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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that peeing gallons of blood & having a fever is an emergency?

226 replies

Trying2Heal · 19/10/2020 11:38

I've a history of urinary tract infections progressing to kidney infections since I was about 3 years old. 18 years ago I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but following treatment it has been in remission since then.

After an extremely stressful life experience I had what I thought was yet another urinary tract infection but yesterday it progressed to blood literally pouring out of me whenever I urinate, and I'm having to urinate at least once every 20 minutes. During the night I counted the number of times I had to get up to pee it was 21 times. And each time I peed blood my urine is quite intense red, and it is EXCRUCIATINGLY painful. I am shivering and sweating. I called 111 and they told me a "local service" would call me back. The local service was this awful rude woman who told me to just drink lots of water and to try to get a GP appointment later this year and just kept asking me if I have friends and a support system. She was so rude and eventually hung up on me.

The last time I had these symptoms I ended up with a serious kidney infection and hospitalised for several days. Clearly I need antibiotics.
Am I to just sit here getting progressively more ill?

OP posts:
Wheytaminute · 20/10/2020 13:13

Am pleased you were seen and have some meds.

Hope you soon feel better

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 20/10/2020 13:35

@Trying2Heal

Received this follow-up from 111

Good grief, if I'd followed their instructions here & taken no further action to get checked/treated I could have presumably ended up with sepsis or something

Wow. That's atrocious. I think maybe you should, if you feel able, follow this up and tell them what happened to you.

Sepsis is already so poorly understood and identified, it has to be brought more to the attention of every medical and paramedical professional, INCLUDING the people who work on the phones at 111, or more people will continue to die unnecessarily.

halfmoonfullmoon · 20/10/2020 14:38

Glad you’re feeling better Flowers

Risingsuntheearth · 20/10/2020 16:49

Op, I don’t understand why you have an online screenshot of a consulstation advice. Being an nhs 111 health advisor I have not seen one of those before. Did you do the online consultation and then get someone to call you back? I have no idea who you spoke to, whether you spoke to a paramedic or a nurse, or the out of hours gp? If the 111 health advisor has referred you to the doctor and the doctor was to call you back then it’s their responsibility and not 111s fault.

I would advise you to ring up and ask for the complaints email address to let them know your situation. 111 isn’t perfect and is updated often. So it would be a good idea to detail exactly what happened in the email so that the medical professionals can review it and make changes to the system.

Risingsuntheearth · 20/10/2020 16:51

Every call is audited as well. So they should be able to find the exact recording of the phone consultation

Janegrey333 · 20/10/2020 16:53

Sepsis can develop quickly. I have had a very similar experience. You’ve been lucky.

2bazookas · 20/10/2020 17:12

She was right about drinking lots of water, even though peeing is so excruciating.

If you can't get an emergency GP appointment, go to the nearest pharmacist; they will help you. Failing that, A and E.

Don't wait till tomorrow because its only going to get worse.

OwlBeThere · 20/10/2020 17:13

I wish people wouldn’t say you don’t wait in a&e for anything serious, because that simply isn’t true, my mother has leukaemia and copd, she is on chemo and has a raging uti which meant she was taken in via ambulance. She still waited 6 hours.

Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 17:16

@Risingsuntheearth. If you work for 111 I don't understand why you're not aware that they text this to you after you've called them.

OP posts:
OwlBeThere · 20/10/2020 17:22

But that clearly says don’t take ibuprofen until
You’ve seen a HCP. She also rang you back and said a GP was going to give antibiotics, which is exactly what you have now. So she did give the right advice. Not saying she wasn’t rude to you, but let’s not over egg the pudding that you would have presumably developed sepsis. That’s not at all a given.

Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 17:22

@Janegrey333. What happened in your case? Did you go into A&E?

OP posts:
Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 17:25

@OwlBeThere I don't really see the point of your comment. My original posts and subsequent posts have been really clear and easy to understand. When I initially called 111 and had a call back from this "clinician" she told me to drink water and try to get a GP appointment later on in the week. Only later did she seem to realise that she had given woefully inadequate advice and then call me back and say she was going to get my GP to call me and prescribe antibiotics.

OP posts:
Risingsuntheearth · 20/10/2020 17:49

@Trying2Heal
Well, I am not aware of text messages being sent to people. Can anyone who has called 111 confirm this? We relay the care advice over the phone anyway so a text message isn’t needed. People also ring on landline numbers as well.

