A&E refusing to give more than paracetamol when I’m in horrific pain

[Wonderingmummy]

I found out I’ve got gallstones, I need it out but I’ve been put on a waiting list. I’ve also just had a baby which can apparently trigger the attacks.

I had an attack 4 days ago, called 999. The worst pain I’ve ever been in, rolling around the floor at hospital. They refused to give me any more than paracetamol and I was just left to it. 6 hours later, it passed and I was told to go home.

I’m still thinking about it, and it’s annoyed me that more wasn’t done. Do you think I’m unreasonable to expect more? When the inevitable happens and I have another one, I already know my A&E will refuse to help and I want to advocate for myself better.

Are you guys for real. I will not be giving birth in the uk if this is seriously for real. The stories of medieval cruelty from midwives in the NHS genuinely frightens me

MY sister had gall stones, she is now minus one gall bladder. She was on the list for two years and stopped going to A&E in the end when she got an attack as she got the same treatment.

Her GP wouldnt prescribe anything either, it was a case of "live with it until your op".

Sorry I can't say anything more hopeful.

She found that the only way to minimise attacks was to make sure she cut every single scrap of fat and caffeine in her diet, although that took a while to work out as obviously its different for everyone. Fatty/greasy food does seem to be a common trigger though.

The surgeon/anaesthetist is responsible for prescribing post c section pain relief.

Then they too are responsible for barbaric cruelty to one of the most sensitive times in a woman's life

I don’t think the medical profession is actually very interested in pain. They want to fix things, but pain doesn’t count. Witness the people on this thread, some of them claiming to be medical professionals, who clearly think that because there are people out there abusing opioids it’s totally fine to refuse pain relief to people in agony.

Agree. Reading this I feel very lucky that I was prescribed morphine for my pain numerous times for a botched NHS abortion. I am inclined to think it's because the NHS were responsible for the cock up and also could be because I have a totally clean record of drugs or alcohol use of any kind. I will say though the pain was 12/10- i was screaming begging to be killed, it wasn't until I drank half a bottle of oramorph I started to feel ok.

Why are the NHS not as merciful to others? :'( This makes me really sad.

Yikes! A year long waiting list for surgery?

And I thought having to wait three days was pushing it.

I hope you find some relief OP. 😢

I only got paracetamol. Shite.

First attack I had I genuinely thought I was dying, never felt pain like it. The paramedics who came out to me we worried enough to put the blue lights on when they took me to the hospital.

Due to my other medical conditions I had recently (about 2 hours before) taken a couple of 30/500 co-codamol and 500mg Naproxen so they couldn't give me any more paracetamol or codeine, or NSAIDs. Gas & air in the ambulance, got to A&E & was seen by a doctor almost immediately. Took intravenous morphine and Buscopan to lessen my sobbing in agony, and intravenous paracetamol top ups once I was able to have more. Finally felt well enough to be discharged about 5 hours later.

Fat free (or minimised) diet didn't affect mine at all, but I found that if I took Buscopan at the very first sign that it could be another attack then it often didn't develop. Interestingly the attacks died down during the next year then almost completely stopped despite me not really making any lifestyle changes.

I was offered surgery about 4 months after that first attack but I had just started a new job and knew I wouldn't keep it if I went off for 6 weeks post surgery in the first couple of months, but by that time the attacks were getting less often & much less severe anyway. That was over 5 years ago - not had an attack for about 4 years now and still working for the same employer.

Oh OP i really feel for you. I had gallstones causing infection in 2022 7 weeks after the birth of my first baby and I too rate it as the worst pain I've ever felt (as someone with a high pain threshold who very rarely takes pain meds). I found i needed a combination of oramorph, Diclofenac suppositories and IV paracetamol. The dr i saw in A&E first time round knew straight away what the pain was before running diagnostics and gave me this medication combo saying it was the most effective to manage flare ups. She wrote it on my record in case i needed to present at A&E while waiting for my op (i did twice). My GP also did then do a px for Diclofenac suppositories that I kept at home to use during flare ups. Id suggest maybe visiting your GP to see if they can do a PRN prescription for a strong pain relief, and maybe link in with Pals for advocacy advice as NICE guidance and BMJ recommends in patient treatment with mix of NSAIDs and opiates to manage pain associated with gallbladder infection. Pals might be able to direct you on who is best to speak with to review your treatment. Best of luck

Edited to say that these meds were deemed safe for breastfeeding too.

