View Full Version : Contemplating going to A&E
If you turn up to A&E for something like abdominal pains, what happens? Do they have to assess you or can they turn you away?
Depends on your presenting symptoms, if they know you, how busy they are...
i dont see that i have much choice, the pain is getting worst and the GP just isn't going to know what it is!
---------- Post added at 09:53 ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 ----------
im wondering if I have a kidney/gallbladder problem that has just gone unnoticed, like a mild infection and it's starting to show its head.
Do you not have any walk-in centres nearby? That may be a better option
Walk in centres are a better option or just turn up at your gp asking to be seen at end of surgery? if you feel like you are in pain get it sorted out sooner rather later.
You can go, but it won't be treated as an emergency, so expect to spend at least a few hours there in the boiling heat. I can think of better ways to spend the day
First you'll be assessed and then examined and they might decide on further tests if anything seems sinister.
nomorepanic
18-07-13, 11:42
Go to your doctor and if necessary they can call the hospital and get you admitted to the Acute Assessment Ward rather than going to A&E.
It might be worth trying to see a GP first anyway, and take a urine sample with you if possible.. an infection might show up in it, which the GP can give you antibiotics for, and avoid the need for an A&E trip.
I'm going to see GP tomorrow and if she doesn't help then I have no option.
It is rediculous to be waiting for 6 weeks in this pain to see a specialist!
A&E might not help but i've got to try something!
Sorry to hear you are in so much Darren. Please let us know how you get on chick x
AuntieMoosie
19-07-13, 00:20
Hi Darren :)
I think you'll find that going to see your own GP would be A) more beneficial and B) far less stressful and anxiety provoking for you :)
A&E units are extremely busy places and they are there to cater for Accidents and emergencies, hence the name.
The fact that you present yourself to A&E doesn't mean that you'll be seen any quicker at all, as they have to priorities patients, so if you happen to go there at a very busy time when the staff are busy with emergencies, you are likely to be waiting for hours and hours.
An A&E department will also not usually order tests unless they feel that there is something that requires urgent attention, so you wouldn't be able to access tests or consultants any quicker than you would through your own GP.
I know if I had the choice between visiting my own GP or going up to A&E, I would be visiting my GP. A&E units are not the most pleasant of places, in fact just being there would send my anxiety through the roof!!! lol
A much more pleasant option is your own GP honestly, far more relaxed, your GP already knows you and knows your medical history making things much, much easier :)
Your GP will also know whether your pain is something that requires urgent attention and like Nic has rightly said, if that is the case, you'd probably be able to cut out A&E :)
But honestly Darren, always think twice before going to A&E, all it would do probably is just feed your fear more, raise your anxiety really high and stress you out.
Go have a good chat with your GP and see what they think about it. Do please let us know how you get on :)
I have doctors appointment at 5.20 with a different GP.
I am going to beg for an urgent referral! i just cant cope with these bodily pains anymore without explanation. how can anyone live like that
AuntieMoosie
20-07-13, 23:04
How did you get on please Darren??
nomorepanic
20-07-13, 23:22
Moosie - Darren did this post:
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138626
but not replied
how bad is your pain from 1 - 10? do you have fever? or a headache? are you constipated? does it hurt when you press your stomach?
AuntieMoosie
21-07-13, 01:30
Thank you Nic, I have replied on that thread now :)
anxityman whilst I understand your willingness to try and help Darren :) it is best for him to talk with his own doctor about this. We're not doctors so it would not be wise at all for any one of us to try guessing, it also wont help Darren.
backfromthebrink
21-07-13, 11:21
Just wondering what happened Darren, did you go to your GP and what did they say?
So i went to see the 2nd GP whom i have seen once before. It was a disaster.
I started off just asking if the xray results were back yet and she checked the computer but they weren't. Another week probably.
Then I explained to her that I have come in again today because my symptoms are getting worst and explained the pains i've been having under my ribs. She then basically asked what did I want her to do? I was a bit stuck for words - surely she should just examine me?? I told her I was worried it was my liver or spleen and she just went on about my blood tests being normal etc. I told her i am worried i have a cancer that has spread and she said 'why would somebody like you (referring to my age) have an advanced cancer that nobody can pickup on?' She then gave me an example of a cancer that spreads.
She used breast cancer as an example.
1. You would have a rock hard lump
2. The first place it would spread would be the nearest glands (armpit) and probably no further lymph glands. It wouldn't be all over, like I'm experiencing glands in my neck and armpits swollen. Then it would go to organs like liver/bones. By the time it got to that stage it would be affecting my liver tests and calcium levels etc. Mine are all fine.
