Help with abscess - NHS refusing to drain it

[LostaraYil]

My adult ds has an abscess on the sole of his foot. The pain is extreme and it is clearly infected. He has been to A&E, the first time he was sent away and told he's fine. He saw a GP and got given antibiotics and naproxen. These have not helped. Second time in A&E he was given codeine and told to go back to the GP. The GP prescribed cocodamol. The pain is still awful, and really it needs draining. Has anyone successfully got the NHS to deal with an abscess and if you did, how? He's been in contact with a private surgeon and has a consultation booked for Monday, but really he needs something sooner and on the NHS! In Wales btw.

Yes they probably should drain every infection in case sepsis occurs. It's extremely common.

I had a chicken pox infection that went septic when I was 7 years old. Just caught in time with antibiotics after several hours in A&E in a side room and being completely delirious once I was admitted.

DH had a perforated bowel and just caught it in time at A&E when he was showing signs of sepsis.

I know someone whose parents both died of sepsis during the pandemic. A neighbour died of infected bed sores during the pandemic.

You don't piss about with infections.

The GP told him over the phone that he has been referred for urgent surgery, but to manage his expectations as it could be weeks. The doctor said the NHS is broken. When we insisted on a face to face appointment they finally agreed to one at 3pm. The blood results were not back this morning as promised. He has different antibiotics and is feeling slightly less in pain at the moment. After the 3pm appointment, if there is no progress, we will try a&e in a different health board. So frustrating. The private appointment is still booked for Monday, they couldn't do any earlier.

Agreed. I was also left with an infection during the pandemic for days, denied every avenue available until I was blue lighted in with sepsis. You can't leave infections to fester and need to fight for treatment if you just get fobbed off with painkillers or continuous courses of ineffective abs.

Please take him back to AE, oral antibiotics are not the answer here . Been speaking to my surgeon husband who said AE and don’t leave until he sees a Dr.

Just to update, the GP finally saw him and sent him to A&E, and arranged for him to be seen there by someone. Just waiting now.

Gosh, well done!

If he hasn't already, he needs referring to the Surgeons.

I'm so sorry that he's having this battle to get treatment.

Yay, he's been booked in, surgery in the morning. Such a relief. Thank you everyone for the support and suggestions.

Excellent news.

Hooray! Well done for persevering. Change GP.

OP I don’t know if you’re still reading: this was nailbitingly tense. I hope DS will be ok. What advice would you give to someone else who is in the situation you’ve been through?

Hmm, you need to trust yourself even when medical professionals who aren't always doctors keep telling you it's not urgent. I know lots of posters said we should have stayed in A&E and that's fair enough, they were probably right, but it's hard when you are being told there's no point, you're not a priority, it can wait. Also, insist on seeing a different doctor if you're not confident. The one this afternoon was great, and when the surgeon finally saw his foot he immediately said they would operate in the morning.

Not a human medic but work with animal drugs.

Resistance means that the bacterial population don't care about the antibiotics. They don't get killed by it - time isn't a factor.

It's not as simple as saying some drugs won't work any more, (although ultimately that's where we are heading). It's that some populations of bacteria are now not affected by some or all of the drugs.

What it means for patients is that antibiotics are less likely to work, and it may take 2-3 different rounds of prescriptions to find one that does for your specific bugs.

It could (should) mean that Drs are less likely to prescribe antibiotics at all for something that a healthy body should have no problem fighting off. It's unlikely to be financially viable for drug companies to develop new antibiotics, so we are realistically ultimatelu looking at running out of effective antibiotic drugs. We must try to elongate the lifespan of the ones that we have got.

Gosh I'm infuriated for you at how tenacious you have had to be to advocate for your son. I wonder how many without support don't push back so much and end up seriously ill. So glad he's finally in the right place and getting the treatment he needs. Well done @LostaraYil

Really a scary thread. Just sending you good wishes, op, and your poor ds. Positive thoughts to get through the next few hours.

Good luck to your son tomorrow and well done for the perseverance! I just had an emergency operation at 31 weeks pregnant for a perianal abscess - it’s the most excruciating pain I’ve ever been in. I even needed to have spinal anaesthesia to lance it.

I no longer live in the U.K., and I’m so sad to hear how tricky it was to get help! There was no question here about the need for rapid (within 48 hours) surgery.

In my new country, I went to the midwife - they saw me then and there, then they referred me to a doctor immediately - he walked in and checked it. They called my local hospital and I went there straight away and was triaged within 10 minutes. I had to wait a few hours for the operation as I needed the surgical team for c-sections to do my surgery, but that was to be expected in my case and I was placed in a private room with a comfy bed and a chair for my partner. Every visit and conversation and test was logged on the hospital health app in real-time. I’m so sad about the NHS!

Hope your son is ok.

Hope all went well today and you’re at home safe and feeling better xx

Lots of Doctors on here clearly.

Best advice by far.

If I was well enough to walk into the department and express my full history coherently with low level sepsis flags (infection with tracking) I would want a proportionate response. An arterial stab is not a proportionate response.

You cannot demand treatment, it’s up to the clinical staff to do their job using their qualifications. You’re within your rights to question the treatment, but you can’t wrap off what you want like a shopping list. Leave it to the professionals.

Pleased you got him sorted in the end and sorry to hear about all the hoops you’ve been through.

Your GP is right, the NHS is broken, sadly done so systematically by our government due to mass underfunding of resources with a growing population.

Have you RTFT!?