To want to go to A&E!?

[hollowtree]

My first AIBU so go a little easy- also feeling extremely sorry for myself!

For about 2 weeks I've been having chronic headaches (think can't drive/lights hurt) which I put down to sleep deprivation. On my worst days I used the codiene I was given after my EMCS! Naughty I know but when you have a small baby and no time for the bloody doctors you'll do anything.

Last few days been feeling a bit fluey- temperature, fatigue, aches and pains along with the usual cough/sore throat/stuffy nose.

Then, last night around 2am I woke up with this excruciating pain in my ear along with (what sounded to me like) a firework display in my head! Followed by fluid leaking out from my ear all over my pillow.

So I thought- happy days: must have been an ear infection/abscess which had sorted itself out and explains the headaches and temperature.

But the pain is getting worse. And I'm feeling so dizzy and just so so shit. My head is banging, my neck is aching and my body feels like it's giving up on me.

I sort of want to see if I need fixing, and getting through today has been a struggle let alone waiting all of tomorrow for an appointment on Monday 😓 WIBU to call 111 and ask if I should be worried or if I need to go to A&E?

I read a thread on here recently about wasting NHS resources and now feeling guilty please tel me WWYD

Glad you’re getting seen.

Glad you're being seen tonight. You sound very poorly. Hope its a quick fix and you're feeling better soon.

I had to rush my DD to hospital thinking she'd had a stroke. It turned out to be a migraine- and sadly the first of many- but A&E absolutely did NOT treat us like we shouldn't have been there.

I think you're smart to have gone in.

Hope it goes ok tonight x

So glad you’re being seen. Hope it’s nothing serious, and pls update when you can.

That's what happened when I perforated my ear drum.

I really worry that somebody could die one day because they post on MN for medical advice .

'You have had this problem for several days, so it's not an accident or an emergency....' That's a completely illogical presumption. A small bowel obstruction can build up over a number of days and it's ignored, despite pain, vomiting, etc - the person thinking they have a gastroenteritis. It's only when the obstruction gets so big and the bowel bursts, causing frank peritonitis, that the pain becomes excruciating and the fever starts, that the patient presents to Hospital with a belly full of poo, in a life-threatening condition. But, they've had their problem for several days, so surely it's neither an accident, or an emergency....

Just adding another hope everything goes well (as I was too late to suggest 111).

Hope you're oj

Good luck OP

Good luck OP.

lilybetsy - are you a doctor? Or psychic?

I've been so unwell the last few weeks and just got given weekend release but I was in HDU in January and could still type

lilybetsy ...
Just before Christmas I had had several courses of antibiotics, had a temperature, was light phobic, vomiting and dizzy every time I moved.. I called 111, was told to go to out of hours gp.
Saw the OOH gp, was given a prescription for the dizzyness, that i couldnt fill as was a sunday night and no chemist open! He also told me to see GP the next day..
Next morning i went to GP and was hitting sepsis markers, was asked if I had transport, if not they would get ambulance!! I spent 10 days in hospital with bilateral pneumonia.
8 weeks later i am still off work.
I have been told by respiratory team, that if anything like this is to ever happen again to go staight to A&E, and not to call 111
DO not ever think that you shouldnt go to A&E... they would rather check you over and find that is something simple.
I now have a care plan and have been told to go to A&E if i am worried to get checked over rather than risk sepsis etc...

@wikedminx hope you're feeling better soon. I started with a cough and a uti in January, I asked on here because I had a raging temperature and es coughing up brown sputum with chest pain. I rang 111 who got me a drs appointment and then they sent me to hospital.

Turns out I had a collapsed lung, pneumonia and empyema which is pus within the pleural space. I also had sepsis but that was because of the uti. I spent 2 weeks in HDU with a chest drain and was very nearly vented as my sats were so low. Eventually I tolerated CPAP and got better without venting, I've had 5 weeks of IV antibiotics and have just been put onto oral ones.

I'm a nurse and should have known how unwell I was, anyway my point is- anyone can lose the ability to see straight when they're unwell, and if I hadn't posted on here when I did I would have died. There's no 2 ways about it.

I think I might be allowed home properly from Monday but obviously that's up the drs and I've been given appointments for chest physio and counselling and the dr said I won't be back at work for a few months.

Frankly I owe my life to that post at 2ish am in January and I'm so grateful for all the advice I got.

@hollowtree I hope you're being seen and don't ever feel bad about using the NHS that's what it's there for

I’d like to give the posters saying ‘It’s not an accident or an emergency’ a virtual slap. FFS. Have you any idea how quickly meningitis or sepsis can kill someone?

Thought not.

Educate yourselves instead of spouting such shit.

HollowTree hope you’re home & feeling much better soon 💐

Well said Annie

I hope you’re getting sorted and feel better soon OP

My rule of thumb is that, if you normally are healthy and you have some sort of infection, viral or bacterial, that makes you feel so unwell you are really scaring yourself, then you should seek medical review. If that's at out of hours gp, fine. If it has to be at A&E then that's what it has to be.
The op wasn't describing a bad cold, she wasn't saying she felt rough but coping, she was beyond all that. It's incredibly dangerous for people to advise somebody with a source of infection to actively stay away from medical help. I hope those posters who did that here will think again next time.

the very fact your even taking the time to think whether you should go and being concerned of wasting time marks the difference between you and a time waster.
your very poorly from what ive read.you don't have to been healdless to seek treatment urgently.
I hear that in your gut you feel something is very wrong.dont ever feel bad for needing help.
get better soon.whatever it is do let us know.lots of love and concern on here for you hun.so feel supported if nothing else.
big hugs.keep warm.feel comforted.better soonxx

I would like to say don't ignore things like severe pain or raging temperatures. My son in law in November had what he thought was flu but got steadily worse over just a few days. Chronic pain, aching muscles, chest pain etc. Eventually my daughter made him phone 111 and they sent him to OOH doctors as it was a weekend. Diagnosis pneumonia, staphylococcus infection, endocarditis and sepsis. He was critically ill for more than a week and spent 8 weeks in hospital. If they had left it longer before him getting treatment he might not be here today.

Better safe than sorry.

Hope you’ve got some answers and some pain relief OP

Hope you are OK. I always use 111 if I need it. XXXXX

Op? Hope you're OK and sleeping now