So basically she said she is totally unconvinced I have cancer and that the top of her list would be ME which is post viral from what I had back in April. She said all the tests always come back as normal for people with ME. Now I am not convinced about this since the main symptom of ME is tiredness - I don't have any tiredness at all! I do have other symptoms
1. swollen glands
2. possible gilberts syndrom because of elevated bilirubin.
I asked her to check my neck glands and she said they were insignificant - but it was a pathetic attempt at feeling them. She also checked the lump on my collarbone and said it was too soft and movable to be anything to worry about.
I explained that i was unhappy about the wait for my referral appointment and she said the wait was probably because of holidays, haematology are not normally that busy as they don't see many bodies in the flesh! So i am unlucky it seems.
She has said she cannot put me through as urgent but she will get in touch with them and see what they can do - and also get me on the cancellation list. I suppose that is a bit positive.
Eventually she told me the appointment has over-run and needed to see the next patient.
Thoughts:
I feel like crying because i am becoming a laughing stock at the surgery now with 2 different doctors. I am also worried that the pains i have been experiencing are actually my ribs, not organs. I can feel tender spots on my ribs and it hurts to lie on my side - this is getting progressively worst. They are not taking my symptoms seriously because of my age and risk of cancer.
i am at a loss - if I wait til 30th august things could be very advanced by then - well they already are if i think my bones are involved. Basically it would mean its terminal.
I see that I have 6 options
1. call the hospital myself and chase a closer appointment
2. write a complaint to the surgery expressing my concerns
3. see a 3rd GP at the practice
4. see a private GP at private hospital (£70)
5. see a private haematologist at private hospital
6. change to different surgery
Of course i still await the chest xray - does anyone know if this would show bone abnormalities?
i am thinking first port of call is to ring the hospital and then maybe write a complaint.
---------- Post added at 12:49 ---------- Previous post was at 12:32 ----------
update
I have just got off the phone to nhs choose and book and they found a cancellation appointment 14th august! yey that is the first bit of good news! i was so thankful to the operator!! She said keep ringing and i might get one even earlier!
Hi Darren... I think first of all take reassurance from one definite fact you have - that your blood tests were normal. Something would show up in your blood if you were seriously ill in any way, even if they didn't point to exactly what it was...
So - onto what to do about the symptoms you have... have you thought about Glandular Fever? that can cause swollen glands/nodes - in fact any viral infection can - but it can also drag on a long time.
My Mum was diagnosed with post-viral syndrome a few years back, which I think is the same as, or similar to, M.E. She recovered in time with rest and acceptance...
I think I would actually do a few of your action points... definitely call the hospital to try and speed things up. Also I'd seriously consider writing to the GP Practice Manager... anxiety is an illness in itself and GPs should not treat us as annoying imbeciles just because we have health worries - especially when we have symptoms!
And if you can afford it, going private for a one-off appointment might be a good investment, and you can ask to see the consultant on the NHS afterwards, if you feel you want to see them again.
I am a bit concerned about your comment that the doctor made 'a pathetic attempt at feeling your glands'.
The whole point is that if they are significantly enlarged, the doctor would not need to poke around to find them. That implies to me that you are doing exactly that. If you press any part of the body, it will eventually feel different from what you expected - we're all experts at this on here!
I do agree with Daisy that you would do well to find a GP who is good with anxiety, but in turn you are going to have to try to accept that if you go for reassurance and they attempt to reassure you, your part of the professional partnership between doctor and patient is to accept what they say. Otherwise there is never going to be any point going. In the end, which of you has had years of training in observing symptoms? Yes, doctors can be wrong. But I suspect far more often, people with HA are wrong.
Please don't think I am laughing at you because I know the terror you are experiencing, but it is important for you to remain as much in charge as possible of your thoughts and reactions. :hugs:
Glad to hear you have an earlier appointment Darren
I have heard that bruised ribs can be painful- is there anyway you could have bruised them at all?
Ccat x
Darren,
If you haven't already, please read this post really carefully and have a think about the ways it's similar to your situation.
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=86611
Pip
AuntieMoosie
22-07-13, 03:46
Hi Darren,
Thank you for letting us know what happened when you saw your doctor.
I'm glad that you've managed to get an earlier appointment, that's good news for you :)
Doctors don't have to feel about for long when assessing glands. I had mine checked a couple of weeks ago when I had an infection and my doctor was very quick too. As Speranza had said, a doctor would soon feel very quickly if your glands were swollen, mine were only up a weeny bit but my doctor felt them in seconds.
Darren you need to do the kindest thing for yourself and that is to trust the doctors that are trying to reassure you that there is nothing nasty going on in your body. It's like you're torturing yourself and scaring yourself half to death with your obsession with cancer, this is really not at all good for you.
Let's try looking at it all rationally.
You've had blood tests, all of those blood tests have come back normal.
