Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think about calling an ambulance?

101 replies

Rhynswynd · 27/01/2019 15:43

For the past 3 nights I have woken up with chest pain that won't go away with antacids. I have tried Rennie tablets and gaviscon liquid. The pain just won't stop.
It has woken me again tonight and I have been awake for over an hour and had 1/3 bottle of gaviscon. Today the pain lasted most of the day with varying levels of pain from mild to stabbing.
My dh and 3 children are asleep (in australia) and I don't know what to do.

OP posts:
Honeyroar · 27/01/2019 16:15

I'd say that you need checking out but you sound well enough to get a lift/cab to A&E.

EarthboundMisfit · 27/01/2019 16:17

We can't diagnose you on the internet. It could be gallstones, other gastro, cardiac or anything else. You need to get checked out. I wouldn't personally wait until morning, I'd wake your DH and go now or, if you are worried enough, call an ambulance. The 3 day duration does not affect that. Flowers

April241 · 27/01/2019 16:17

Some heart attacks can lead to the heart gradually filling with blood and expanding - until it splits open and the person is dead

What now?

exWifebeginsat40 · 27/01/2019 16:19

the award for the most terrifying comment of the thread goes to mitziK who now has me convinced my heart might just keep filling up like a loo with a faulty ballcock until it bursts.

OP, you should call a medical service, urgently. if you have had chest pain for days, i don’t think anyone would begrudge you an urgent appraisal of the situation. hope you’re ok.

Whatdoyouknowwhenyouknownowt · 27/01/2019 16:20

Feeling of impending doom is a heart attack symptom, so I was told on my first responders' training.

Original poster
Rhynswynd · 27/01/2019 16:20

J spoke to a nurse on call and she has called me an ambulance to be on the safe side.

OP posts:
MitziK · 27/01/2019 16:20

If you mean 'after three days?', yes. Friend lost his Dad that way, it was part of my first aid qualification training - the description was that it ends up banana shaped before splitting and it can take days.

Better to call an ambulance and make sure that isn't what's happening.

PickAChew · 27/01/2019 16:21

I think the expanding and splitting open description is of an aneurism.

ohtheholidays · 27/01/2019 16:22

My BF has just had to bury her DH,he was only 45 and had been fine,he died on New Years day,he thought he had indigestion,I don't want to scare you but get to the hospital now,if it's nothing serious brilliant if it is then the worst can happen so get help now!

MitziK · 27/01/2019 16:23

And I don't like scaring people - but if scaring them gets them to the hospital, rather than hoping the pain goes away, I will accept feeling bad about it.

I'd feel far worse if I said 'nah, won't be anything, don't worry about it' and they died as a result.

Aragog · 27/01/2019 16:27

Good luck.

A colleague of mine had a heart attack whilst at school. Fairly young, fairly healthy, no prior medical issues.

She thought she had heartburn or indigestion. She didn't get the typical chest pain in the way you see on TV. To be honest at some points it looked more like labour pains the way she was knelt over. Thought she could talk and communicate.

We took her to the drop in - she insisted on no ambulance and at that point No one really suspected a heart attack either. They stuck a monitor on and immediately was sent in a blue light ambulance to the hospital. They actually realised her the same day - she popped in to school to grab some stuff - but then called her at home that evening to tell her to return ASAP as it was a heart attack.

2-3 years later she is fine and off all meds, and just down to annual appointments. They couldn't find a cause for the heart attack.

PhilMckrakin · 27/01/2019 16:28

"Some heart attacks can lead to the heart gradually filling with blood and expanding - until it splits open and the person is dead."

That is absolutely not true.

Op if you've got pain that's woken you up and nothing resolves it you need to go to hospital.

April241 · 27/01/2019 16:31

*If you mean 'after three days?', yes. Friend lost his Dad that way, it was part of my first aid qualification training - the description was that it ends up banana shaped before splitting and it can take days,

I'm sorry your friends dad died but no.

PhilMckrakin · 27/01/2019 16:35

Cross posted glad you're being seen Op.

PickAChew it does sound more like MitziK is describing an anneurysim and that has nothing to do with the heart filling until it splits or becoming banana shaped. It has nothing to do with having a heart attack either.

Ngaio2 · 27/01/2019 16:35

I had pain like this. It wasn’t like reflux but more like hiatus hernia pain except it lasted all night and nothing would shift it. Had it 2 nights in a row.
NHS page on internet said to call ambulance and medics said it wasn’t a heart attack but detected atrial fibrillation and took me to hospital . My heart was beating too fast and I was at risk of a stroke/heart attack and I was given medication and am monitored by the hospital. GP had been told of my symptoms (including breathlessness) but said it was nothing to worry about so didn’t send me for tests or consider medication.
So good you’re going to be checked out. Better safe than sorry.

NOTthepinkranger · 27/01/2019 16:39

*Fabaunt

If it’s been happening for 3 nights it wouldn’t be an emergency, so could you go to the out of hours service? *

Just isn’t true, I had a patient come into a&e recently, he had no symptoms other than heart burn that wouldn’t go away we thought it was just GORD or similar, cardiology consult came anyway turns out he had a dissected aorta and needed emergency surgery in another hospital - it’s rare but advice like this is wrong.

Wouldn’t call an ambulance but would get seen to OP

chocatoo · 27/01/2019 16:45

If it’s gallstones it will respond to painkillers (even though you feel that you want to take something for an upset tummy, try paracetamol).

Butterflycookie · 27/01/2019 16:47

It’s good that they are sending you an ambulance. But is there any reason why you didn’t go straight to a&e instead?

SD1978 · 27/01/2019 16:47

Call nurse on call or health direct. Do you need the number?

SD1978 · 27/01/2019 16:48

Also visiting home doctors- I know all the numbers in all the states- happy to help if you need them!

SD1978 · 27/01/2019 16:48

Saw you did that- all good.

HoraceCope · 27/01/2019 16:49

best of luck op

Lovemusic33 · 27/01/2019 16:53

Good luck OP. I had something similar a few years ago, I called my gp and was told to come straight in, didn’t think much of it and went in with the kids with me, I was rushed into a room as soon as I got there,stripped off and attached to a machine (ecg I think), they then told me off for bringing the kids as I might of needed to go to the hospital. I was fine, turned out to be nothing (a side effect from a drug which is now been removed from sale or prescription).

Hope it’s nothing serious but chest pain always needs to be checked out ASAP.

TheHobbitMum · 27/01/2019 16:54

Best of luck op

Fairylea · 27/01/2019 16:54

Good luck op.

I can’t believe people are saying that because it’s happened for a few nights it can’t be serious! Any chest pain should be checked out as an emergency. Not all heart attacks happen suddenly or acutely - people can have a series of smaller ones without knowing they’ve happened. The heart can become weaker and weaker and it is very much a medical emergency. A heart attack is not the same thing as a cardiac arrest - so many people seem to think unless you’re collapsing clutching your chest and falling unconscious then it’s not a heart problem. All chest pain is an emergency until it’s checked out.

Swipe left for the next trending thread