Would you go to A&E for a cough?

[LeopardPrint21]

Had a cough for 7 months. Have had some tests done for gastro as the GP initially thought acid reflux, have literally today been referred for chest x-ray and lung tests.

It has gotten to the point where I cannot stop coughing. Literally having fits of coughing every few minutes and this lasts from the minute I wake up until the minute I go to sleep and sometimes throughout the night too. I also feel unwell with it and I’ve felt unwell since the cough started at the beginning of the year. I feel like I can’t cough up whatever is there but I also can’t swallow it back down so it just feels stuck in my throat and all the constant coughing is leaving me feeling like I can’t breathe properly.

I have been in tears all day because I genuinely can’t go on like this, I dread every second of the day because of how bad it is. I am at my breaking point with it.

Would you go to the hospital for a cough that is constantly there and you’re never getting a let up from it along with everything else I’ve written?

Are you an ace inhibitors such as ramipril? I had an awful cough and it was a side effect of the medication! Took a month after changing to settle. Also ask your GP for codeine linctus which is a cough suppressant to help settle it a bit.

Definitely go to A & E! That sounds awful. Were you tested for asthma? Sometimes asthma has an adult onset. If someone around you has an asthma puffer like Ventolin, I'd try it to see if you get relief. It won't hurt you if you don't have asthma.

Just read your post to my husband. He,wonders if you are on an ACE inhibitor.

That can't be right, can it? Asthma attacks can kill people, as can COPD. Even my primary would send me to the ER for an asthma attack. Why wouldn't that be considered an emergency? They have nebulizers and epinephrine, surely?

Don't faff around any longer. Your primary care provider has been very slow I'd go to A&E

Why isn't triage sending people who don't need to use its services away?

She has been to the GP five times already with no help.
She is coughing so much she is having difficulty breathing.
she should go to A&E

You do realise people can, and do, die from asthma attacks. And there is such a thing as cough variant asthma ?

And btw it’s breathe, not breath.

She is not demanding a resus bed. She is requesting a proper examination of worrying chest symptoms.
Have you heard of walking pneumonia? Exacerbation of asthma? Interstitial lung disease? Pulmonary fibrosis?

Could you be more passive aggressive, yes I know it is breathe, predictive text sometimes changes this and what if I was dyslexic, do you often make fun of people if they have issues with spelling and grammar?

I would be interested to see the outcome.

Triage will not do this as nurses do not get paid for that level of accountability. Doctors however do.

I’m not making any sweeping statements, you literally said you went and they expedited your referral. At no point did you say you received emergency treatment in resus.

I have seen a person die from acute respiratory distress after going to A&E with wheezing. It is horrific. My post was factual, not passive aggressive in the slightest.
Please don’t trivialise the OPs post by your rather sarcastic uninformed comments towards her concerns.

You stated that A&E won't do bloods and won't expedite referrals. I was correcting you due to my recent experience. I didn't feel it necessary to explain everything that happened as it's irrelevant to the OP's thread. I went to accident and emergency because it was an emergency. You assumed otherwise.

Why isn't triage given more power then, if people are turning up so don't need to be there and it's causing unwell people not to be able to get the help they need?

Someone at the very top needs to kick it into shape.

You would hope a GP would pick that up, especially as the OP has had multiple visits. You never know though!

Triage, once in my local A&E and once in the walk in clinic, missed my DH’s lung cancer twice.

Not to mention that untreated walking pneumonia can lead to sepsis.

Back in 2020 I went to A&E with severe breathing difficulties. Not only did they do bloods and X-rays, I was then admitted and diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer and spent 3 weeks in hospital.
I have since been to A&E on a number of occasions relating to various issues and have ALWAYS had bloods or any other test needed and consultants of various dept are called in depending on your suspected condition!
A&E isn’t only for cuts and breaks!!!!!

I posted upthread. My DH was having difficulty breathing, Had a worsening cough, was able to sleep through the night until he wasn’t. Fobbed off by GP, finally admitted to A&E as an emergency, put on a ventilator and died a few days later after being diagnosed with an inoperable lung cancer which had caused a deep seated infection resistant to all treatment. He’d visited A&E and the walk in centre and both had missed what I later found out were classic signs of lung cancer. Do you think we were wasting their time. The point here is that if OP waits much longer the cost to the NHS will be more, because her condition will be worse and cost more to treat.

MN considers itself the protector of A&E. There was a thread a couple of weeks ago from a mum concerned that her DS was exhibiting signs of DKA. The number of posters who told her she was being a drama llama and to make a routine appointment with her GP was truly shocking. Even more so when she updated that she had in fact gone to A&E and he had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and immediately put on intravenous insulin and fluids as an in patient.

Yep.

A&E told me my son had gastroenteritis. He actually had a bowel obstruction which was caused by cancer and because they were adamant it was gastroenteritis for much too long, septic shock set in and he almost died.

Jesus, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Is he OK now ?

Yes it happens and I'm very sorry it happened to you but the answer is not to let people die waiting, or avoiding waiting, 12 hours in A&E to see a doctor because people are there with a cut finger.

Triage needs to be better.

I am so sorry that happened to you and your Dear Husband. I’m going through cancer again now and have an op and then chemo coming up. I’ve been told categorically by my consultants that if I have trouble breathing or coughing gets worse to go straight to A&E x
I sincerely hope the op did go to A&E and is doing ok ❤️

He very nearly wasn't but he is doing well now, thanks. It was 2 years ago. He was in intensive care for 7 weeks and hospital for 10 months in total.