To go to A&E, don't want to waste anyone's time

[midsummernight]

Frequent poster, name changed for this.
Need some advice, DH saying A&E but I don't want to be seen as a time waster.

Currently suffering from sever lower abdominal pains, passed out twice from the pain. Have just started bleeding fairly heavily but have already had period this month. Can't think straight because of pain. Just really worried because can't put it down to period pains as that happend last week. Any advise would be great, what
Would you do?

I had a 'significant' health event once. Ten minutes beforehand I was lucid but in pain. Fairly rapidly I became a blue light, life threatening emergency. It was pre-MN but I could have posted.

Well, here is some advice from the NHS...

www.nhs.uk/conditions/stomach-ache-abdominal-pain/pages/introduction.aspx

"Stomach ache and abdominal pain"

"A stomach ache is a term often used to refer to cramps or a dull ache in the tummy (abdomen). It's usually short-lived and is often not serious.
Severe abdominal pain is a greater cause for concern. If it starts suddenly and unexpectedly, it should be regarded as a medical emergency, especially if the pain is concentrated in a particular area.

Call your GP as soon as possible or go to your nearest hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department if this is the case.

If you feel pain in the area around your ribs, read about chest pain for information and advice."

And...

I did not see how long the OP was out for when she fainted.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/Fainting/Pages/Introduction.aspx

"What to do if you or someone else faints

If you feel you're about to faint, lie down, preferably in a position where your head is low and your legs are raised. This will encourage blood flow to your brain.

If it's not possible to lie down, sit with your head between your knees. If you think someone is about to faint, you should help them lie down or sit with their head between their knees.

If a person faints and doesn't regain consciousness within one or two minutes, put them into the recovery position.

You should then dial 999, ask for an ambulance and stay with the person until medical help arrives. "

NotAnotherUserName1234 please do not put people off going to A and E because they post things on Mumsnet. You don't need to encourage them to go, but please just do not dissuade people or make them feel guilty for using the services which are there for them.

good luck.

If you're well enough to type you're well enough not to need a&e? What utter nonsense. I managed to type "Dad please come to resus I'm scared shitless" when the paramedics wheeled me through. I thought it was going to be a quick check over and sent home. oh and every person on that HDU bay was capable of texting etc the first couple of days I was there too.

Oh and another lady on another ward I was on, looked fine, talked fine, texted/typed fine, only symptoms she had was rotten cough feeling shit and a slightly fast heart rate.
You'd never know she had pneumonia and sepsis, it didn't even cross the nurses mind until her temp shot up and prompted blood cultures to he taken that showed it up.

Requiring 999 sort of care doesn't always involve literally not being able to do anything and being almost comotose before A&E will accept you.

The NHS isn't on its knees because a few Mumsnet threads has sent a handful of people there. Usually with good intuition too. It's on it's knees because it's having a heavier workload on an even tighter budget. Any one would struggle maintaining a health service as efficiently with that.

Nobody on MN has judged merely offered advice & support & it seems that the OP has sought the care that she needs.Many people do think twice before asking for help it's a common thing now it seems sadly.

NotAnother - what absolute nonsense! I managed (stupidly) to drive myself half an hour to A&E whilst in severe pain, walk to the reception desk and then collapsed. Came round, texted my mum and DH then lost consciousness. Came round about eight hours later minus a Fallopian tube after having been resuscitated on the operating table and given five units of blood. I wouldn't be here if I'd called 111 but managed to drive and send text messages.

OP I hope everything is ok for you.

If the NHS recommends that you go in - then you should go in.

I went to a&e feeling fine, I knew there was something wrong but didn't actually feel sick or dizzy or anything like that. The triage nurse thought differently and I was wisked off to resus. I don't think it hit me how seriously ill I was until I got home three weeks later. Sometimes you don't actually feel ill when you are ill (if you know what I mean). I didn't have a mobile at the time as it was years ago but I would have been perfectly able to send texts.

Hope your feeling better this morning op

💐

Sometimes you don't actually feel ill when you are ill (if you know what I mean). I didn't have a mobile at the time as it was years ago but I would have been perfectly able to send texts.

