to be really pissed off with doctor’s response

[Blackcelebration12]

My 12 year old DS is a bit allergic to things & has asthma. He’s quite sneezy etc. But recently he’s also been complaining of an itchy throat when he eats certain things like walnuts & yesterday his lips swelled up when he ate a cake from a cafe.

So I am obviously concerned and wanted some reassurance from the doctor and their response was essentially ‘what do you want me to do about it’ and ‘carry some piriton’. Eventually after me asking, they agreed to refer DS for some allergy testing but only because I pushed for it.

Aibu? I came off the phone and cried because they were so rude and dismissive. All I want to know is whether swollen lips is a sign of an allergy getting worse/ whether son is at risk of anaphylaxis.

It just made me feel stupid and like I was wasting NHS time

Don’t stop pushing on this one - the dr is dead wrong. Stand up for your child and take no crap.

When DS was 1 year old he started to get awful hives, they were huge and raised and Piriton didnt help. I took him to see GP who said " Oh they tend to be caused by things like shellfish and red wine" hes 1 year olf FFS !!!!

That’s a deffo a nut allergy my daughters lips swelled up to double the size eating a peanut she quickly spat it out she was immediately referred to allergy clinic and tested for other nuts
She now has to carry two epipens and piriton all the time she is not allowed to eat in Indian or Chinese restaurants or takeaways and cakes ect where u don’t know what’s in them need to be avoided the more your exposed to allergen the more severe it will become so be careful xxxx

Not an allergy but I had really bad post natal depression with no3
I went every bloody week to try to get help and was fobbed off at every turn
I was really ill for about two years and don’t remember much about it
I tried to throw my baby out of a window-I don’t remember a thing-this is what I’ve been told-and they told me to ‘take him home and have a nice cup of tea’
When I had no4 I was that scared of being fobbed off again I didn’t look for any help-and history repeated itself (no lobbing babies out of the window this time)
I ended up moving house and changing doctors-and when I told this one what had happened she was really shocked

Can you try to see another gp?
Some have better ‘bedside manners’ than others

Sadly only COVID matters these days. My mum is waiting for an urgent endoscopy - it’s estimated she’ll have it in December 2021.

Your DS must be assessed by a paediatric allergist.
Are you in London? This guy is amazing! We knew his family very well and went to the same church for many years (We moved away sadly, but my words of praise are sky high). You can get a referral on the NHS. He's based at St. Mary's Paddington. You can also see him privately, of course.
www.topdoctors.co.uk/doctor/robert-boyle

I'm married to a GP, OP and honestly, it's all a bit shit, to put it bluntly. He's now in bed with covid. He did two days at the surgery last week, face-to-face, instead of working from home and voila! Here we are. It's all so hard and so uphill right now. My heart stopped suddenly last March. I have my first follow-up this April... 13 months after the event. It's pants.
I hope you get the support you need for your son.

Funkypolar - that is not the GP's fault. I'm sorry to hear that your mum is unwell and doubtless very worried :(

Sadly only COVID matters these days. My mum is waiting for an urgent endoscopy - it’s estimated she’ll have it in December 2021.

The problem now is that all the clinicians are getting it. As I mentioned in my post above, DH has it now (wore full PPE and here he is, ill in bed with covid). Five of his staff members' tests came back positive yesterday. His entire surgery could be affected and that's 5000 patients depending on him and his staff to manage them. If they're all ill, then what?
Sadly it is all covid right now and it totally sucks. I understand your plight completely. I wait on a follow-up to a sudden cardiac arrest last March. My brother waits on chemo. It just stinks. And there's no easy answer. The reality is, the NHS was never future-proofed to handle much more than it had been carrying all of these years. Throw a pandemic into the mix and you've got a system shutting down before our eyes. The NHS, as we know it, will not survive this pandemic.

My littlest has a nut allergy and came out in the most horrendous hives when he had some peanuts about 2 years ago so I understand your worry. Push for the allergy clinic and read every label for may contain nuts. We have piriton here and at school and the allergy clinic did a plan that went to school as well.

I'm happy to PM you pictures of DSs back when he had the reaction

I'm married to a GP too Vanguard. So sorry he has Covid - I hope he gets better soon. Does he have a pulse oximeter at home?

I try not to read generalised pile-ons as it depresses me too much. There are crap GPs out there, and the OP clearly saw one, but there are far more GPs doing their best and getting stick from every angle (e.g. "GPs have been closed since March" narrative of the Daily Mail etc). There was already a recruitment / retention crisis and I can see Covid accelerating this.

I'm terrified about the number of complaints the surgery will get when they start having to run the Covid vaccine clinics (vaccines have been delayed atm which is also not good). They will NEED to stop doing a lot of what they usually do in order to run the clinics and I am sure that this is not going to go down well with the patients :(

Out of interest (as doctor didn’t even offer it) - how can I get an epipen? Does it have to be on prescription? Doctor said waiting list for allergy clinic was extremely long so it doesn’t sound like DS will be seen soon- unless we pay to go private which we can’t afford but would try if we had to.

