How to get to A&E

[Mrspotter12]

If I need to go (poss infection and sepsis) how should I get there?
DH is home as is 10yo DD. I don't want her in a busy A&E, it's 23 miles away and I can't afford a taxi. Would I morally be ok to accept an ambulance if one is suggested!
This is not a question of IF I should go, but of transport. Thank you.

If you have red flags for possible sepsis then ring for an ambulance. Seriously. It's not an overreaction. I'm a First Responder and if we see any signs of sepsis it's a definite emergency.

Also, as a parent who has had a child with sepsis I would call an ambulance too.

Sleep well op. With your medical history please phone your onocolgy nurse doctor tomorrow. If your temp gets any higher tonight phone 999. You have a complicated medical history and need that ambulance if so x

A normal temperature is not a red flag for sepsis. Sepsis is quite rare. Sleep well OP.

Guessing if you're well enough to ask on Mumsnet you probably don't need an ambulance

No you can't use an ambulance because you don't want your 10yo in A&E

Please be aware that a below normal temperature can also be a symptom of sepsis. My dad suffers with numerous kidney infections (and was very seriously ill last year with sepsis) and the red flag to him is he gets very cold and his temperature drops. I hope you stay well x

Hope you're not heading into febrile neutropenia, let alone neutropenic sepsis. Not wanting your 10 year old to have to hang around is not a reason for an ambulance. Neutropenic sepsis sure as hell is.

I'm trying to remember if I was well enough to ponder the ethics of different transport options when I went to hospital suddenly for 5 days

Likewise. I have been three times taken to hospital in an ambulance, but on none of those occasions could I have walked to the ambulance.

1. Resulted in an appendectomy. I was weak and vomiting and unable to stand. A taxi would have refused me. We didn't have a car.

1. An ovarian cyst that twisted and made me feel really ill and vomity.

And very painful so I couldn't stand up. Resulted in major abdominal surgery.

1. An accidental laceration to my leg, which hit a main vein and it was spurting at least a yard when I stood up. Wrapping several towels around it didn't help and I started to panic and feel dizzy and there was so much blood I was sure I was almost on empty. So I called an ambulance.

I have a child (she's 35 now) who has many health problems, including LD and epilepsy, but we would always take her to A&E ourselves. The ambulance service is under relentless pressure.
Some of the calls left hanging and waiting are people having heart attacks, or excessively bleeding. I'm not trying to minimise the urgency of the OP's situation, but if you have the means to get to A&E under your own steam then you should do it. Not least because you might have to wait 1 to 2 hours or more for an ambulance. They are under so much strain that you might likely get there sooner if you take yourself. On the occasion that my leg was bleeding I had to take my toddlers with me!! There was nobody else to take them.
They had to come in the ambulance with me and be looked after by the paramedics and then sit around with me whilst I was treated!
One nurse took them to the childrens' playroom and gave them fish fingers for tea and looked after them and reassured them until I was sorted and bandaged up.

That was a very long time ago and the nurses and hospital staff were really brilliant, got me sorted out and strapped up, looked after my children to boot, and then me and my toddlers got a taxi home and all was well.

The NHS was totally brilliant 30 years ago. A+ for care. A+ for making you feel like you're a real person.
And A+ for talking you through the diagnosis and the prognosis and the treatment.

So. What's happened then, to change all that?

You should have an emergency advice telephone number staffed by clinicians with chemo experience. Call them I feel you need advice, they have far greater expertise than A&E.

Just seen your update. Of course, under those circumstances, you are justified in calling an ambulance. But you did give us half a story.

If you dripfeed, you're not going to get fully informed opinions.

Feel better soon OP

So, yeah, in view of all these posts, if you feel no worse, get your husband to drive you.

Hugely unsympathetic responses here. I'm shocked.

You are in a fragile place undergoing chemo, having experienced sepsis and being at continuing risk of it - which is extremely serious. Take no notice of the critics - if you did have the temperature you'd be perfectly justified in getting an ambulance. Its a life threatening emergency.

No 1 - get to the hospital. Sepsis is so dangerous. Can you not have someone look after the 10 year old while your husband takes you? If not then can they not both go? You just need to get there, rather than worry about how. If your husband is not home then yes, definitely an ambulance. Wishing you well

FFS this thread is weird. clearly ambulances aren't taxis but they are a legitimate service for people who are seriously unwell / need care / at risk

OP you didn’t drip feed! Drip feeding is where people consistently release ‘opinion altering’ information in short bursts depending on what people are saying!

You simply explained about your chemo- one message after your initial OP! You’ve not kept throwing new info at us!

Some people on here are just pedantic arseholes who expect your OP to be a 2500 word essay including every single piece of information you could possibly want to know about your situation

Mrspotter12 **

Feel better soon OP

Of course you can call an ambulance. Chemo, possible sepsis - it's ok to use the emergency services if you're in a possible emergency! They'll probably send a paramedic who will asses the situation, and then you'll have a better idea.

The people who are clogging up the NHS time and budget are the people having fights outside pubs at midnight etc, not people like you, OP. Good luck. x

Hmmm so may be an infection but actually having “ sepsis “ you would be very very unwell by now and not typing on here
There is a difference between having a infection and being septic

Ok so I actually read the whole post and I take back my comment
If you have a sepsis protocol then I’d temp hits protocol ( ours is 38 for daughter ) then your are more than in your right to call an ambulance !

"Guessing if you're well enough to ask on Mumsnet you probably don't need an ambulance"

oh god, not this again. You are talking dangerous nonsense. People have posted on here and stopped breathing in the ambulance on the way to hospital. You can easily be close to death and still able to post on the internet!

OP good luck, I have family experience of the will-it wont-it waiting re neutropenic sepsis :( Ring in if you are at all worried and if they want to send an ambulance for you, then don't even think about listening to the idiots on here telling you to go by taxi.

I actually despair at some of the lethal 'advice' on this thread. If you have NO FUCKING IDEA what you are talking about then for the love of god, keep quiet. I've always thought mn should intervene in threads like this, in case the OP makes the mistake of actually listening to the 'unless your leg is falling off you don't deserve an ambulance' crowd.

Guessing if you're well enough to ask on Mumsnet you probably don't need an ambulance

What a bloody stupid comment to make. Did you even read all of OP's posts?

best wishes OP. I hope you sleep well

I would never ask MN for serious medical advice. This thread perfectly illustrates why.

OP has cancer, if she has good reason to believe she has developed sepsis an ambulance is perfectly acceptable. I would not want her to run the risk of becoming worse in the back of a car. I would be surprised if 111 didn't advise an ambulance for a person who is showing signs of sepsis, has cancer and has recently been admitted for sepsis.