You've been examined by doctors and they have found nothing to be concerned about.
Darren if you had cancer of any sort, those blood tests would have shown something to be very wrong, but they didn't, and that's what you need to believe, they didn't :)
Your examinations have also not concerned your doctors at all. Doctors see patients and examine patients every day of the week, they know exactly what they're looking for and it sounds to me that they've found nothing out of the ordinary, once again, try not to look at this in a negative way but hang on, by your finger tips, to the doctors not been concerned as that is the positive thing :)
If you look at all of it rationally, why on earth do you think your doctors would mislead you in any way?? what would be the point in that?? Doctors do there jobs to help and try and cure people, so why would they decide to just leave you, and mislead you, if they thought for one minute that there was something seriously wrong with you?? It just doesn't happen Darren :)
Your doctor has arranged an x-ray for you and an appointment with a consultant. The x-ray results will be back soon and hopefully all will be well :)
But I'm interested in your answer to this question.....
If the x-ray results come back normal and your consultant says there's no cancer or anything to worry about, what are you going to believe??
I think I already know the answer to that, but I want you to answer it yourself please :)
Darren my best advice that I can give you to try and help you, which is what I'm wanting to do, is to accept what you've been told and what you are told about the couple of things that you're waiting for. If all is well with you physically, which I hope it is and I'm sure it will be, then please think seriously about getting some psychological help in the form of therapy, be it psychotherapy or CBT therapy, both of those therapies are very effective and very helpful, I've had them both :)
You are only young Darren and I find it really sad that instead of going out and about and having fun like you should be doing, you've got yourself in a bit of a pickle over a health obsession, that is a very easy thing to do and we all on NMP have some sort of anxiety, it may come in different forms but it's anxiety all the same, but we can and we do get better, we have to work at it and, believe me, it is hard work, but it's worth it :)
Have you actually told any of the GP's that you suffer from health anxiety ? Anxiety can cause chest and stomach pains in a lot of people ( it used to with me ), and it may be more useful to the GP's to tell them about your anxiety, rather than trying to convince them that you have some real physical problem.
If all the tests and X-rays come back fine, and you still have the pain, what are you going to do then ? It is hugely unlikely it is because they have missed something on the tests - you can wind yourself up getting every test going, and when they all come back fine then you are going to have to face up to the fact the problem is psychological, not physical. Maybe it would be more useful to do this now and start getting help for it ?
On the comment about the glands, most GP's have probably felt hundreds of thousands of glands over the years as it is a good indicator of someones general health and if they are run down, so they really don't need to spend ages doing it
hi everyone
i know it all sounds so crazy that i am not trusting the doctors but i have never experienced ill health like this before.
im going to phone the hospital later and see what they can do. i was going to complain to the practice earlier but the manager is on holiday.
the next in line manager is the GP i saw on friday!!! eeek!
Have you decided yet which level of doctor you will have to reach before you trust them?
Darren,
What people are trying to tell you is that it's anxiety that's the problem, not something physical as you believe. I know it's really hard to accept this when your symptoms are so real but unless you try and address it, you will continue to look for an answer that doesn't exist. It's a vicious circle, the more you become convinced you're physically ill, the more ill you'll feel.
Read the post I linked to above and try to get some help for your anxiety.
Pip
Have you decided yet which level of doctor you will have to reach before you trust them?
I think a I need a full MDT, CT, MRI, Bone scan, you name it. I would sell my house to pay for it all right now.
What I mean is, what is the point if you are just going to diss each one as being wrong, and go up a level. More to the point, what is your deep-rooted objection to facing your anxiety? Do you think you feel deep down that it's okay to have a physical illness but not a mental one?
I suffer from anxiety but it's not normally health related. Normally I am quite good at shrugging off symptoms but this time it is hard because they aren't "going away"
I wish this was just anxiety but I am convinced it isn't! Hoping my chest pain today is anxiety so trying my best to calm down.
I wonder why you find it hard to relate all these health issues - which doctors say are nothing to worry about and can't find anything physically wrong - to anxiety? There are thousands of posts on here by people going through the exact same thing as you. It is totally normal to believe you have something undiagnosable, the key to getting through it is to believe the doctors, not to be angry with them... Would it be easier for you if you could tell friends it was something physical?
it would be easier for me to accept the pains and get on with my life! it's not normal to have these pains! people are making me think im going insane! maybe i will just live with it now and if it turns out to be serious then nobody can say I didn't try!
Darren, if you read the forums really carefully, you will see that there are literaly hundreds of posts by people who are going through all these pains and believe that they originate from their anxiety condition.
My sister and I even joke about how our brain tumours/MS/strokes are going. We've HAD checks, we know the pains will only subside when we deal with the anxiety.
