My 24hour hell hospital visit

[Marianna16]

Early hours of Monday morning I ended up at my GP out of hours with my pain, he prescribed me tramadol which I had never had before. I took 2 and tried to go back to bed. Big mistake, my body clearly didn’t agree with tramadol and I spent the next 2 hours with severe sickness and diarrhoea.

I then started to get chest pains which really worried my OH, he called 111 back who then sent an ambulance. Heart trace came back fine luckily and I refused to go to a&e as our local hospital is always stupidly busy I didn’t want to be sat in a corridor for hours taking up precious time of the ambulance staff. So I decided to get an appointment with my GP.

Fast forward a couple of hours my GP wanted me to go straight to the hospital as she felt the pain I was having was further up. She was worrying about appendicitis. I knew it wasn’t this was 1000% pelvic pain. So I get to the hospital at 11am and told to wait in a&e waiting room.

3pm comes and surgeon comes and examines me in a side room. He states my white blood cell count is high so he wanted me to go for a scan. I sit in a&e (in excruciating pain at this point) for another 7 hours to then be given a trolley bed on a&e. They gave me some codeine (finally!) and two tummy injections which I didn’t have a clue what they was! And then finally admitted onto a ward at 12am 😩

I get little sleep even in a room on my own, to be woken at 6am by another surgeon who suddenly thinks I’m fine to go home without scan and without seeing the gynae team like I was promised.

Now at home in the same pain with no answers 😫 I really have no faith in getting a diagnosis of some kind. Or even being pain free for more than a day 😔 I struggled massively to even get dressed this morning to take my little girl to school I’m just so depressed about it all now

[emw527]

Hi there, I have had a similar experience recently. I went into A&E with a stitch that felt like it 'ruptured' at work - through walk in centre, A&E, then rushed to resus when my inflammatory markers were high.

I spent a lot of time in the corridor before finding a bed - all scary for my first time in!

I had no scans and they went straight in with laproscopy the next day to remove (what we all thought the issue was) my appendix (which was fine) and diagnosed me with 'retrograde menstruation' which is a cause of endometriosis but not a condition itself? So confused!

I am also in pain again, worse than before, so much I can't stand up sometimes, and am chasing a proper diagnosis. You are not alone!

[Marianna16 in reply to emw527]

Oh gosh that sounds terrible! Where abouts do you live? X

[emw527 in reply to Marianna16]

I live in the Midlands x

[Marianna16 in reply to emw527]

Ooo me too! Inbox me if you like be nice to have someone that could be relatively local to chat to about similar problems x

[EndoEffect]

I’m so sorry you went through this and are still suffering so much! I have had similar experiences with A&E. Really shocking and horrific. X

[Marianna16 in reply to EndoEffect]

There is nothing worse is there 😔 I came out of hospital Tuesday and I’m still currently sat on the loo in pain this morning. Feels like it’s never gonna end x

[StefaniaJW]

No A&E in the world is trained to handle a woman with an endometriosis flare up. general surgeons, gynaecologists are just not trained to deal with endometriosis. They are just not. You need to seek an extremely skilled and experienced endometriosis surgeon trained in advanced excision surgery. Please PM me to get the names of the most well-versed endometriosis excision surgeons in the country working within the NHS.

[Marianna16 in reply to StefaniaJW]

Please can you PM me? I’m not sure how to do this properly yet #newbie

[StefaniaJW in reply to Marianna16]

Yesh, sure

[Shed2]

Hello, I am so sorry to hear that. I hope your GP can prescribe some painkillers&anti-sickness meds in the short term. I always found it was the pain that made me sick, not the Tramadol. Have you tried Gabapentin/Pregabalin/Amytriptyline? Ask your GP about these and also for a referral to specialist pain management.

Like you I bounced into a&e several times with similar experiences to yours. I wish I had seen a gynae specialist sooner - if you can afford it try to see one privately straight away and they can refer you back to the nhs for surgery if needed. If you can't afford that insist your GP refers you immediately and make friends with their secretary - call in asking for a cancellation. It's shocking how long you have to wait. I complained via formal NHS complaints and wouldn't recommend it. My MP did help though.

In the end I had Prostap injections and gynae physiotherapy which resolved the pain and then a hysterectomy and more physio. I have my life back. But I'm angry at the years I lost.

So, my advice is to keep pushing to see gynae and pain management specialists and be tenacious. Don't give up - a solution will be there for you. Stay strong, this will end. xx

[Marianna16 in reply to Shed2]

Am I able to seek a gynae specialist privately if I’m already under consultant? I would be able to afford this luckily but don’t know how I stand? X

[Littlenestofvipers]

So sorry to hear about this. I went through the exact same! Sent home from work as I was so unwell and went straight to a&e, I was fortunate in the fact I got a bed quickly but they immediately assumed it was appendicitis and gave me an injection in my tummy. They didn’t tell me what the injection was for it was only because my mum is a nurse I found out it was blood thinner in prep for surgery. I was kept in the hospital for 2 whole nights with a doctor and a surgeon only coming to see me ONCE. I was bleeding constantly the whole time which was dismissed by the nurse even when I showed her the blood. I was then suddenly discharged on day 3. I asked when I was discharged what now as I was still in pain and they sort of shrugged and said well it’s not appendicitis but we don’t know what it is! It wasn’t until I kicked up a fuss that they sent a junior doctor to see me and she suggested referral to gynae which kickstarted my whole endo journey! This was back in the spring and after 2 appointments with my gynae I am still awaiting even a basic scan. The whole system is a joke! You have to keep going back and nagging, any small symptom call the doctor to ensure every little thing is logged!

[Marianna16]

Thanks everyone. I went back to my GP today and ended up in a right mess in there, dont think I’ve ever cried so much in front of someone that isn’t a family member. The poor GP didn’t know where to put herself 🙈

On the plus, I’ve come away with some more meds, an urgent scan request (although not sure how urgent it’ll be) and I’ve got to go for more bloods in the morning.

My GP even started mentioning ectopic pregnancy (were currently trying for another baby and have been for nearly 4 years) so not sure what the next few days is going to bring.