Ten weeks ago, my mum started experiencing acute pain down her left-hand side, like a bruised or broken rib - except she couldn't think of anything she'd done that might have caused this.
She saw a practice nurse, who sent her away with some co-codamol. In the meantime, mum went on holiday and thought the pain seemed to be easing - but a few days ago she had a coughing fit (she has COPD) and the pain came back worse than ever.
She tried to make a GP appointment but was given one for 10 days time - in the meantime she couldn't sleep from the pain and was exhausted, so I made her go to the walk-in unit at the community hospital. They got her a GP appt for the same day, but the GP simply prescribed amitriptyline (?) to help her sleep and sent her away.
I'd be fine with this, except she has recently complained of night sweats and has lost her appetite - which is very unusual for her and only usually happens when she has flu or similar. I'm willing to bet she hasn't mentioned either of these symptoms to the GP, or surely he would be ordering bloods/bone scan?
The fact that the pain seemed to be easing (although this could be hopeful imagination) made me think things were OK, but I'm very nervous now that there's an organic and sinister cause to this. Should I persuade her to make another appointment? (Which will be incredibly difficult anyway as she's one of these 'oh, I'll be wasting their time' while her limbs are hanging off types.)