My Lupus has been attacking my kidneys and I have been in chemo for a little bit now. So far seems to be going well.
Yesterday I had a sore throat and a mild temp (37degrees) so I phoned the chemo hotline who then said since no temp spike they were happy to refer me to GP, GP prescribed antibiotics and all was well. Untill this morning when I felt awful.
Chills, coughed up some mucus, general pain, I took my temp and shot up to 38 degrees, I had to wake up my mum to get me to A and E. Thanks to the chemo card I was quickly triaged (temp was 38.1 at hospital). They took bloods but by the time I was in a bed I was already feeling a bit better.
They did a chest x-ray and urine dip as well and I was told that there were no signs of infection in my blood or scans..They gave me a drip of paracetamol and fluids and I felt so so much better. They then sent me home (after I bled everywhere because not enough pressure from where the cannula was). Felt a bit like I had wasted everyone time, just more to clean up.
Not the first time I have gone into hospital with chills and temperature, no signs of an infection and they just dose me up with paracetamol. They never seem to know what causes it (just random Lupus spike?) But if all they do is give me paracetamol maybe I should just do it at home??
I only went to A and E as my chemo alert card says to go straight there if temperature is 38 degrees. Did I do the right thing?
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Penguintaz
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I live in northern Italy and our local hospital has a sign up saying you have been triaged and given a colour - including white and that has detailed advice that wherever you should be, it isn't in A&E. It did improve once they introduced a charge for anyone pushing their luck to get free paracetamol or plasters.
You did exactly as you should have. Glad it was not a worse outcome. It is always better to act as if it might be something terrible and find out it was something simpler than to ignore worrisome symptoms and stay home when it is something sinister and you might miss the needed early treatments. Hope you feel better soon.
Yes you did what you were supposed to do. I have bright red blood in my urine on occasions, basically peeing blood. It has been investigated twice, with no abnormalities found. I said to the urologist what to do in the future as l didn't want to waste their time. He gave me a stern look and said keep coming back. If you have large amounts of bright red blood in your urine l want to see you again. So if you meet the criteria they have given you to go to A and E then go. Hope you are feeling better today
I'm very surprised by this story to be honest but maybe this is a postcode lottery. Here in Scotland you cannot walk into A&E with a fever of 38.1 (or any higher), cough etc due to covid. You are turned away, chemo or not, to follow the covid pathway. I assume a PCR has been done to rule this out as a cause?
It's definitely a discussion to have with your nurses / doctors as it does seem a bit prescriptive. It sounds like they have printed cards for everyone without taking into account individual blood counts and how much you can judge for your body. The majority of adults don't get fevers unless they are sick with infection etc.
I have similar printed information for my adrenal insufficiency but my consultant and I have discussed how to apply it so that I'd not at A&E when I don't need to be. I have dipsticks at home for urine and take paracetamol first when I have a fever to see if it helps. Normally my fevers are caused by UTIs due to my immune system being so suppressed so the dipsticks will clearly show this. If not then paracetamol and sleep will normally reveal what is going on, so then I can seek help or not. If it's the middle of the night this will only be 4 hours later.
If the paracetamol doesn't work, I have other severe symptoms that I would seek urgent help for alone, or my urine is showing a clear infection then I seek help through out of hours, who can do direct admission through IAU at the hospital so I don't sit in A&E with all it's extra wait times etc. This is in my care plan on my medical record. I wonder if something similar can be done for you to avoid these A&E attendances.
Just my take on the situation but after a number of A&E visits myself, I'd do anything to avoid that place personally.
I'll have to discuss it more in depth with my doctor about having a care plan, I did email but he just said it's best to get my blood tested to ensure any infection hasn't entered my blood.
Its definitely worth watching for when on chemo as it can get scary fast, but the guideline (here anyway) is normally not to test for sepsis unless your temperature is over 38.5 and you have another symptom (blood pressure, heart rate etc). They do all the routine bloods but not the culture (they look like old school two inch wide glass bottles), so it's worth asking what your health board rules are. That might also help when setting up your own personal care plan if that's a primary concern. I had sepsis last year and my fever went to well over 39 in under an hour even after paracetamol. Hopefully you can sort a care plan and minimise the A&E trips. All the best with it xx
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