A&e or calpol??

[destinywidow]

Ok I've posted in Child health but posting here for traffic.

My 9 year old Ds has a stabbing pain in his hips, we saw two gp's yesterday, first had no clue, second thinks pulled muscle and to give him calpol.

He's woken up in agony, he's had calpol and still in pain, we avoid nurofen due to asthma but may give that a go once the chemist opens and I can get some.

He is a drama llama, low pain threshold but he's my baby and I hate hearing him crying in pain.

Would I be unreasonable to take him to a&e? We don't have a minor injuries unit where we live. Or should I continue with the calpol/nurofen and hope it works??

plnswn have you read the thread? In this case the facts have changed since the GPs saw him and both GPs said they were not sure what the problem was, so that's not the same as a definite diagnosis of sprain/pulled muscle. There are other conditions this could be as well as broken bone or sprain, some of which need urgent treatment.

There is a GP on this thread advising that he should be seen today.

When my daughter becomes unwell she gets a tummy ache. When she was younger we had her at the out of hours a couple times as she would be screaming in agony with tummy pain and we were scared about appendix.
They GP felt her, and we know now that her glands in her tummy and groin become enlarged easily when she has a virus, and sometimes interfere with her bowels. Has he been unwell aside from the tummy pain?

He has lower back pain around his hips. He seems to be fine right now, except for the occasional wince and pain when he stands or sits. He has been playing with his younger siblings so I don't feel the need to take him to the gp today. He hasn't had any calpol today so it can't be that bad.

He has his appointment tomorrow and I will ask about things mentioned on this thread, perthes disease amongst others.

I've only read the OPs post so I don't know if it's been mentioned. DS had tonsillitis and had awful hip pain, which is more common than people realise. It could be a virus with referred pain. Does he have any pain in his throat or ears?

Glad he seems to be getting better. I don't know enough to know if that rules out the "needs urgent treatment" conditions mentioned on this thread. Would guess so but don't know!

All of the nurses I know would rather some adults sit in A&E for hours and hours with screaming kids (Usually babies though) and learn not to go unless its an absolute emergency

What an unpleasant and misleading post.

Hope you insisted on an emergency appointment today, OP. Children in severe pain have a right to an emergency apt with their GP!

People should be aware that just because one doctor has seen a child and sent them home with calpol does NOT mean that said child should suffer on if the condition doesn't improve or gets worse. Doctors can make mistakes and situations can change. Nor should the receptions in a GPs surgery be the judge of whether your child needs an emergency appointment. The decision should be made when the parent is speaking directly to the GP.

receptionist

How is he today OP?

He's absolutely fine today Minipie, no pain at all and is going to the park with friends in a bit.

We still have gp this afternoon, probably he useless as he's in no pain now.

glad to hear he is feeling better

So we saw a third doctor today and she wants an X-ray on Monday or Tuesday next week. She said there's a condition in boys that makes the joint slip, (can't remember what she said exactly but think it's been mentioned on here?) she doesn't think this is what's causing it but she wants to check to be sure. She's also concerned that when he gets the pain he can't stand on that leg and she wants to find out what's happening with him.

Really wish I'd seen this doctor first!

It's called a slipped upper femoral epiphysis. I'm a paediatric nurse who works on a children's orthopaedic ward. It was the first thing that came in to my head when you described the symptoms. It will need a pin to fix it back in place. Some surgeons will pin both sides as there is an increased risk of the other one slipping as well. Normally a few weeks on crutches then all ok.

Can the pain go from side to side?? Both sides of his hips/top of thighs hurt but never both at the same time. And the pain isn't constant. He's been mostly pain free today

Could be that he has a slip on both sides. One could be worse than the other. You can have chronic slips and acute slips or acute on chronic. So he could already have a chronic slip on both sides then got an acute/ new slip which has caused the severe pain on top of the chronic slip. Iyswim. We put the kids on strict bed rest from the moment they are admitted till they go to theatre. To stop it getting worse.

Ahh I feel really bad now.

He's really sporty and loves being out running around, maybe I should limit his activity just in case.

I've been up all night worrying about him, but he's fine at the moment. This pain he gets has been coming and going for over a month, we just assumed he'd over done it at football until this week. He was just sat in class and the pain started. No pe or break beforehand.

You have nothing to feel bad about. It may well just be a simple injury.

Well his x Ray was clear so that's a good thing. Just waiting on a call from the gp when she decides what to do

So not a SUFE then. I'm very glad to be wrong!

I'm really happy he doesn't have sufe, that's been really worrying me.

Gp's have decided to refer him to paediatric physio. I'm not sure exactly what they'll do but she's like a physio' opinion. Ds was in pain again this morning but no where near as severe as last week thankfully.