What’s wrong with me, hospital clueless

[elm26]

Yesterday at 1pm, I put my 6 month old on the rug with his toys and went for a wee.

As I was walking back I had a sudden severe pain in my right side radiating into my lower back and up to my shoulder, I was in agony.

I called DH who was luckily only on a job 15 mins away, he came straight home and took one look at me and called ambulance, I was shouting out in pain they gave me gas and air and morphine.

I had an emergency CT when dye last night and also have a catheter as lost the ability to wee. Nothing showed on CT, they got me settled on morphine and today I’ve had a transvaginal scan which shows ovaries and womb look normal.

Gynae can’t find a reason so they’ve stopped painkillers and just giving me paracetamol but somethings wrong I feel like somebody’s twisting my insides. The gynae consultant was horrible and said the surgical team will come see me if they think it’s worth it?? So I’m waiting for that if they come.

I’m in so much pain and genuinely scared they’ll send me home not knowing what is wrong with me.

Has anyone has anything similar?

Hi Op - years ago when my eldest was around 5 months I had my first period after pregnancy. A few days in I was in the most excruciating pain ever to the point of passing out and an ambulance called. It took the hospital days to find the cause and it turned out my menstrual blood had entered my stomach (through the opening of my fallopian tubes) and that caused this massive pain (crazy I know!) I ended up having to an operation to clear it. Could that be a possibility if your period was really heavy?

OP you're getting quite a lot of unhelpful suggestions on here by people who don't really get some of the subtleties of medicine. There really isn't anywhere near enough information in your posts for anyone to be making terribly meaningful suggestions. The imaging you've had done already sounds good - even if it's not the usual first line modality for a condition there will usually be at least some clues pointing to which organ system has a problem. It's nigh on impossible to get through ED without having inflammatory markers, U&E and quite often liver function checked so the people suggesting that aren't really helping - those will usually show subtle stuff at least if there is something important going on. Just occasionally it really isn't possible to make a diagnosis immediately, and just occasionally 'masterful inactivity' is the right thing - rule out the immediately life-threatening stuff and attempt to normalise things (for example taking the catheter out) and see what happens. It is unpleasant and frustrating to have had such severe pain, but when all the sensible first line investigations don't point to anything very obvious sometimes time is what's needed to point you all in the right direction.

The term is Retrograde Menstruation - just had to look it up as it was 16 years ago!

If you get no diagnosis and have no reduction in pain and discomfort, maybe don't go home without PALS involvement. You and DH seem to have done all you can. However, it's Friday evening now and do PALS work weekends?

This is terrible, and it's actually quite frightening that so little is being done to try and diagnose you, and you are made to feel you are an inconvenience. Well it's frightening for those going in for treatment, diagnosis, tests etc. You'd wonder what is the point?

@elm26 Apologies as I’ve only read your opening post & your many updates, but has anyone suggested pancreatitis? The way you described the pain going into your back is usually associated with it, & my God, I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy. It’s hideous, & you feel like you’ll do anything to just make it stop. Hope this afternoon brings better news for you. Hugs to you & your DH 💐

How little is being done? In 24 ish hours she’s had two ultrasound scans and a CT scan in addition to blood tests and urine samples. I’d say that’s a good start!

@Greybeardy That's all very fine from a medic's point of view, and is probably how such things are dealt with in the end. However, it is just so unfair that this is not communicated to the patient. It's as if patients are not to be trusted with any information about the way their issue is being treated, especially when it seems to the patient like nothing is being done.

Communication!!

OP with sats and bp like that you need to ask them about sepsis

I agree they’ve taken this seriously and run a barrage of tests. It’s frustrating for you and the idea that anyone is giving you the impression they think you are time wasting is horrible but what you are describing is exactly what I would expect. Lots of scans, bloods, pain relief, catheter to protect your kidneys/bladder and supervision over night.

You need an ultrasound scan to check for gallstones, CT scan doesn't always pick these up.

They need to do your CRP blood test (infection marker) and - if they did it the other day - do it again now. The results “lag” so if it didn’t show infection before they need to check again to see if it’s risen.

Under Martha’s Rule you have the right to a second opinion if you feel they aren’t taking you seriously

Could you ask them to make sure they record on your notes that they are refusing an MRI / further investigations and why they’re doing this? It won’t necessarily help you now (although you may find they’d rather just do it than put it in writing that they’ve refused to!) but always helpful to have a paper trail to refer back to.

As an endo sufferer, you could've had what they call a chocolate cyst burst. Incredibly painful and can cause real issues.. Hope you get some answers soon. Take care.

I had a ruptured ovarian cyst last week and the pain from that was utterly excruciating. I had massive internal bleeding that wasn’t initially identifiable on a scan, and I wasn’t able to wee as a result. I assume they’ve checked for this?

I don't know if it's much help or would be much help in your situation. But the hospital may have "Martha's rule" in place. If they do this allows you to get an independent review by another clinician if you feel something is being overlooked.

Could be cauda equina (you’ll need to google it!)

Yes, I was going to suggest pancreatitis too, OP, especially as you mentioned diarrhoea after your meals. They can do a test on a stool sample initially, I think.

The pain you are describing sounds like gall bladder pain. Ask to have it checked out.

Haven't read every post but wanted to echo lots I have seen that this absolutely sounds like they should be ruling out/in gallstones. It took 8 years of this before one GP sent me for a scan...

Yes I wondered this too. Worth asking op?

Bloods would not be normal.

Yes. This was me about 10 years ago. Terrible abdominal pain, pain in right shoulder, couldn't pee etc. Then the rigours started... ambulance in and then a flock of very junior doctors in A&E, poor things had been left in charge for the night. They noticed I was going yellow, blood pressure through the floor, O2 88. Blocked bile duct, rancid gall bladder, pancreatitis and sepsis. I was very lucky they acted so fast, several antibiotics in a drip and up to the ward. I signed myself out after 5 days AMA because my experience on the ward was horrific. The registrar was vile, truly the nastiest doctor I have ever come across. They refused to remove my gall bladder as it was "No longer an emergency" and I was told I'd have to be that ill at least 2 or 3 times more before they would remove it. I had it taken out privately about 6 weeks later. I couldn't really afford £6000 but had to scrape it together somehow.
Those junior doctors saved my life and I will be forever grateful. They were also incredibly kind. The surgeon who took my gall bladder out promised he would track them down and tell them how wonderful they were.

I couldn’t remember the name, still can’t the ones that are/were nurses with extra training/authority & that you generally see thinking its a dr when its not

I had some of those symptoms and it was a kidney stone. Although they could see my kidney was massive on the CT scan and the urethra was swollen from where it had passed.(they didnt see the stone) The pain came on suddenly, I think they took me more seriously as my blood pressure sky rocketed and didnt come down for ages. Good luck with getting to the root cause.

I don’t know & its kinda disgusting that people are putting other peoples personal medical info/symptoms into AI. I don’t think that is OK