To take dd to A&E or wait to see GP

[Dewdrops1]

Hi all?

I know you can’t diagnose on here but concerned I may be wasting A&Es precious resources instead of waiting to see GP tomorrow.

we’ve just come back from holiday in Europe. 2 days ago DD who is teenager woke with a big egg sized lump on one side of forehead. No injury. She said she did squeeze a spot gently but not sure if that did it. Nothing obvious seen other than swelling. Yesterday the lump went down but the swelling spread to center of forehead and in between eyes and top of nose. The swelling has ‘flattened’ out but over a larger area and makes her forehead look slightly distorted. There’s no redness but is slightly warm to touch and tender. Dd said it’s giving her a slight headache and uncomfortable feeling.

Im worried it could be some sort of infection and it’s going near her eyes, or could it be a bug bite and I’m overthinking. So would you take her to A&E or go to GP tomorrow? The swelling isn’t massive but never experienced swelling spreading on forehead like that before (moved away from original lump) so not sure if it’s something I need to be concerned about (also nothing similar on google).

thanks for your advice in advance 🙂

@Janiie @OnGoldenPond

Gp are general practitioners, they can't hold everything in their brain.

The whole sepsis campaign is about aksing care givers . Is this sepsis to remind any care givers of checking for it.

It's important to share stuff, it really is, there are conditions I've never heard of until mn like cellulitis and now puts putty tumour.

Which part of she is a paediatric nurse did you not understand? What are your qualifications to tell someone they do not need to go to A&E?

@Dewdrops1 😂😂😂.

Well you kmow what it could be and what to do.

Personally I think it's better to have some small idea of a range of things and be able to ask docs stuff if you do need a and e with her

To be fair I had a little cyst on my neck - about the size of my baby finger nail. It never caused any problem, until one day it got infected and went huge and red and pussy. Went to GP who said it was infected and he wanted to remove it, not while the infection was there, so gave me anti-biotics and told me to come back after the infection was gone. The infection went and it eventually shrank back and then popped, never had any troubles with it again!

Glad it gave you a laugh. Guess it is funny if it doesn't happen to you.Hopefully it won't happen to OP's DD. But if it does she needs to know what to do so it doesn't get to the point of having to drill into eye sockets.

Glad to see your update OP. Hope your DD is on the mend soon

Sorry golden I didn't mean to minimise your experience it was another posters reaction and it's written so well with the descriptions of frogs and so on.
I've had to rush my dd to hospital twice when younger so I do understand the panic and sheer worry.
It's was how it was written and how it was reacted too. 😁

Yep no good deed goes unpunished. I'll duck out now and leave you all to it.

I had periorbital cellulitis last year (eye socket) and saw an out of hours GP. Tablet antibiotics worked quickly. Teen daughter has had to have antibiotics a few times due to overprodding cystic spots on her face and which then looked like OPs photo.

Mumsnet does love a bit of sepsis!

That said, I’d be getting up every couple of hours overnight to check for changes, OP. Good luck and good wishes 🍀

I wpuld be keeping a very close eye on her and if she feels ill in anyway including eye problems or a headache i would be taking her to A&E straight away
Do not wait for 111 to call back

111 is completely useless. Go to a pharmacist and seek their advice if the GP is unavailable. Better someone medically trained than 111. Although personally, I’d head into Minors for this.

But have you cancelled the cheque?

Why don't people read updates? Op has seen the gp and has antibiotics. She doesn't need to wait for a call back.

I have to say, I’m very wary of 111. They didn’t pick up on my sepsis symptoms and told DH after a motorcycle crash that the bleeding in the white of his eye was a burst blood vessel. It turned out during a brain scan a couple of days later to be a bleed from the brain, fortunately a minor one, but I spent a terrifying couple of hours hyperventilating around a soft play because I didn’t want to wait in A&E with 1 year old DS while I waited to hear that DH was okay.

Edited for typos.

It’s a concern though. When I had sepsis, I was absolutely fine until I wasn’t. I went from being what looked like a bit poorly with food poisoning one weekend to seeming to get over it, to being at death’s door within about five hours a week later.

I would definitely take my child to A&E with that amount of unexplained swelling.

I wondered this too. I had a bite near my elbow and the lower part of my arm all swelled up, similar thing happened on my leg.

It isn’t a current concern though for the DD. She has seen a doctor and has antibiotics and she isn’t otherwise poorly. OP sounds level headed and I’m sure she’ll keep an eye on her daughter and if there are any signs of sepsis or even worsening symptoms, she can take her back.

I meant generally, rather than in this particular case. It’s something parents are encouraged to look out for, which is why it comes up a lot.

I once had a really painful lump on the side of my nose. It was noticeable and it hurt a lot. It went on for weeks. Until eventually it appeared to pop and spread itself all around my nose area, Quite a big spread of swelling. I was young and careless so I took no action, thinking it would just go away.

It did go away and 30 years later it never came back. No idea what it was

I was 19 and newly married. No parents and a 19 year old husband.
So nobody to look after me really !

111 did not exist. Nobody had a mobile. Most people did not even have a landline. If someone collapsed you had to run up the road to the nearest phone box and summon an ambulance.
If it was so serious a situation that someone had hotfooted 2000 yards to their nearest phone box, then the ambulance service were hot on that.

Ambulance was dispatched immediately and was there in record time.

Today? Not so much. Just ring on your mobile. I know people who have had a small injury. A cut, a sprain, and they ring an ambulance.

Mobile phones are lifesavers in some instances. But only some.

Get yourself to A&E if you possibly can. Ambulances are for life and death.
I know this because my father died waiting for an ambulance.

An hour earlier he would have had clot busting drugs that could have
saved him. But they took two hours. Which, for him, was the difference.
He did not need to die. He could have been saved. If the ambulance had got there earlier.

Just an update-we waited for out of hours doctor, he took approx 4 hours to turn up (so slightly better than 6!) but was very thorough when he got here. Turns out my mum has shingles in addition to the abscess and that's what was causing all the pain. For some reason she didn't actually think to tell me she had had a rash come up, which was rather important info! Guessing the abscess weakened her immune system and activated shingles. She's got treatment now but I know it's really bloody painful. I've never had chickenpox so fingers crossed I don't get that now as well 😩

It's very hard knowing what is the best course of action so I sympathise OP

Glad to see that your daughter is ok, getting assessed by someone who can make a decision having seen her is the most important thing. Hopefully should settle , but you're clearly a sensible person and will get her seen again if not settling.