't fit you in for a week and in the meantime you went to the gum clinic. Might help improve service for the next lady int he same situation.

both,...blood stained discharge followed by a light bleed. The smear nurse spotted it at the gp's surgery... removed it and said.. What the hell is that!!
I gather it was quite embedded too.
Was very embarrassing.
I felt quite unwell.. like flu, I expect that was the infection and the antib's knocked me out for a while but that was a couple of years ago now and as I said, all good...
I'm feeling quietly confident all will be well with you too...
Do as fly suggest and take a nice bath, get a good nights sleep and hopefully you'll feel brighter in the morning

YANBU well done for going to gum clinic
As it has turned out to be an infection, a week later you could have been feeling really ropey. Good to know and listen to your body.

Very glad you have ABs and discovered the probably cause for the spotting/bleeding. Do still go back to your GP when the appt comes through and check that everything has gone back to normal :)

Alphabite - that's really unhelpful advice, as has been shown by the outcome.

Bacterial cultures need to be...cultured, this does involve a wait due to incubation times (24-48hrs), then sensitivity testing can be carried out to determine best treatment and of course time is dependant on work load re the paperwork and getting back to you (which is generally what eats up the time). Most clinics and hospitals will not do on the spot or in house microscopy (looking at stained slides to determine the presence of bacteria) and even if they do may follow up with a culture and sensitivity anyway if they are not happy to just prescribe a broad spectrum ab. Snap tests etc may be used in house but in your case not necessary due to problem.

Owlelf - don't worry (how easy is that to say), take your abs and monitor your symptoms before heading to the GP. Finding that bit of tampon is more than likely the cause of it the little devil but it won't hurt to get reviwed after a ab course to ensure all is well with coil/hormones/cervix (erosion etc nothing ''nasty'' iyswim). Hopefully you will start feeling better soon. I have a mooncup and would never, ever swap back to tampons or towels. I love it and don't get any of the issues I did with the other things, very, very comfortable - bliss after years of discomfort! never had a problem with being out and about etc as many people worry they will. Couldn't recommended them highly enough!

libe are we supposed to be impressed that you bled for six months before you visited a GP?

Glad you've got this sorted, owl :)

i used to walk twenty miles to school with a sack of bricks on my back and you're moaning about about a spot of blood

the lavender and salt recommendation was because it's really good for infection stuff. not recommending dooshing (however you spell it) but can't hurt having it in the bath. i had a bodged episiotomy that the gynae was amazed hadn't gotten infected and asked what i'd done to keep it so clean and healthy and i'd done the lavender oil and salt in the bath trick.

Glad you have the antibiotics OP, but if your symptoms get worse while you are taking them then don't wait to see your doctor at the appointment, call for an emergency appointment or go to A&E.

I have just come out of hospital following a three day stay because of an infection in my ear. I phoned my GP on Friday for an appointment but couldn't get one until Tuesday.

In the early hours of Saturday morning my ear was swollen and painful and I phoned the out of hours doctor, who faxed a prescription to a chemist for me to collect at 7am when they opened and said to then keep the appointment with the GP on Tuesday.

At 2am Sunday morning I was in A&E because my ear, neck and face were swollen, I couldn't hear anything, was having difficulty swallowing and was in a great deal of pain.

I was immediately admitted to a ward and kept in for three days, with a tube down my ear and needing intravenous antibiotics for the infection and painkillers, plus ear drops and steroid cream for the swelling.

I've been allowed home with orders to stay in bed and with enough pills and potions to stock a small chemist.

If I had done as the out of hours GP had said, and just waited for my appointment while taking the antibiotics I would have been seriously ill by Tuesday and my hearing could have been irreparably damaged at the very least.

So please, if you think your symptoms are not improving or especially if you think they are getting worse, go and see someone immediately.

In future, if the receptionist says there are no earlier appointments but the doctor has already said you need one sooner than they are available, ask the receptionist to get the doctor to phone you back so you can discuss with him what to do while you wait for the appointment because he said you needed to be treated much sooner than that.

I was thinking "tis merely a flesh wound" swallowed

It's just such an odd thing to say, though. I understand people being too frightened to visit the doctor (my late mum was, hence the late), but otherwise why on earth would anyone ignore symptoms like that, let alone seemingly show off about how hardcore they are for having done so?