Yes I know exactly what you mean notangelinajolie. The night I ended up in resus I'd took the kids to the park earlier that day. I felt crap but I didn't feel seriously unwell.

I do remember though having a horrendous reaction to an antibiotic. I have a hugh pain threshold usually and I was on my hands and knees throughout the night doubled over in agony ams hugging a sick bowl. That was the first time I'd ever took myself to A&E with abdominal pains. The triage nurse took me right through.

I understand people telling others not to go to A&E for an ingrowing toenail etc, but it's really bloody dangerous to tell them not to go when we aren't medically trained either.

Imagine what could have happened to that poor septic lady on Mumsnet the other month if it was her that had posted this and she got the same advice.

Hope you're okay op

Hope everything is oki OP

Years ago on another forum someone posted saying they weren't feeling well and described a few fairly vague symptoms. A few posts in, one person said "take an aspirin and call an ambulance". Days later the original poster came back to thank them, he had been having a heart attack. But still able to post.

I do hope the Op is ok..

Hope you are doing okay OP. x

I was hoping to see an update (and a positive one at that!!).

Hopefully OP is fast asleep.

There's always some idiot on these threads who says that nobody should go to A&E unless one of their limbs is hanging off. I have been to A&E four times as an adult- once with a broken wrist, once when I was miscarrying and in severe pain and twice with kidney infections when I was peeing neat blood. I was able to get myself there by public transport or taxi each time. I was admitted each time apart from my broken wrist. If I had gone to my GP and said I thought my wrist was broken, he would have told me to go to A&E so it would have been wasting his time because the only way to confirm a fracture is an X ray which can only be done in a hospital.
Yes, people do misuse A&E but that doesn't mean that you have to be minutes from death to go there. Hope you're ok OP.

My Grandad drove himself to his GP surgery when he was having a heart attack. They took one look at him and called an ambulance who determined that he was too ill for the local hospital and blue lighted him to a specialist unit and he was in surgery within a few hours. He didn't post on a forum (because he had no idea how to use a computer!) but he would have been capable of doing so given he was capable of getting in a car and driving himself to a doctor. If he had and was told he was fine because he could type then he would have died within a few hours.

Hope you're okay OP.

Hope you're ok op. A&E is exactly the place you should have gone X

Hope you are OK op. That must have been really frightening. Definitely right to go to a&e.

Please update when you get a chance op, sending you best wishes x

I'm always puzzled by these 'call your GP' responses. I live in an area where it's possible to get a non emergency appointment usually within a fortnight, and there are two mornings a week where you can just pitch up and queue to be seen, so it's really not too bad. However, if I rang and asked to speak to a GP I'd have to wait for one to phone back, which probably isn't doable with the fainting symptoms the OP is describing.

Thinking of you OP. Do you have any history of cysts or Endometriosis? I have, and when a cyst ruptured my symptoms were very similer to yours.

I know a guy who was working away, weekdays only, in Edinburgh and felt unwell with stomach pains, so he knocked off early on the Thursday to drive home. He drove from Edinburgh to Newcastle and by this time felt quite poorly and took himself to a+e where it was found his appendix had burst. So "if you can post it on the Internet it's not bad enough for a+e" is bollocks.

Random in a consultation with my GP once she arranged an ECG because I kept getting chest pains.

I remember saying "apart from the whole not being able to breathe thing though I feel fine which I presume is not the case in a cardiac emergency".

The reply was that if it was a cardiac emergency I'd pretty much feel like i had a rotten bloody virus with it too.

Can you imagine if someone posted that? Got chest pains / feel crap / sweating buckets is this a virus?

90% of the time you'd be told it's just a virus and to wait to see your gp. But there's that 10% chance that that virus could be a cardiac emergency. The only symptoms other than the chest pain and breathing which my dad mistakenly took for asthma, especially when it didn't respond to his inhalers, was palpitations. I dread to think what the consequences could have been if he'd thought no more about it and gone to work as normal.

Loss of consciousness coupled with blood loss of course requires medical care asap.

OP, I hope you're okay and have been seen and treated. Update us when you can.