17 year old son, GP or A&E?

[Imamumgetmeoutofhere]

My son is 17, almost 18. For the last 3 days he’s been peeing a lot more than normal and drinking a lot more than normal. This morning I found him asleep on the sofa and he said he had been too tired to go up the stairs to bed, but feels ok in himself today, just wiped out.

I said take him to A&E as these sound like possible diabetes symptoms, husband think it sounds like a UTI and has done an e-consult and urine sample for him at our surgery.

Am I over panicking? Or should I be trusting my judgement and taking him to A&E?

Thanks in advance

It is - you need to be seen same day with these symptoms.

Yes, it is. I’ve been there with DH only last year - he had dangerously high blood sugar and was sent straight to A&E in an ambulance and put on a drip.

It’s not a good idea to comment on medical situations you clearly know nothing about.

Type one diabetes! Straight to a&e happened to my son he was a day off dying in dka.

Yeah it's the GP you want. I don't think the possible diagnosis of diabetes is classed as an emergency unless someone's going into hypo/hyper.

If it's a UTI it would usually sting and he'd feel constant need to go but barely anything comes out. And pee would usually be dark, cloudy and have foul odour.

Diabetic pee can smell 'sweet' but not like UTI pee.

Yes it damn well could be. This happened to my son and he was fobbed off, no tests done. 2 days later I couldn’t wake him up and he was blue lighted to hostipal he was in DKA with type one diabetes.

This is not correct. He needs to go to A&E or he could fall into a coma and die. Diabetes kills.

Undiagnosed diabetes IS a medical emergency, it can kill rapidly. Don’t spread misinformation!

37 years in the medical profession. It has the potential to be an emergency. Polyuria, polydipsia and fatigue. Whilst a bit more digging into the history is required I would have seen that urgently if someone phoned up with those symptoms and done a glucose test.

But the whole point is polyuria and polydipsia are the signs of going hyperglycaemic hence an emergency.

I said I didn't think it was. Sorry if that was wrong.

I had similar symptoms and ended up in A&E on the advice of 111 back in August 2024 and it was diabetes. I was sent home with a big bag of testing kit and insulin and a referral to the Diabetes team. Glad to see you’re taking him in and hope he is ok.

It’s very wrong. If you don’t know then you shouldn’t be giving incorrect advice.

Kindly, please do not talk about things you do not understand. Someone may of believed you and it could cause a death. Leave it to people who actually understand the impact of diabetes.

I went to my GP with what i suspected was a UTI, they did a urine test there and then and sent me straight to A&E where i was taken into resus with DK without acidosis. I was diagnosed with diabetes but they were not sure whether type 1 or 2 for a few weeks. I am type 2 but went straight onto insulin

Peeing a lot and being tired isn’t an emergency. He’s probably hungover!

Then your a moron. It is part of the four Ts.

Well as I said I apologized. I'm not a doctor. I'm going by my own experience only. I wasn't saying I knew.
But I'll apologize again now.

Are you medically trained? Even if you are, you can’t see or assess the patient. It’s so stupid to give people advice like that on here. What if it was a medical emergency and someone ignored it because a faceless MN wannabe doctor told them it’s fine. Op if in doubt it’s always better to be safe. I hope your ds is ok.

I know you think you're being clever- but you are giving dangerously incorrect advice. This is potentially a medical emergency that if not treated promptly could be life-threatening.

@takingitdown
I was sent straight to resus when i went to my GP with those symptoms

When in doubt, I call 111 and follow their advice. This has helped us in the past e.g. child had a situation on weekend, 111 got us appointment at our out of hours in our town, was seen by doctor straightaway who called to the local children's hospital and got him booked into emergency surgery so when we arrived at the big city hospital we didn't have to wait in the very busy A&E or delay any treatment. Surgery went well, it was a time critical thing at the time. Another time, 111 got us same day appointment at local hospital (which doesn't have A&E) who were able to do X ray and diagnose the broken bone we suspected was broken, again it meant we didn't have to waste time in the horrible busy A&E at the big hospital but only went there for fracture clinic and it was all sorted out.

Long way of saying, I check with 111 as that way my child's in the system and it's saved me from going on wild goose chases in the past.

Hope your son's OK by the way.

Tell me you know nothing about type 1 without telling me 🙄 undiagnosed type 1 can cause ketoacidosis which is a life threatening condition. Definitely an emergency.

A & E is not the place to go. The GP can deal with this and send him to hospital if necessary. If you get referred from the GP then you won’t have to be in the waiting room for hrs. This is why the wait in A & E is so long. They are not walk in centres

Please let us know how your son gets on

If I had done this with my child, there is a good possibility they would be dead.