Shall I just go to A&E…

[Igo]

I have been having upper right abdomen pain since Saturday (currently a full ache) temp around 40.4 comes down to 39.2 with some tablets, I feel sick and woozy had horrific bowel movement

pain come and goes in waves when it’s bad I can’t move, hurts to breathe, can’t stomach food cause immense pain…been taking tramadol and it’s not touching it!

pain got really really bad yesterday each wave lasted around 2 hours, dh phoned 111…after 9 hours they still hadn’t called back, phoned again at 6…was phoned back at 10pm asking me to go to urgent care for an appointment at 10.30pm which was impossible as I live an hour away…they then told me they had no other appointments and was told to call my Gp or go to a&e if it got worse

doped up on tramadol again and got about 4 hours sleep

attempted to contact my Gp 33 times…finally spoke to a receptionist and all she would offer me was an appointment in 7-10 days

phoned 111 to be told to contact my Gp as they were open

literally it’s my last resort do I just turn up? Pain has been ramping up again for the last 15 mins I can’t keep shoving tramadol down my throat but I don’t want to be sat in a&e in agony while nothing happens and I’m left in a chair like last time

I thought it sounded like gallbladder issues. I had my first problem with mine this January. Never felt pain like it! Thankfully I had my GB removed by the end of May and no more pain.

@PeloFondo

Same here! I am disabled due to pancreatitis and the attacks are horrific - I've never felt pain quite like it, but I can still type and oramorph doesn't knock me out, either.

It's so funny how people deal with pain and handle it different ways.

You’re in the right place now, anyway. Hope you feel better soon.

I hope you get well soon, OP. Glad you’re in hospital and getting pain relief.

Turn up at your GP (unannounced) and hope they see you as an emergency and give you a referral

Oh just seen you are in hospital, get well soon!

Glad you went op. Hope they sort you out and you're feeling better soon

How are surgeries functioning like this? Mine would never do this. You poor thing OP.

I really hope you improve soon.

so glad you are getting sorted out, OP. thank God you went to A&E. Wishing you a speedy recovery xx

Good luck - I hope you've been seen by now.

This is major and an emergency - she is acutely unwell. It is very clearly an A and E job . GP’s simply do not have the capacity or equipment to assess and treat people who are extremely unwell.
Please give the poor GPs who are massively overworked a break.

No. It's yet another instance of an illness that should have been appropriate for the GP to treat and refer on, had she been seen by the GP in a timely fashion.

If GPs worked full time our hospital doctors would not be struggling like this.

Sorry you had to go in and you would have likely been referred to see the surgeons after seeing a GP anyway, but you did get an appointment to go and see a GP overnight, but you chose not to go. Your GP practice would have been informed (I think) that you were offered an appointment and didn’t go. So you would have appeared as someone who didn’t feel ill enough to be seen, or just wanted a closer appointment for no reason. For us an hours drive for healthcare is normal and if I was ill I would drive anywhere. But appreciate if you live next door to your GP and hospital you are used to that distance. Also your GPs emergency appointments would most likely be people phoning up first thing this morning.

i hope it settles and you get a plan.

@Whitepouringglue GPs do work full time. Those that don’t work full time due to child care or illness are paid a proportion. Your 9-5pm job, can I say you aren’t working full time as you’re not working 8-6pm?
Those that chose not to work full time are also completely bloody allowed to not work full time and only get paid half.
imagine the uproar on mumsnet if any other career told any adult they could not work less than full time for a valid reason?

@Whitepouringglue

In the OP’s first post she says the pain came on on a Saturday. And:

‘attempted to contact my Gp 33 times…finally spoke to a receptionist and all she would offer me was an appointment in 7-10 days’

So it’s not as simple as you suggest “Just go to the GP”.

Plus she obviously need the care she’s getting now.

And don’t anyone be surprised at OP or anyone else having Tramadol, morphine, any other strong opiate in their home. I have an elderly friend who has enough prescribed opiates to fill a small pharmacy. I’ve been given prescription for Oromorph and told if that doesn’t work we can prescribed something stronger. GPs don’t want to find the CAUSE of pain and treat that, they just want you to shut up and go away, have a repeat prescription next month, and the month after. We will soon have the huge opiate problem seen in the USA as pain is just suppressed, the cause not investigated properly and treated.

Totally agree.

For some people it's a tough one, though - when my pancreas kicks off I have to double up on zapain and morphine. I hate doing it because I then have to taper down coming off it, it's a ballache. I can see how people get hooked.

My friend runs the local addiction service and has told me how the body physically becomes reliant on this stuff through no fault of the user. It's awful.

However, there's just nothing else that touches the pain for me so I have to deal with it each and every time.

I think here the prescriber and then the pharmacist are a little more on top of the prescription frequency and will query it from time to time, as well as shop front staff querying codeine sales, but the truth is, everyone is rushed off their feet and I totally agree and think an opiate crisis could be pending.

I believe that the OP stated that she was offered a late appointment at 10.30pm and she would not have been able to get there in time as it would take an hour to get there. I don't think she simply chose not to go because of the distance, it was due to the impossibility of getting there for the time given. Tbh, I don't think I would like to have to sit in a car for an hour if I was so ill either.

The GPs receptionist should have flagged it as an urgent issue to be seen that day. That is what my GP does. I know I had similar symptoms last year and was seen within an hour of phoning.

You are in the right place OP. Get better soon. X

You are in the right place OP. Get better soon. X

Good luck OP. You are in the best place now.

I've experienced this in the past - it was my gall bladder.

It was the most agonising and incapacitating pain I have ever known - I couldn't even move.

It could also be appendicitis. Either could be dangerous if left untreated.

Please do go to A&E and get it checked.

Sorry - I should have read all of your posts before I responded.

I'm glad you're getting the attention you need. Hope all goes well for you.

Sounds like cholecystitis / biliary colic. Awful pain, you have my utter sympathy. Can definitely be a medical emergency if the ducts become blocked. Hopefully you’ll have that gallbladder whipped out asap.

So glad you went. Some things the gp route is just too slow to deal with even if you can get to see one and require urgent medical care.