You’ve done the right thing. Interestingly, I’ve kind of had the reverse recently- I’m 100% sure that I’m allergic to peanuts, walnuts and hazelnuts. If I come into contact with them I have a skin reaction, streaming eyes, itchy throat. If I accidentally eat something with them in then I struggle to catch my breath.

Was recently at the Drs for something else. She asked if I was allergic to anything, I said I think I’m allergic to nuts but it’s never been formally diagnosed. She took a history and immediately referred me for testing to see if I need an epi pen. I said that’s really not necessary, I’ve been managing this fine on my own for 30 years. She’s adamant though, and stressed that ‘these types of allergies tend to get worse the more exposure you have over time’. As I haven’t actually eaten something that’s been a problem for years and years (because I’m careful/ lucky), and all of my reactions have been from skin contact, she thinks my allergy could be quite unpredictable if I accidentally ate something again 🤷🏻‍♀️ Apparently some medicines have nuts in them too (she mentioned eye drops), and so they need to know for future prescribing for me.

I thought it was totally OTT at the time, but I think I’ll stop moaning about it now! Hope your DS is ok.

OP some great advice on this thread but if you're not aware of them already, do check out the Anaphylaxis Campaign. They have a helpline and lots of guides and might help you navigate the journey to diagnosis.

www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/

I hope you get to see a consultant soon. For now I would act as if he does have a confirmed allergy just to be on the safe side. Let the school know it is being investigated. Sometimes it seems that as a mum you have to battle to get your kids the right medical attention. It shouldn't be like this! x

I think paediatric epipens (we have Jext) only come on prescription.

TBH I think GPs struggle with food allergies - we had four visits before being referred to allergy clinic (in the end it was a locum who took one look at pics and put through an urgent referral). We’ve been under the paediatric allergy clinic for 10+ years (just discharged as remaining nut allergies unlikely to improve) and have already had arguments with GP about making sure epipens are on repeat prescription. Waiting lists are long but clinics are still operating - we have had face to face appointments and tests in last few months.

Hopefully the GP was just having a bad day.

Unfortunately there's lots of negative feeling towards parents whose kids might have allergies and it can be a hurdle to get referred on. The specialists are generally great though!

The NHS is fucked. It was fucked long before COVID19.

If you want an allergy screen you’ll need to go private. Or potentially, die waiting.

@Blackcelebration12...sorry to be so blunt. I was an NHS employee before retiring and frankly, now, you need to be on your last legs to get a bed. There’s none of this “let’s get you in and see what’s going on”. When your condition has reached crisis point, you might get attention.

Hi - my daughter has a nut allergy (cashew and other tree nuts). We had her tested privately but then the epipen was available on the NHS. The testing showed that she was mildly allergic to many things, with significant allergies to some animals, and to various nuts (although not peanuts or hazelnuts). If you can do this I would recommend it - enabled us to manage it better. She has since been all over the world - but knowing what to avoid was key to this. Hope you get to the bottom of it (incidently her symptoms at that age included itchy throat, but then later her throat would swell, and sometimes she was violently sick). It does sound like an allergic reaction.

Slightly beside the point but the itchy throat thing from nuts can just be hayfever. I get it and it’s because nuts contain the same protein as the tree pollen I’m allergic too. So it’s not serious. BUT the lips swelling up sounds more serious.

YANBU. Some GPs should seriously consider a career change. We shouldn’t have to advocate so hard for proper and thorough medical care for our children!

@Cloud1220... I agree. Some actually are in the wrong job I think. Is it the stress? The hours? Not what they’d hoped for, after training? I’m amazed by the number of people I know who have been to their GP and gotten a shrug of the shoulders and even one who said “I’ve never heard of that... well, at least you’re still here!” A month later, she needed bypass surgery.

OP seriously, you can keep your antihistamine handy and maybe, going through the right channels, be prescribed an Epipen but bottom line... you have to know the triggers.

@chucklebubble I’m so sorry that happened to you please please don’t let that doctors shitty attitude put you off getting the lump checked out please go back and see a different doctor and get the lump investigated it could be something and nothing but you really shouldn’t leave a lump.

@Blackcelebration12 well done on pushing for your DS to be tested a nut allergy can be really serious and the doctor should know that not sure what it is with some Doctors’s but there seem to quite a few that have zero bedside manner and treat people like they are making it up.

Sounds like your son has an allergy similar to me. Mine is a complication of hay fever and means I’m allergic to tree nuts - so walnuts etc but also fruit with a stone, like cherries. Lips swell and throat is itchy. Peanuts are fine as they are a legume and not a nut. I’ve also developed an allergy to wasp stings in the past few years - I don’t need an epipen but have what the doctor calls a ‘severe local reaction’ to stings.

@GoldfishParade

YANBU. The NHS is a shit model to be using today with much higher population rates, we should already have switched over to a french or German style model. They are so stretched for cash they'll do everything in their power to not investigate things.

I got prescribed codeine for a bad back and was told to consider seeing an osteopath, it wasn't until I moved abroad that they actually bothered to x ray me and discovered scoliosis.

You can't just attack the model when the UK spends less per capita than France and Germany on healthcare. If we switch to a German model and still have low public spending it will not be as good as the German system.

My daughter’s GPs have always been dismissive. It’s not the NHS unfit for purpose, it’s the GPs IMO.