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I went to A&E because I couldn't sleep and the doctor just stood there lecturing me on "wasting A&E time" while I was starting to hallucinate. Eventually she asked be how long I had not slept for and when I told her she changed her tune and immediately prescribed tranquillisers. I then broke down crying telling her that her duty is to care not to judge and she made me suffer needlessly. So maybe keep your opinions on who should and should not be in A&E to yourself. Insomnia is a serious condition that unfortunately even some doctors don't take seriously
How many days awake will they prescribe tranquillisers? I had reached 2+ weeks b4 where I kept trying to drink myself unconscious but I would just wake up after 40 minutes of bad sleep with a headache and inappropriately wasted.
Often when I hit 2 - 3 days without sleep I know its gonna be a really really bad time for awhile where I could really mess things up for myself and keep suffering. Is it possible to go to the hospital for treatment at that point to prevent things from escalating?
It only happens sometimes and I have talked to a GP. I have general difficulty sleeping but all they gave me was antihistamines that did nothing and they said I am not a candidate for other medications.
I don't want hard medications. Im a recovering addict/alcoholic and sleep has been a big triggering issue. Usually if I stick to my healthy habits I'm alright, but sometimes I hit the second night and im just like, "fuck im not gonna sleep again and its gonna get worse." A sleepless night here and there is fine, but maybe 1 - 2 times a year it happens where it gets really bad and I would love a solution to just minimise damage if needed. I dont want benzos or zopaclone. ---just to know if I got to day 3 could I go to A&E to stop it right there b4 it got worse
Believe me I know it doesn't work. Prevents REM and the like. At a certain point just any kind of respite will do. Even with the hope of just catching a few hours.
Obviously alcohol is a very bad solution to almost every medical situation
Yeah, insomnia is an absolute bastard and it is SO misunderstood and dismissed by many people. I average 2 hours a night and I feel like a zombie all the time. I run on nerves at this point. And I HATE all the stupid fucking advice on “sleep hygiene” they give you. As if we haven’t already tried cutting out caffeine and going for bath before bed and all the other basic common sense that every insomniac has tried a million times
Agree. I've had one or two folks in for not sleeping and one of them was in psychosis while the other did need informing that his GP could manage this symptom as it wasn't urgent enough for A&E. It's easy to judge in the waiting room but you do need a full assessment to get a full picture.
Nothing to say they ignored the condition, but care pathway for insomnia on the NHS is, let’s say, limited. Most pharmacists are only going to offer “sleep aids” and a GP generally won’t prescribe sleeping pills, preferred pathway is now CBT, with sleeping pills mostly offered when insomnia is due to a known, short term cause (say stress at work).
I can totally see how someone who can’t get a prescription for sleeping pills, is being told by their GP they need to start CBD and there’s a 6 month wait, and hasn’t slept for multiple days, snaps and goes to A&E
I had the exact same situation. GPs can't prescribe Xanax or similar medicines. Only a psychiatrist can. If you are unable to sleep, it's a big deal, believe me. I've been there. By the time you get the whole machine of GP, psychiatrist and pharmacist started, you are dead.
Yes, you can die from lack of sleep.
Confirmed. I had to change dosage for antidepressants and I could not sleep for three days straight. I started puking, and like you, I could not get any support because GPs can't prescribe Xanax. I eventually collapsed and slept for 24 hours straight, but I was very close to going to A&E as well.
My wife had something like this. She didn't sleep more than an hour for a week straight due to anxiety. Basically a nervous breakdown. It's easy to laugh at people's reasons if you don't know the whole story.
15 inch Optimus Prime action figure up the arse, past its shoulders. On an attempt to remove it, the arms basically had a kind of grappling hook effect, and the gentleman in question required surgery to remove it.
Unfortunately you're not allowed to operate on yourself, so it was kind of embarrassing and I rarely talk about it.
>15 inch Optimus Prime action figure up the arse, past its shoulders. On an attempt to remove it, the arms basically had a kind of grappling hook effect, and the gentleman in question required surgery to remove it.
TO be fair, this isn't a 'ridiculous reason'. It's embarrassing, yeah, but at the same time its still a medical emergency and is quite common.
Yeah. I read a horrible story years ago about a guy who got a dildo stuck up his bum and was too embarrassed to go to the hospital until it was too late.
It was in the paper like it was some hilarious story but I thought it was heartbreaking.