You seem to be really resistant to that idea, so I wonder - what is your opinion of all the people here who are convinced deep down that their pains are being manifeested as a result of anxiety? Do you think we are all deluded and going to die horribly of undiagnosed conditions?
the main thing i find of people on here is that most have symptoms that come and go - most have also had more tests than me!
my symptoms are getting worst! i am hoping now that the chest xray will show something, because atleast things will get moving. if the xray is fine, i'll be back to the drawing board!
---------- Post added at 11:15 ---------- Previous post was at 11:11 ----------
perhaps i should have started taking those anti-depressants two weeks ago - things might seem different now!
And is 'it may be anxiety after all' on that drawing board anywhere? Given that people here have had more tests than you and come to that conclusion?
And is 'it may be anxiety after all' on that drawing board anywhere? Given that people here have had more tests than you and come to that conclusion?
Yes and hopefully that's it!
People who know me in person are telling me to keep hounding the doctors because they know I am not right - they know I suffer from anxiety but none of them are telling me they think it's that.
Darren,
I have a feeling you're reading the responses wishing we'd all listen to you and that we don't understand - you've got such bad symptoms that you can only be seriously ill. Anxiety could never make you feel this bad, right?
Trust me, people are replying because they want to help and they're trying to stop you wasting years worrying about things that are very unlikely ever to happen. I don't suffer from health anxiety either, I'm a general anxiety person. That doesn't stop health (mine, my partner's, my dogs etc) being one of the things I get anxious about. I first started to feel really physically ill when I was a teenager, having been anxious for years before that. I was convinced I had appendicitis and, instead of being rushed into hospital as I thought would happen, I ended up being rushed to a psychiatrist.
Of course, I thought what a complete waste of time. Here am I, about to die of a ruptured appendix or septicaemia and I end up sitting with a shrink talking about anxiety and how to relax. I was thinking that I hoped he'd had some medical training for when my appendix burst in his consultation room. Funnily enough, it didn't and nearly 30 years later, me and my appendix are still alive and kicking. I still get the stomach pains though when I'm anxious...
It took me years to make the link between physical symptoms and anxiety: many years wasted on worry and missing out on things. Please don't make the same mistake - get some help. I know it's incredibly hard to accept but you have to admit to yourself that it is likely that your GPs aren't making some terrible misdiagnosis. For all we read about these cases in the press, they're a tiny minority.
Pip
Yes Pipkin, I don't think I have health anxiety - that is, I'd never even heard of it (or known it as hypochondria). But I get anxious and it sometimes centres around health. I don't really need a diagnosis of it tbh, I know it's irrational usually, and that's all I need to know really!
Yes Pipkin, I don't think I have health anxiety - that is, I'd never even heard of it (or known it as hypochondria). But I get anxious and it sometimes centres around health. I don't really need a diagnosis of it tbh, I know it's irrational usually, and that's all I need to know really!
Some people need a diagnosis to come to terms with their illness, some don't. I say I don't have health anxiety because health worries are a very small part of my anxiety. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what you call it because classifications are artificial and we're all very different. You could probably find traits of several DSM disorders in most of us.
The point I was trying to make to Darren is that, he may not usually worry about his health and doesn't connect this with his general anxiety, but that doesn't mean his symptoms aren't anxiety related.
If only there were an easy answer. Unfortunately, we have to make our own mistakes and try to learn from them most of the time.
Pip
phoned the hospital, only my GP can expedite an appointment. Also I am concerned I am just not being sent to the right department!
Yes, I think I was trying to make the same point. I do sympathise Darren, because I think we do have a tendency to think it's more rational to be physically ill than for it to come 'from our minds'. But in fact all sensation is processed in the brain in any case. I don't think it's helpful to think about things being 'more or less real' - if we have a problem, then it is a problem for us. However, if I know something is most likely not something physically treatable, I can learn to deal with it in other ways, such as distraction or exercise or something. I also find it really helpful to look behind the symptoms for clues as to what I'm really afraid of (eg floaters, going blind, why is that an issue? I live alone - it boils down to a fear of not coping on my own; when I realise that, then I can tell myself I've managed for for 11 years... etc)
I hope that makes some sense. x
thanks i know everyone is trying to help. this forum has kept me going for the last 2 months. When i first posted back in september, i never thought i'd be back but im so glad i found you. My original post in september wasn't a health anxiety as such but i had a chest infection causing other general anxietys - you should read it, i remember i was able to reassure myself in that instance that it wasn't serious.
You will be okay - crikey, the only reason I don't post some of my anxieties is cos I think people would get bored!!!!
just read my original post about a chest infection - it is funny reading that because I was convinced it was not going to go away! i realised in the end the infection had cleared and it was only me obsessing about it that it was stil there!
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