I was in A&E for 12hrs for gall stones I got morphine about 8hrs in but only because I was not close to discharge they won’t give it due to it making you sleepy if you are in X time frame of being discharged.

I found two things helped with gall stones attack

this spray they had given me for chest pain - we didn’t know my chest pain was gall stones at first

A nitrate spray (most commonly nitroglycerin or glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) sublingual spray) is a fast-acting prescription medication used to prevent and treat acute chest pain (angina) caused by coronary artery disease

and actually breathing to trigger Vegas nerve / parasynthetic breathing once worked you are trying to relax contracting gall bladder spasms

Complications of cholecystitis can cause pancreatitis. Pancreatitis IS a life-threatening emergency. The pain of the two conditions is very similar. Is the OP supposed to know how to self-diagnose? Or wait until it's too late before seeking medical help?

I certainly don't think its NHS policy! Its not supposed to happen.

I think some people are just crap at their jobs, and also a lot of NHS staff are very over worked.

Please ignore this op.

That is shocking. I got diagnosed with gallstones in the March and had numerous attacks. I was given morphine to take home with me and had my surgery in the June. Paracetamol didn’t even touch the sides either.

The gallbladder is actually a very important organ. Without one causes many issues. I had mine out January and have had complications since. So bad that I've been of work for all this time. I wish I had done a gallbladder flush. I left mine too late that the attacks were so frequent I was going to a&e every week, begging them to remove it. Unless it's an emergency then you'll obviously need it removed. You can also develop a condition after gallbladder removal where you still get attacks without a gallbladder!! It's supposedly rare but looking online it's more common than you think. It can also develop at any time, decades after removal. If I had known about this I would definitely had done a flush.

OP, there's a 'Stuck stone protocol' which might help you. There are quite a few things you can do to help yourself when you have an attack and between times. If you can't find it, have a look in liver/gb flushing groups. There are things you can do to help dissolve/soften/move etc the stones and improve the bile.

Also Dr Berg has some interesting videos on YouTube.

The so called experts , Dr Berg, is a chiropractor. Whenever there is a gallbladder thread, people come on recommending quack medicine.

.???

If I were you I'd go to your GP and explain what happened and that you want a plan for the future in case another attack happens. When I had renal colic I was given a bottle of oramorph for home use when needed. Also when I was post c-section too but they were very twitchy about it, for obvious reasons however it is unacceptable for people to be in pain. Just wondering if you are breast feeding and that's why they were reluctant to give you anything else? In obstetrics they're comfortable prescribing for breastfeeding mothers where as other fields aren't.

Gallbladder flushes are not actually proper thing and don’t actually work.

I’ve had mine removed and had no issues.

Generally they avoid giving you morphine if you have had it recently because it is very addictive- if you have had several bouts recently and turn up asking for morphine they will assume you are a drug seeker.

You are VERY unlikely to become addicted to morphine when used short term for acute pain relief. Oramorph is a very standard safe medicine in a hospital setting.

Thankfully, when my son (years ago) attended A&E for acute bone pain, he was given oramorph almost immediately and then even fentanyl when he was still in pain. When he was then admitted, he was on regular oramorph as well as paracetamol and ibuprofen. When he returned home, he was still on dihydrocodeine for a month or so.

As his condition resolved, the medication was gradually withdrawn with no addiction issues whatsoever.

This is advice from the Mayo clinic, which is normally a reliable source:

‘When morphine is used for a long time, it may become habit-forming, causing mental or physical dependence. However, people who have continuing pain should not let the fear of dependence keep them from using narcotics to relieve their pain. Mental dependence (addiction) is not likely to occur when narcotics are used for this purpose. Physical dependence may lead to withdrawal side effects if treatment is stopped suddenly. However, severe withdrawal side effects can usually be prevented by gradually reducing the dose over a period of time before treatment is stopped completely.’

The idea of discarding an extremely effective analgesic because it may become addictive is ridiculous, especially when no other meaningful alternative has been considered (yes IV paracetamol is an effective painkiller for low level pain, but clearly was not nearly sufficient in OP’s case).