Wibu to call the ambulance back?

[Lemononachair]

Been having bad chest pain on and off since yesterday morning. Woke up around 3am with severe pain that has been constant ever since. Pain is intense and like a heavy crushing weight on the left side under my breast.

Ended up calling 111 for advice and they sent an ambulance, who checked me over and said all their tests came back ok (ECG, etc) but that to rule out heart problems I would need a blood test. I felt that given the current situation with coronavirus that avoiding a hospital visit would be best, they said I can have the test done by a GP but would take a few days for the results.

Since then I have tried to take painkillers and sleep until I felt well enough to call the GP but the pain is so awful. I can't sleep more than an hour or so at a time until it wakes me up again. Painkillers help a little at first but wear off quickly and never actually stop the pain. I keep retching and am very nauseous and dizzy.

I can't get to the GP as I can't get public transport or drive myself. I don't have anyone who can give me a lift, and I can't even get myself to the nearest shop to get more painkillers!

Paramedics did say I could change my mind and ring them back to get taken to hospital but should I? Am I just being a baby? Is it a good idea to go to hospital for a blood test and pain relief when it may have lots of people with coronavirus there? Don't know what to do, feel like I'm making a fuss over nothing but it hurts so bad 😞

If the ambulance man was really concerned he would have taken you in last time.

Paramedics and EMTs cannot take people in against their will unless they lack capacity.

For goodness sake, call them back!

I'm a student para, with those symptoms you need to be calling them back and going into hospital. Worst case it could still be a heart attack, an NSTEMI which wouldn't have shown any ECG changes. You need that blood test to rule out a heart attack completely

I'm not sure why they didn't try harder to get you to go in earlier tbh, but like a previous poster said, they can't take you against your will unless you lack capacity

.

Ex cardiac nurse here (now icu) ring 999 the original ambulance should have insisted you went to hospital. A heart attack on an ECG can be hard to detect or at least capture on a few seconds of ECG trace. You need a blood test in hospital to rule out any cardiac cause...

Pm me if you need any more help

Hope you are OK OP.

I am guessing you will be on the way in now if you called back just after you posted. Hope you get treated soon.

I have called them, they should be here soon.

Tbh if the paramedics had recommended it I would have gone the first time but they just said it was up to me and didn't seem very concerned so I felt like I was making a fuss over nothing.

I just can't cope with the pain anymore.

My bet is gastritis (this can be a horrible pain that comes in waves and spreads to your back) that has got worse because you've taken ibuprofen.

BUT when you can't absolutely rule out a cardiac issue then it needs to be properly checked out.

You've done the right thing calling then again. I hope you're OK, and have some relief from the pain/whatever is going on ASAP.

Get off mumsnet and get to A and E

Please call ambulance again, my husband had chest pains in April, phoned 999 they were here in 5 minutes, checked him over, said everything was fine but they suggested taking him in for urgent blood test and tests revealed he had had a heart attack and needed urgent operation. Let the A&E department do tests asap. Good luck.

Hope you're ok and the hospital can help you.

well done for calling them back op

Please try not to worry, they are so so careful in hospitals not to mix suspected covid patients with others.

Let us know how you get on if you can xx

I can't believe they didn't tell you to go the first time, unless you underplayed the pain or something

Good luck anyway OP, hope it all turns out ok for you

It could be costochondritis, it is inflammation of the cartilage that joins your ribs to your sternum. It is very painful, hurts when you breathe, turn over in bed or move. You could be suffering nausea due to panic.

Could be an NSTEMI - a type of heart attack that doesn’t appear on an ECG.

You need a blood test called a Troponin to exclude this. This should be done at A&E.

I’d advise you get to A&E. If you need an ambulance to facilitate this, then that’s what you need.

Having to prop yourself up to sleep could be a pulmonary embolism. You need to ring for medical help straight away.

Unfortunately a taxi is not an option, we only have one hospital/A&E department and it's about an hour from here so the costs would be astronomical. it’s too late for now but you really need to have an envelope with hospital taxi money for the future.

I suffer from costochondritis. The pain can be so bad that I can barely breathe.

Hope everything is okay @Lemononachair

Women have heart attacks in a different way to men please go to hospital this time just to be sure xx hope you're ok

Update us when you can OP. Good luck xx

I hope you are OK OP. That sounds very worrying.

Just thought I would try to post something reassuring - my husband had the exact same symptoms around April. A visit to A&E picked up nothing unusual. He went again two weeks later and this time they said most likely it was a trapped nerve (he hurt his back quite significantly in February) and they referred him to an osteopath.

Fingers crossed it is nothing serious. If it was heart related they would have picked it up in your scans.