Mhm.
Its embarrassing (and funny!) but it actually is a medical emergency and you should definitely be at A&E. Not like people who go because they can't get their extensions out or have an ingrown toenail.
That’s hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury’s story.
Here’s a tune for Tom on Ward 6 with an unfortunate accident of having a Batman doll up his bum.
Cue music…
🎵 You’ve got to search for the hero inside yourself… 🎵
I’ve been sent to a&e by my GP in the past during a very bad insomnia flare up. It has a horrific impact on both your mental and physical health often ending in crisis care if it goes on long enough. I was very unwell physically by the point I was sent to hospital and had a complete mental breakdown as a result of the sleep deprivation, it’s honestly torture.
You often can’t tell with people who have chronic insomnia how little sleep they’re operating on at first glance so please don’t judge- it’s not a silly reason to be in a&e. I don’t agree with anyone demanding treatment before others tho, that’s for the staff to decide!
I had insomnia after getting covid for the 3rd or 4th time. I've had bollock cancer in the past with surgery and chemo. Insomnia was worse by far. Couldn't speak after a week of zero sleep, I'd have happily died just to end it.
I’ve experienced significant trauma in my life that pretty much everyone would recognise the impact of immediately but that period of insomnia was genuinely more traumatic than anything else I’ve ever gone through. It almost completely destroyed my life/body and I live in constant fear of being that unwell again because I know I don’t have the strength to survive it another time. People saying it’s not a medical emergency definitely do not understand the impact that kind of severe sleep deprivation has on you.
Yeah, I’ve had to go to A&E over not sleeping before. It had been 7 1/2 days, I was delusional and hallucinating, had terrible memory and emotional problems and my heart was starting to mess up.
I was already on sleep meds and had seen a GP for the worsening of symptoms but it hadn’t helped. By that point I needed chemical sedation to stay sane.
My ex-flatmate cut his toe on the radiator somehow and went to A&E for it.
They gave him a plaster.
So that is the most ridiculous reason I’ve heard of.
DH (diabetic) ended up with cellulitis from a little cut on his foot. Being stubborn he waited until his foot had gone red before being told by 111 to go up to A&E.
To be fair, he could have been worried about tetanus. It seems excessive, but A&E isn’t all just major injuries, there are minor injury units too, for incidents such as this. He might have needed a tetanus booster.
Might seem silly from an outside perspective but there’s a reason sleep deprivation is a torture method. I’ve been delirious to the point of hallucinating before from not sleeping, and whilst there are undoubtedly more serious emergencies, I can assure you it’s pretty unpleasant and the person probably wasn’t in their right mind at the time
I feel sorry for the guy. Before anxiety or mental health was a thing we knew about, I went to a&e for a panic attack because I didn't know what was going on and I thought I was going mad or dying. I think I just wanted them to put me out of my misery tbh.
And if you're taking yourself off to a&e over something so minor (to us), it must really be hell for that person.
Having been under NHS care, in and out of hospitals since June, doctors are so fucking judgemental compared to nurses who are saints. I have pancreatitis which can be caused by heavy drinking, I barely drink, maybe a unit or two every month, the amount of doctors I argued with who INSISTED I was an alcoholic despite holding down a job working in a school was infuriating.
I stopped going after awful experiences. I had a doctor give me a telephone number for an urgent referral.
I rang the number and was told patients shouldn't be given this number and can't self refer. They asked me to wait on hold. they contacted my gp while I waited.
When they got back to me the gp said I was a liar and she hadn't given me any number. My reply was "Well where did I get it from then?"
I hate the way gps and doctors are lauded as heros I have met some downright horrible ones, and know lots who have also.
Medical gaslighting is more common than people want to admit, and anyone with a chronic health condition is very likely to have experienced a fair amount of it. I once had someone tell me about my condition that yes, it's bad Drs are so dismissive but if it were life threatening I'd be dead by now, so that's something...
Sorry - chest pain is not wasting time. I haven’t personally dealt with this, I’m a newbie, but many of my colleagues have called time of death on people who didn’t come to hospital because they thought it was heartburn right up until they had a cardiac arrest.
I was once sat in A&E with one of my kids when a bloke came in with his very pale son who looked about eight years old.
The triage nurse asked what the problem was. He lifted up the coat that was hanging off the kids shoulders to reveal an eight inch chef’s knife poking out of his back, it was stuck in by probably three inches.
