Need a virtual hand hold , husband vomiting blood

[Justmeeeindie]

Still frazzled so sorry if this is all over the place husband has been constipated for around 10 days doing usual things laxative tons of water lots of fibre , he went to a&e at my insistence on Tuesday early hours as he was awake all night crying in pain, I’ve never seen him in as much pain and vomiting profusely
he went to a&e waited 4 hours to be basically fobbed off , they felt his stomach said it was just constipation told him to continue laxatives at home .

today he woke up around 11 in agony he vomited it was dark like coffee which in retrospect should have been warning sign anyways he tried to get back to sleep then shouted me not much later from bathroom , he was vomiting loads of bright red blood (no exaggeration there was a lot) and passing in and out of consciousness eyes rolling the lot , he passed out atleast 8 times whilst I was on phone to the ambulance , he peed himself at one point .

I was terrified I’m still shaking ambulance came pretty fast(20mins ) but he’s been waiting in ambulances at a&e for over 2 hours now .

I'm stuck at home with the kids , there off school (hand foot and mouth ) thanks to the two year old .
I don’t know what to do right now , I genuinely though he was dying , he kept saying he was and I had to calm him down telling him he will be fine all the while thinking he was actually dying .

no idea yet what’s actually wrong but I’m thinking bowel blockage (which I suspected on Tuesday hence making him go to a&e) or ulcer .

don’t know purpose of this post just need to let it out , the waiting on update is torture .

Coffee grounds is usually digested blood.

There is no way he should be sent home without investigations. If they think it’s safe should they be administering an enema? If not thought safe, why not and what does that mean?

His blood test will reveal more and what cause of action needed. If he is stable then they will surely follow cause of action, eg arrange more tests via outpatients appointments.
Hopefully he gets better soon 🙏

I am not a ChatGPT evangelist but this is one of those times (failure by hospital) where I would be putting in everything you know about your husband’s age/state of health/symptoms to see what it throws up.
I read a piece in the Times yesterday about a woman with horrendous symptoms who kept getting fobbed off and thanks to ChatGPT she was able to present them with an alternative diagnosis which turned out to be correct! It turned out that even when the NHS had done blood tests they hadn’t done the right ones...
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/gp-doctors-dismissed-pain-chatgpt-diagnosis-symptoms-0mz73832d

you MUST push for a scan.

There is definitely something going on but it’s difficult to say what from the information.
I would not be at all happy with him being discharged and am surprised that they are not doing an endoscopy at the very least if there was active bleeding.

Can you ask if there is a GI bleed team to review him. There’s normally an out of hours service that will do emergency endoscopy if vomiting blood. Some causes can be treated by endoscopy others will need surgery.

The constipation sounds like it needs investigating too. Is his abdomen hard and swollen? Have they listened to his abdomen? Is he passing any wind?

Have his bloods come back? Do you know what his haemoglobin (Hb) is?

Ask how they can know his bowel won’t rupture, make it very clear when his last bowel moment was. Ask for a second opinion from someone more senior. I presume he’s had bloods? What is his hb?

This looks like a blatant copy-paste from ChatGPT (the protocol, not the reply to it)

I know you’re already worried but this sounds too serious to be discharged.
You need to be there to advocate for him - my friend’s husband was exactly like this a few months ago and after two visits to a&e he was admitted via ambulance as an emergency and eventually got the right treatment.
I really don’t want to scare you but he had a lengthy operation and his treatment is still ongoing (he opted for a different hospital for his after care).
Don’t be fobbed off OP.

Days without going to the toilet isn’t a very long time. You can be constipated for a couple of weeks before you need to start taking it seriously. Maybe he has a stomach ulcer, sounds like it with the coffee grounds vomit. They can put him on domperidone to stop him being sick, that’ll give the ulcer time to heal. You do feel quite poorly with an ulcer.

Any more news. You going to have to be your husband's spoke person here and ask for scans. They need to find out what's going on

Do you mean what course of action is required?

Coffee grounds is not bile! It’s the description for old blood that’s been sitting in the stomach usually caused by a bleeding ulcer! Bile is green, coffee ground is brownish black!

Treatment plan!

Just quoting myself to point out there was an autocorrect to grinds, it should have been grounds obviously.

Actually if he’s medically stable and remember we’ve only the opinion of a naturally anxious wife, there is no reason not to send him home! He will get scans done far quicker as an outpatient than he will staying in hospital! Too much unqualified dangerous advice being given in here! If he’s sent home, there is no best course of action is to speak to their GP, who can explain everything to them! Often what looks like a lot of blood in actuall fact isn’t!

You can still go and be with him though if he is too ill to speak for himself? Like you could have gone in the ambulance with him? I’ve definitely been with my mum in the receiving part of the hospital. Id go down there and make sure he is not discharged, mention negligence for sure.

Are you a medic? Clearly not as if you were although it’s ChatGTP that is exactly the process that should be followed by any patient coming through ED with a suspected bleed! Perhaps reserve your comments to saying I hope her DH is doing ok and being treated rather than on something you know nothing about!

@Nomdejeur 10 days constipated. That’s a lot.
@Namechangerage did you not read about the OP having dc and no-one to look after them?

You’re one of the lucky ones - unfortunately stories like this one are very common.
OP please don’t let them discharge him. That is negligence

Love how everyone is an armchair medic nowadays, watched an episode of casualty, or puts in symptoms to Chat GPT and boom they are an A&E consultant!

Yes I did. Did you not read that she has someone on their way back to watch the kids? They were about 1.5 hours away so she could have gone when they arrived? I’m not saying that she should have gone in the ambulance, I’m saying she could have. Therefore she could also follow behind and meet him at the hospital to be his advocate.

I’m surprised we haven’t had the usual ‘I don’t want to alarm you op, but……’ then comes out with something alarming!

Have you sat in A and E lately? It's terrifying. And yes, it's been caused by years of underinvestment.

It's been nose diving due to every tory government failing to provide adequate funding - I'd like to know when the budget saved was spent.

We have a 3rd world free at point of use health care system in UK now.

@Justmeeeindie I hope the apologising doctor has sorted tests for him. It's completely unacceptable to just send him home. The ambulance service were sufficiently concerned for him. Def use the term negligence in your correspondence with the hospital.

They need to find out why he bled and resolve the constipation master, it could be a twisted bowl for all anyone knows and that will not right itself.