To go to A&E? I’m desperate.

[Havanawinter]

Early hours of Saturday morning (48 hours ago) I woke with the worst stomach cramps. I’ve been pooing liquid ever since, over 50 times a day. I can’t keep anything in. I haven’t been sick but I feel sick. It’s getting no better, the stomach cramps are indescribable, I can’t even lie down they’re so awful. I feel like death and I’m scared of dehydration. Do I call 111? Go to A&E? DH meant to be away in London for work tomorrow and I have 2 young kids by myself. I need help.

She could have eaten something off or have an infection. Not everything is Covid19. Nothing the doctors can do about diarrhoea. OP should take some Imodium and keep hydrated.

agree, the blood could be as a result of keep having diarrhoea,

i dont think i could bear to sit and wait in A & E, i would call GP for a prescription

Prescription for what? Nobody knows what's wrong yet and a GP won't just randomly hand out a prescription on request.

Totally agree. Go to A and E.

I had a relative with symptoms like this and she had c diff and ecoli when she eventually went to hospital a week later. She nearly lost her kidneys as she didn't want to burden her gp with what she thought was a bit of food poisoning.

antibiotic prescription / anti diarrhoeal medication, and yes of course a GP would hand out some sort of prescription on request, especially now
if i had diarrhoea i would not want to go to A & E and keep jumping up and down to use the facilities.

Did you miss the bit where OP said there's loads of blood in her stools?

If your GP is handing out prescription on request without seeing the patient and doing tests they need reporting. This isn't just your average case of a bit of diarrhea - read the OPs posts!

i have read the posts. @Zonder

gps have been giving out antibiotic prescriptions without seeing patients for years

This thread is turning into "cancel the cheque"

Hope the OP is OK.

Does it smell abnormal? I caught c diff years ago from a kidney infection and hospital stay. It almost killed me. Took weeks for the hospital to diagnose and I had a 3 month stay. Definitely worth getting checked out especially with blood and the risk of dehydration. C diff has a particular smell, you won't forget it in a hurry. I hope you feel better soon.

Please don't give dangerous advice without knowing what you're talking about.

Depending on the cause of the infection she could need antibiotics, plus a drip for dehydration.

She definitely needs to see a doctor for evaluation and treatment.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-poisoning/

stay at home is the advice.

Go to A&E sounds like salmonella

the main risk is dehydration
if you have children you would be well used to dealing with bugs like these.

No it's not. It says you can normally treat yourself at home and that it's rarely serious. That's not talking about extreme dehydration and passing excessive amounts of blood.

a colleague was admitted with diarrhoea, i know, but i couldnt bear it personally, i would rather treat at home
op not updated so i guess we will find out at some point, or not

This is almost certainly food poisoning. In this circumstance (personally) don’t think I could wait in A&E and would call the GP but that’s your call. Either way you need to be seen to get a stool sample to confirm diagnosis plus relevant medication. The results of this should also then be reported to the Foods Standards Agency. Friend at uni got e-coli and was hospitalised. Partner also had campylobacter which took weeks and some very strong antibiotics to recover from. I’ve also been somewhere where they was a norovirus outbreak. That peaks quite soon though and think this sounds more like food poisoning.

Hope you get well soon. Sounds horrific.

Please go to A&E OP. The fact you’ve had constant diarrhoea for over 48 hours and blood in your stool suggests you need medical attention. I definitely think it’s better to be cautious here and go to A&E so you can get proper medical advice and get examined if needed. Good luck ❤️

I’ve never phoned the dr and without seeing me has decided I need x or y drug
why would you? It’s their professional registration, without examination prescribe something that could do harm because you’re not getting the full picture. Even during covid my gp saw my f2f as I was so unwell to make sure he was being thorough

By analogy - a small cut is rarely serious, most people will need no more than a plaster - but some people will come down with tetanus, sepsis, or other unusual complications that do need emergency treatment.

It would be absurd to tell someone that they can't get lifesaving treatment because the initial cause was just a tiny cut. Or to tell someone with TSS that using a tampon is not a reason to be in hospital.

The same holds for diarrhoea.

If you call the GP telling them you are pooing blood, with a fever, in escalating pain, and severely dehydrated they are going to want you to be seen by a medical professional. Those are serious symptoms which could indicate something life threatening, not something they'll casually prescribe drugs for without doing tests.

There are very ignorant people giving some seriously bad medical advice here!

While I agree that doctors SHOULD ideally see you face to face for an examination, my doctor has prescribed me medication, including 3 lots of antibiotics, cocodamol and diazepam over the phone several times over the last few years. It's very common now.

Not with these sorts of symptoms they haven't. These symptoms warrant testing, because they could be life threatening.

ExactlyI held off for days before going to GP because I kept seeing it wasting NHS time and won't get seen. As I said be one ended up in Resus for a day and further 6 days in hospital.

Oh god, this thread.

A single set of symptoms can sometimes be something not-serious such as food poisoning, or they could be something more serious.

Doctors know how to examine a patient and carry out tests to distinguish between conditions that are or are not serious and requiring further treatment.

When conditions are potentially serious, you get medical help because that's what it's for. Delaying seeking treatment can end up costing the health service more money because the condition could get worse.

Just because it might be food poisoning, doesn't mean the symptoms aren't bad enough to justify OP in getting it checked to see if it's anything else. This severity/duration and with blood in the stools would be red flags. No one is saying you go to A&E if you have the shits for a few hours.

Hopefully OP is off getting treatment.