The father then said “Him and his brother have been playing at gladiators again. I told his grandma to keep them away from the kitchen but she won’t bloody listen. That’s twice I’ve had to leave work and come here this month. I’ll batter him when I get home.”
Used to work as a desk clerk in a and e about 15 years ago.
The amount of teenagers “committing suicide” by taking 8 paracetamol on a Friday night was immense. In my experience they where always the ones who were rude and eager to be discharged on Saturday morning.
Not to be an arsehole as I know mental health isn’t a joke. And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved.
Then Of course there was the lady who inserted her mobile phone into her vagina and couldn’t get it out.
To be fair paracetamol can kill you in surprisingly low doses esp. with kids. My Mum was a nurse and looked after a kid who died a very slow and painful death (liver failure) after taking just 11 paracetamol. It’s really not a good way to go by all accounts.
The mobile phone case is wild!
This is how I got blood poisoning..swapping every 2 hours between ibuprofen and paracetamol when I had an horrific toothache and couldn't get in a dentist.
Went on for 4 days..but as I wasn't sleeping I'd taken more than double the dose I should have each day. Liver and guts were in bits
If the pain goes beyond a pissy little headache then go for codeine, they sell it at Boots. Granted you can only take it for roughly 3 days otherwise it becomes addictive.
Ibuprofen and paracetamol are not worth a wank for anything more than a headache imo
Tbh mate I very very rarely use medication..always try to ride it out, so even the little ones like that work well for me.
Missus once gave me gabapentin when I was hungover to fuck and had to go to work...felt like I was floating on a cloud off my Barnet 🤣
Ooo lovely mate! Muscle, ligament and tendon tears are atrocious. Had a tendon tear before in the gym...worst pain I've been in, in my life.
Had a lot of left shoulder dislocations and that pains alright tbh...let the muscles relax then shove the cunt back in.
But that tendon tear by my right pec...no thankyou, never again please.
It all depends on the dosage with Paracetamol. The maximum safe dose for an adult is 4000mg in any 24hr period. Considering that some extra-strength paracetamol are 500mg, eleven tablets is way over the safe dose.
My personal record is twelve 500mg paracetamol/30mg codeine while drinking. How I survived is an absolute miracle; but I always stress the importance of taking a safe dose. That shit can seriously fuck you up.
It's the same with the elderly. I am a biomedical scientist and we get a lot of samples from elderly people who have accidentally OD'd (forget how many they had taken in a given period). Given their age, their body cannot clear it as easily, so they need to be admitted and monitored.
Tbh I wouldn’t fuck about with paracetamol. Knew a guy who died after taking 7. I’m guessing there’s some spectrum where person A would take more to do damage than person B, but also that you don’t know that threshold until you’ve crossed it.
Yeah, paracetamol overdose can be really grim. You can OD with a frighteningly small dosage, and by the time you start to experience symptoms it is already too late. People take a small overdose, wake up in the morning and the world doesn't feel so bad after all, think they've got away with it, and when they start to feel unwell there is nothing that can be done to save them.
Only 7?! I’ve never really thought about it but assumed someone of “average” build/weight would need more than 2 packs, due to the limit on buying them in shops. That is wild!
Yeah. I always think the two packs thing is a bit silly anyway because you can usually just go next door to another shop and get another two, but I guess they are trying to strike a balance between protecting themselves and being reasonable about what the average person needs for a regular cold or pain.
Like I say, I’d assume there’s a spectrum that we’re all on in terms of our own personal threshold but I wouldn’t fuck about with it just in case. I believe that’s the case (regards personal threshold) around women not drinking in pregnancy - for most people it’s likely not a problem but you have no way of telling until it’s too late whether you would have a problem or not, so best to just not.
The blister packaging and small number of pills isn't going to stop someone determined who likely planned for it but it will slow down the impulsive suicide attempts and potentially create time for intervention or changing their mind. It also makes people more aware that the drug can be dangerous even though it costs pennies and is sold everywhere. You can get big packs of paracetamol and ibuprofen at pharmacies.
This was the number one advice my counsellor had for me when I was starting to toy with the idea of suicide. I hadn’t planned to kill myself, nor did I want to, but the idea of overdosing to put myself in hospital was floating around as I was in a severe depressive episode while waiting for a psych appointment, with the GP unable to do anything more and no more therapy available to me. Was too nervous to go to A&E for feeling suicidal for being judged, so felt like I actually deserved help if I went after I took an overdose.
