DH been sent to A & E by dr

[Lushmetender]

DH has been awaiting a scan for a few months now due to pain in right abdomen around the middle. He went to out of hours yesterday but sent him home with painkillers saying likely gallstones and to fu with GP re ultrasound. His pain is worse today so he’s been to drs whose sent him to A & E in case of it being pancreatitis. Anyone had this situation? How long can he expect to be in A & E and what tests will they do?

We were in this situation when I was 8 and a 1/2 months pregnant! They kept DP in overnight and arranged follow up testing. It was a mild case of pancreatitis which didn’t need surgery and hasn’t reoccurred. I expect he would have been in longer if he’d needed surgery.

Thx mobear- what was his symptoms?

Depends on the hospital and how it's set up tbh as well as his specific symptoms and severity. If they have assessment units they might admit him to one once he hits the 4-hour mark while they arrange scans or get specialists involved to assess.

Xrays are usually the quickest imaging to arrange so they might do chest and abdo xrays in the first 4 hours in a&e to rule out a few things like bowel obstruction. If they want to do ultrasounds, CT or MRI on emergency/urgent basis that usually involves warehousing the person on an assessment unit or ward for at least a day or two until they can get a slot.

If it is pancreatitis he might then be transferred to appropriate ward and kept in with IV support until he is well enough to return home.

Pancreatitis pain is usually high and centre in abdomen.

@Lushmetender Persistent abdominal pain and a mild temperature. He had a call with our GP who couldn’t rule out pancreatitis, so we were told to go to A&E. He was sent home after one night with antibiotics, and it hasn’t reoccurred.

I sent myself to A&E in the middle of the night back in September, turned out to be an infected gallbladder to a mahoosive stone that had got itself stuck in the entry to the bile duct.

I went in early hours of Sunday morning, by Sunday late afternoon they'd figured out what it was and filled me with morphine (miraculous stuff!). They wanted to try to get rid of the infection with IV antibiotics and add me to the waiting list but the infection was more stubborn than the doctors so after 3 nights in hospital I was taken into surgery where they whipped out my gallbladder. Had to have a drain fitted to let all the gunk out so was in another 2 nights and finally went home late Friday afternoon.

Thx all. They are thinking gall stones but can’t do scan until tomorrow. Awaiting on bloods for infection. Small hospital so they’ll be wanting him out ASAP! If it is surgery may follow after being taken off blood thinning meds.

@Lushmetender it may depend on what blood thinning meds he's on, we were all getting them injected into our stomachs daily while on the ward to counteract the effects of being in bed pretty much 24/7. I was also having daily arguments about why I didn't want to wear the tight, hot, itchy support stockings on the incredibly hot hospital ward 😂