Oh an NoOne's advice re appointments is spot on.

Receptionists and GPs don't always understand each other's work as much as one would like (the ones at my GP's are brilliant - I'm not receptionist bashing!).

Thank you so much for the kind words everyone (well almost everyone, and to be fair I have to take all comments on the chin as this is AIBU ). I found this thread really really supportive yesterday, it helped me get through a really tricky day and I wanted people to know how much their posts meant to me.

Also thank you for pointing out that it is a good thing to take my health seriously and that there are no prizes for toughing things out. When you are scared its hard to find the right balance between ignoring symptoms and overeacting.

In hindsight, I should have asked the doctor "exactly how soon do you want to see me?", so that I could then quote him to the receptionist. He did say he would put a note on my file to say I should be given an afternoon appointment "soon"- but he didn't say how "soon".....

The antibiotics (Metronidazole) havent helped as yet, but things are no worse and I guess they will take a while to kick in.

not much survives metronidazole including your friendly bacteria - maybe invest in some probiotic pearls. i think it's usually 2.5 days in to a course of abs that you start to notice things improving.

Thanks swallowed I will get some.

Still no improvement . Despite trying to keep my chin up I'm actually very frightened.

I'm not convinced by the infection theory- no smell (sorry TMI), no real increase in discharge and no improvement from antibiotics.

I don't think it's an erosion as the GUM doctor would presumably have seen that when she examined me.

I'm not on pill and don't have the mirena so they can't be culprits for playing with my hormones.

I had my hormone levels and thyroid levels checked 8 weeks ago (as part of separate issue), they were fine.

Sorry for the gloom and pessimism, I'm not sure how I'm going to make it to GP appointment on Wednesday. Every time I try to put my brave face on with my precious DC I have to fight back tears and frightening thoughts about cancer.

This is clearly upsetting you a lot (as it would me TBH) Could you not phone the doctor back and explain what has happened, how you have seen no improvement despite the ABs, and could he try to fit you in sooner? Explain that you had no luck through the receptionists, is he able to book you an appointment himself? (some will, some don't seem to have a clue how to use the bookings screen on their computer systems) Either way a phone call won't hurt, you have nothing to lose!

Thanks for the advice stanleylambchop (my DS's favourite book is Flat Stanley BTW). I would love to speak to the GP that I originally spoke to, but having been advised to give the antibs a chance by the GUM clinic I think I should wait until Monday.

I realise I probably sound contrary as I'm not at all convinced that this is an infection yet I'm following GUM doctors instructions.

This all feels like a nightmare, DP just keeps reassuring me and telling me "there's no point worrying". He's right of course but I feel kind of alone with being scared- hence me posting here.

owlelf - if there had been anything very clearly wrong with your cervix then I think the GUM doctor would have spotted it. I have a cervical ectropion (cervical erosion) and the nurse doing the smear can see it so a GUM dr would have noticed something like that too.

See your GP anyway as you might need a referal to the Gynae dept to get everything checked. I was referred because of my cervical erosion. Note - cervical erosion does not mean your cervix is damaged it simply means some cells from the inside of your cervix have grown a bit too far down on to the outside and they are a bit more fragile so can bleed a bit more easily.

OP don't know if this helps but when I was told I had cervical erosion I also thought cancer! My GP specifically said that bleeding was really not necessarily a sign of that and more likely to be symptomatic of a lot of other things rather than that.

yy as Chaz says, if there had been anything remiss the GUM doctor would have spotted it I'm sure.

Antibs do take a few days to kick in, ime (as a patient, not a medical sort - I'm not remotely medically qualified).

I totally understand why you're worried. I don't think you have reason to be, but I would be wibbling on the sofa drinking gin (I am a wuss).

Try and get an appointment with your GP for piece of mind. Call them this afternoon, bearing in mind the dearth of appointments.

Owlelf just a quick one to say that not all infections smell. I got one after DS was born and that was no smell at all. I understand you are frightened but just wanted to reassure you that you can't draw any conclusions from the lack of smell; this doesn't rule out infection.