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

With those symptoms and his age it is absolutely the place to go - undiagnosed and untreated diabetes can very quickly cause DKA which is incredibly serious and without treatment is pretty fatal.

If I had done this with my son, he would of died couldn’t get him into the GP.
Stop being stupid and giving dumb advice.
If they suspect type one they do a glucometer test my sons was done within minutes of arriving.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms/

A&E is exactly the right place if type 1 diabetes is suspected.

Diabetes kills and these symptoms need checking.

If my DH hadn't asked for a finger prick test when he took our DD to Dr's for something else, she would have been in a coma within 24 hours.

We spent 3 days in hospital while they stabilised her sugars.

Hope your son is ok OP

People who have T1 diabetes but are not treated with insulin cannot possibly be hypoglycaemic.

Undiagnosed diabetes = hyperglycaemia = danger of catastrophic organ damage and death.

This is exactly why these kinds of threads should be banned. So much dangerous misinformation and people adamant they know the answer when they're completely wrong

Trust your gut instinct as a mother (if I'd ignored mine and followed the GPs advice, our DS wouldn't be here).
I hope your son is seen soon, and you have the answers you need

Yes, but I now know to treat something as urgent that I wouldn't have previously.

I was referred by my GP to A&E with a severe wound infection, and told I would need to stay at least a week. I was in A&E on a chair for 17 hours as they couldn’t find a bed. So this is not strictly true. In the end I was in hospital for 18 days.

If you present at A&E with symptoms of DKA you will be seen immediately, whether or not you are referred by a GP.

Congratulations, you’ve won an award for the most ridiculous comment of the day 🥇

I would take him to A&E, often teens mask their T1 diabetes symptoms a lot longer than younger kids and end up sicker in Diabetic Ketoacidosis which is very serious.

Please don’t comment on subjects that you clearly know nothing about. Your advice could kill someone.

As I said, I would dig into the history a bit more to help with diagnosis as a few lines on the internet are not enough to judge but if we take this story of increasing frequency of urination followed by increasing drinking then lethargy these are symptoms that need urgent assessment. If you have a responsive GP practice like the one I ran this would be triaged by a GP and seen straight away to assess with a blood sugar and referral up to hospital. I do hope you are not in the medical profession giving this information because it's downright dangerous.

Not just ridiculous.... dangerous

Yep, I toned my language down slightly!

Could be the heat, could be an infection, could be a multitude of things but i wouldn't risk it when type 1 diabetes is a possibility as that can become very dangerous very quick. A lot of times a&e is to rule out something life threatening and hopefully it turns out to be minor I would imagine this is what happens to 80% of people who go to a&e but it certainly doesn't mean don't go that would be like telling someone with chest pain not to go even though the majority of the time its nothing.

Hope all is ok OP.

Because it could be life threatening and you’ll wait longer for test results via a GP. A&E will treat it as a priority. Because it is.

I agree. The op should be told to call NHS 111 or the equivalent in their country

Poss Type1 diabetes. Hope your son is checked out ASAP.

Based on our experience, he will not wait long in any pediatric a&e if presenting with these symptoms. We were seen by triage within 5 min, blood tested within 10. They are generally very alert to the possibility of teenagers in dka.

These threads are so dangerous.

yes this is a medical emergency
yes a&e is where you should go
thank god your sensible op

atleast one positive from this is that some uneducated people on this thread now know this information.

people should not comment on things they have zero knowledge on.

It’s definitely urgent because it’s highly indicative of diabetes, and if it is, it could very well be life threatening if it isn’t picked up and treated ASAP. It’s pointless and dangerous to wait around for a GP appointment if A&E will treat it with the priority it deserves - which they absolutely will.

I would suggest unless he is showing clear signs of confusion then GP.

I disagree. 111 can involve hours of waiting and her ds needs to be seen urgently just in case it is diabetes.