What will happen if I just go to A&E and insist they help ?

[stevemolly]

DD is 7 since October she has vomited small amounts of food everyday.
GP referred to gastro consultant and she was seen a month ago he prescribed tablets to help with acid, took blood and checked her over and said to review in April.

She is still vomiting everyday and believe me I have tried everything- food diary I thought dairy was making it worse so on GP advice cut it out and it made no difference.
I'm giving her small amounts of plain food and getting her to sit still after eating- she's still sick.

She has been sent home everyday this week and I am so worried about her, she is down in the dumps over it but not ill apart from saying it hurts her tummy when she's sick.
One day last week she was sick 18 times in one day.

I rang the consultant last week and managed to get an earlier appt which is March 13th. Yesterday after more vomit I rang the GP who said it was pointless to see her again as they saw her last week and I just needed to ride it out until I saw consultant.

I am so worried and anxious I'm considering just taking her to a&e and staying there but when I told the GP this she said they would just say i had a consultant appointment coming soon.

I'm not a doctor but a parent with lots of hospital experience!

I'm sorry your dd is so unwell, that must be extremely worrying and frustrating.

It sounds from your OP that this is an ongoing thing, not a sudden emergency problem, and that you're already under hospital care, and so I think A&E are unlikely to do anything new for you.

It sounds like you're in the right system with a gastro team. They know her symptoms and have assessed her to be safe waiting for another fortnight for another appointment. If you feel like her symptoms have changed or she is much more unwell than before then could you call her gastro consultant and update her (him?) and ask their advice?

A&E isn't the place to help. It must be frustrating for you as I have gone through similar with my DS.

Cutting out dairy with my DS helped, but then I replaced it with soya. Unfortunately it's very common to be allergic to both.Turns out he has multiple food allergies.

I agree, a&e won't be able to help, all they will do is refer you to gastro, which you are already under.
Can you ring up the secretary and see if there is a cancellation list you can be added to? I understand that it's worrying and difficult though I think I'd be on the phone to the secretary daily to make sure there were no cancellations

Thanks all I'm just scared. My brain is saying it's acid reflux and will get sorted but my anxiety is going through the roof.

She's sat happily playing with her tsum tsums but has been sick 12 times today even though it's small amounts it's just horrible.

What is it that you want a&e to do, other than wave a wand and cure her? Unless she develops new symptoms or worsens I think you do need to wait for the 13th. Sorry

Of course I don't want them to wave a wand and cure her, I want them to relieve her symptoms, help me to help her, give me some answers and see that my DD is in distress from throwing up over herself 18 times a day - maybe help her sore throats from all the acid and ease her stomach pain.

This is new to me until October she was a healthy girl and now she is missing school at least 2 times a week and been sent home when she does attend, she is a 7 year old little girl she needs help and she needs to be able to eat and drink without throwing it straight back up and I don't want to wait until she becomes really ill before she gets help.

This sounds really awful for you both. My ds had cyclical vomiting which is different as it happened every couple of weeks and followed a pattern, but I used to get so anxious about it so totally understand. Are you keeping a diary so that you can show the consultant exactly what's been happening. I know it seems like ages but it's only 10 days now so probably nothing that A/E will do. The main thing would be making sure she isn't getting dehydrated. If she carries on being sick so often you can always phone the consultants secretary on Monday and say how bad it's got.
I don't know if you have access to nhs homeopathy but my other ds was referred by our GP (when I asked) for a different issue (bowel related) and it really helped. May be worth considering along with the consultant. Good luck.

OP there was another post about this fairly recently. Lots of people gave advice. You may want to search for it?

FWIW I actually feel that you have little to lose by going to A&E!

My feeling is that you're 10 days away from the appointment that you've waited so long for. A&E isn't going to help unless her symptoms have become markedly worse.
I hope you get some answers at your appointment.

That sounds really stressful.
I'm a HCP. The only thing A&E would be able to help with is any worsening symptoms because they are there to treat patients with acute emergency conditions. So, if she was suddenly vomiting a huge amount each time, unable to keep down water and becoming dehydrated, they'd be able to help with the short term effects: give her an anti sickness drug and rehydrate her with IV fluids. Or if she suddenly vomits blood they will give her a scan. A&E are not set up to investigate ongoing conditions.
What they can't do however, is get her to the gastro team any faster. There are emergency slots, but those are for acute problems whereas your daughter's is ongoing.
She needs to see the consultant and get further investigation. I imagine she'll need a CT and an endoscopy eventually which at her age isn't as easy as an adult, which is why the doctor will have tried to conservatively manage her symptoms first.
The best thing to do is to call the gastro team's secretary every morning to see if there's been a cancellation. There may well be. If not, keep monitoring her andaughter absolutely do go to A&E if anthing changes dramatically.
I do know how hard this is. I hope you get it resolved asap!

Hey OP has the doc given anything for the (suspected) reflux or vomiting? DS is a vomitter for various reasons so we have an ongoing prescription of gav is on, omeprazole both for reflux and ondansetron for vomiting. Just wonder if it's worth seeing GP for a stopgap prescription

Your poor little girl

I have to agree with the PPs though, I don't think A and E can help.

Definitely try to get a cancelled appointment earlier than the 13th though.

I wish you well