Every call centre is different, so their operating procedures can vary. As I said you should complain about the clinician that you spoke to. It seems that the original assessment with the health advisor had an appropriate outcome and referred you as required. But the clinician (who is medically trained) that called you is at fault.

Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 18:18

@Risingsuntheearth. Why do you need to ask someone else to confirm this? Are you calling me a liar? I'm finding your comments quite strange....

OP posts:
Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 18:20

@halfmoonfullmoon. Thank you!

OP posts:
Bluntness100 · 20/10/2020 18:25

Can anyone who has called 111 confirm this

Eh what now, are you suggesting she mocked it up and posted it or something! That’s a really odd thing to write, it’s like you’re more focused on you than her,

Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 18:39

@Bluntness100. Thanks. I'm glad I am not the only one noticing how odd her comments are

OP posts:
SunshineCake · 20/10/2020 18:58

I've never had a text from 111 but I don't doubt you, @Trying2Heal. Hope you feel better very soon.

GrossedOutted · 20/10/2020 19:04

Not all 111 services text after you call, it depends where you are.

I have had sepsis recently from a kidney infection (actually twice in the last six months) and three additional kidney infections. To be honest I always get sent straight to A and E, but I've also had IV antibiotics 2 or 4 types, each 8 or 24 hours for the first few days.

Why didn't you call your GP surgery that morning?

I am really glad you are feeling better though. It's pretty nasty and can completely floor you for a while.

GrossedOutted · 20/10/2020 19:06

Oh, and I have always been told lots of water and take paracetamol until I can get to A and E as well by both 111 and my GP (the times they haven't called an ambulance)

ToastyCrumpet · 20/10/2020 19:34

Good to hear from you, OP. I’m glad you got antibiotics and they’re working.

Risingsuntheearth · 20/10/2020 19:44

I’m not doubting the op at all. I was just asking because I am surprised. It might actually be a good thing as callers can easily forget the care advice at the end that we provide.

Especially by saying “if you work for 111 I don't understand why you're not aware that they text this to you after you've called them” implies that I don’t know what is going on in my work and that I’m incompetent. So I wanted to check with others...I don’t think that it is odd at all. If there was something going on in your line of work that you didn’t know about wouldn’t you ask someone about it.
“she mocked it up and posted it or something! “ of course not ....I recognised what is written in the text so I wondered how it was received. 111 gets a lot of stick. when people criticise I want to know what actually happened so that I can provide an explanation. I even asked you if you did the online consolation. Because we do get people who do the online assessment first and then a clinician calls them back. Which in that case we have no record of who the person has been put through to.

Just wanted to understand what was going on with the call. There’s tends to be more information given for urinary problems rather than just what was on the screenshot. Again, I’m not saying your lying. It’s actually quite bad that that’s all that you were told. I don’t know whether they gave you more care advice on the phone or not. I never defended the clinician you spoke to I even said to complain!

LyingDogsLie1 · 20/10/2020 19:48

How are you now OP?

Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 21:22

@LyingDogsLie1 Much better thank you. Still a fair bit of pain and feeling rather fragile and out of it but the peeing blood has totally stopped thank goodness.

OP posts:
Original poster
Trying2Heal · 20/10/2020 21:28

@Risingsuntheearth

"It’s actually quite bad that that’s all that you were told."

Exactly. That's the whole point.

Without scrolling back I'm pretty sure my original post explained it all. Peeing blood (urine was coming out totally red), severe lower back pain, fever, confusion and peeing every 20 minutes or so. Called my GP surgery, obviously, but they didn't answer the phone (this is nothing new, they NEVER answer the phone and you usually only get hold of them by contacting them via the website and then they call or message you back the next day.). Since things were so serious I then called 111. 111 had someone call me back who described herself as a "clinician." She refused to take my concerns seriously -- even when I explained my history of bladder cancer and she was very rude and ultimately hung up the phone. Her only advice was to drink water (after I'd already told her I'd been drinking absolutely loads of water) and to go and buy some paracetomol and stop taking the ibuprofen I'd been taking. Then she advised that I should try to get a GP appointment later in the week. Later, she called back unprompted and seemed to have really changed her tune and actually sounded somewhat concerned and said she'd personally try to make sure my GP did something for me that afternoon. GP didn't call as far as I am aware and I went into A&E
The text just reiterated what the clinician said on the phone so presumably it was sent by her. I have no idea.

OP posts: