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 😞

Glad you're going to hospital/have called paramedics again.

For those saying to take a taxi - not for a possible heart attack, especially to a hospital an hour's drive away. If things got worse and the patient's heart actually stopped en route, there's a very limited amount of time (minutes) to attempt resuscitation. The patient's only real chance would be if they were already in an ambulance with the correct expertise, drugs and equipment. Don't want to scare the OP too much, but heroic rescues by passersby (or taxi drivers) don't have a great chance of success, even if they have CPR training - to the extent that the advice is usually to call for an ambulance before helping when a heart attack is suspected. Because realistically, it's the arrival of the paramedics that's going to give you a chance of survival.

If it was heart related they would have picked it up in your scans.

What scans?

Insist on being checked out in hospital. I appreciate the situation with Covid is problematic but you deserve a thorough check over.

@MingeofDeath

I'm a clinician who works for an ambulance trust ( I dispatch ambulances after clinically assessing patients) Does the pain change upon movement? ?ry shrugging your shoulders Does the pain change when you breathe in deeply? Have you got any shoulder tip pain? Have you taken any pain killers? If so what affect did they have on your pain? Are you a deathly colour? Are your lips a normal colour? Are you very short of breath? Have you felt nauseous/vomited

If you're a clinician you really should know better than to try to triage someone on here in this way.

OP needed to get off MN and call an ambulance, which I'm pleased to see she has done.

Hope all is well op.

Agree @BoreOfWhabylon

Hope you are at hospital now getting sorted.

Yesterday i walked past my local police station abc there was a man lying on the floor (unconscious) being tended by the police. A taxi driver was explaining his passenger became so ill he didn’t know what to do so he stopped at the nearest place he thought might help.
If someone comes in here with chest pains, unless we have psychic medical skills. we should surely all be saying to call the ambulance as the service is exactly for people like that.

Doh I thought I was replying to yesitsmedontcare on page one who suggested taking a taxi if the OP felt bad about calling an ambulance

it’s too late for now but you really need to have an envelope with hospital taxi money for the future
No she doesn't. She can call an ambulance . That is what they are there for.. I can't believe people are suggesting the op get herself to hospital with the symptoms she has!!!

it’s too late for now but you really need to have an envelope with hospital taxi money for the future

Not for these symptoms though.

Thee symptoms - worsening chest pains - should be dealt with in the appropriate manner, which is a 999 call and an ambulance.

It's only ever on MN you get people advising making their own way to hospital and not calling an ambulance for seemingly serious symptoms.

No she doesn't. She can call an ambulance . That is what they are there for.. I can't believe people are suggesting the op get herself to hospital with the symptoms she has!!!
Obviously for the times when she needs to get to A and E but it’s not a 999 issue!

So glad you called them.
And never take ibuprofen without eating.
You will add more symptoms.
But hopefully they will give you some decent pain killers and find out what is causing this.
It sounds awful.
Don't be fobbed off.
This is not normal.

@BoreofBabylon

I was asking the OP those questions to try to give her some reassurance as she was reluctant to call for an ambulance. I'm glad that she has, hopefully everything is ok.
In my job, there are loads of people who are seriously ill, call the ambulance service then refuse treatment, don't want to get taken to hospital. There are also people who will call for an emergency ambulance for really spurious reasons eg they had a contact lens that they couldn't remove (yes that really has happened).

This is exactly how I was when I had gallstones. Felt as though I was having a heart attack. Get yourself to hospital one way or another.

Hope you're doing ok OP, glad you decided to call the ambulance back.

@MingeofDeath I went to a a person suffering DOMS post workout last week..... Tbf, they'd called 111 first who passed it to us 🤨

@AldiAisleofCrap how tf do you know it’s not a 999 issue?

Any update OP? hope you feel better soon.

GP will advise you go straight to A+E, you may as well go now. Most GPs would not do a blood test to rule out a heart attack as it's an emergency and you could well be very sick by the time you get the results back.

Call an ambulance again.
And please don't worry about covid- A+E will separate respiratory symptoms from non respiratory.

Just seen you have called, OP- hope it all turns out to be minor and you're home in a few hours.

@Itsjustabitofbanter the vast majority of reasons to attend A and E do not require a 999 call. If in doubt call 999 , if you think you broke your ankle - ring a taxi!

I hope you are ok OP - EGC doesn’t pick up all heart attacks I hope you are being looked after.

I hope you're ok OP. It sounds awfully painful, and scarey.

However, I once had similar symptoms. They started at work and went on for 3-4 hours. I was sent to lie down on the couch in the director's office and colleagues checked on me frequently. It got more and more painful and I got paler and paler and, they said, started to look grey. I finally agreed I might need an ambulance but I also needed a wee, badly.

Two of the team supported along the corridor to the ladies' and as I stepped down the two steps into the lavs I did the most enormous burp, followed by an even bigger one a few moments later. The pain started to ease immediately.

They had nearly called an ambulance ... for a case of wind.

I hope yours is something equally trivial and that you'll be back to let us know soon.

(In the defence of my manager and colleagues it was incredibly painful, and the same thing happened a couple of years later. I can still remember how much it hurt, and it was over 40 years ago. It's never happened since. Weird.)