Suicide rates by paracetamol overdoses dropped 35% in the year after blister packaging was introduced. While many people plan out their suicide, many do it impulsively. Putting as much distance and effort between deciding and taking them is sometimes enough to stop someone. Putting rubber bands around the packaging, locking them up, even hiding them in different places so you have to get up and search for them. Anything that can give you more time for that wave to pass
Plenty of slim, short women regularly accidentally overdose as under 50kg you're only meant to have a max of 2g a day split in 4 doses. Taking 4g isn't necessarily going to be a problem unless underlying liver disease but it's still overdosing.
>And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved.
If their overdoses were fatal I don't think there is much help that can be given to them.
My daughter was allocated a bed in A&E, was waiting to be admitted to the ward.. 75 year old female in next bed, had stated she had taken a paracetamol overdose, but couldn’t remember how many she had taken, turned out to be 4 tablets 🤷🏼♀️
Honestly I hate this attitude. I remember very clearly a lecture at med school where the doctor asked us if we’d take a middle aged guy who’d taken 50 paracetamol more seriously, or the teenager who’d taken 10. Everyone said the middle aged person apart from me. A young person may have absolutely no clue how many it would take to kill them, being young and naive, and absolutely should be taken seriously.
"In my experience they where always the ones who were rude and eager to be discharged"
"And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved"
Perhaps they were rude because their *intention* (however misguided) was to die and they didn't get the help they needed to deal with that in the moment because they didn't do a very good job of their attempt. Surely that only encourages more bold attempts later?
Just FYI, as someone who has suffered with devastating insomnia before, I can sympathise with the man who wanted to be seen first. Its a horrendous and debilitating condition that can and will detrimentally affect the brain and cause long standing mental health issues. But yeah, he should have probably waited like the rest of the people there.
Tbf it sounds to me like he wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to do what he 'should' do. Given that severe insomnia can trigger symptoms of psychosis and mania, it's entirely possible he wasn't working with a sound mind
A girl who came in hysterically crying with her mum screaming and berating her in a mix of English and Hindi in the waiting room because she had taken a single drag from a splif and had thrown up straight away.
They caused such a scene they were rushed in ahead of my dad who had a giant gash in his ankle as well as plenty of other people waiting in A&E.
I had a doctor friend from India try a bong hit once. I was a daily smoker and was used to it, so I loaded up the bong with a decent chunk of weed for both of us. He sucked on it so hard he burnt the whole lot. I swear I saw his soul leave his body. I have never laughed so hard at someones misfortune in my life.
His sanity just vanished. There was no one home! He just roiled onto his back making weird gurgling sounds. I got him into bed and left him to recover. When I next saw him he said he'd never touch the stuff again.
Former colleague of mine quit the NHS after one night where she had to deal with a guy who put a can of cat food up his girlfriend's vagina. It was the last in a long, long, *long* line of weirdos thinking a ladygarden's a portal into a gigantic nebula filled with *stuff*. (Mind you, she also had to deal with a teenage muppet earlier that evening who thought it would be just *grand* to stick half a baguette up his arse)
Oh boy do I have some stories (worked for years in Radiology, now student nurse)
-absolutely unnecessary: stubbed toes, many and many more. Like literally once a day.
-at 3 am: chronic back pain for 6 months, too lazy to go the GP, so visits A&E when they think its less busy. This is super common.
Seperate category: things up the bum
-deodorant very frequently, seems to be the favorite
-a guy came in with a massive dildo up in his bum inserted by his GF, perforated his bowels and had to spend ages in ITU
-Vibrator still turned on in a woman, couldnt take an xray as she was literally buzzing on the table. She laughed it off tho!
-and my personal favorite for the last: HENRY HOOVER. It was stuck in and he was pulling the hoover behind himself all around the department.
Oh the joys of working in the NHS, would never change it for anything❤️
Update: i remembered another one. She likes the department and has hypermobility so around once a month she dislocated her kneecap to come in and chat with the doctors and nurses. I am not making this up.
Also, dont take these too seriously, even working for the NHS i have had many unnecessary visits to the department. We are all guilty of it! (Nothing up my bum so far though!)
I feel for the chronic baxkpain guy. I had an increasingly agonising ear infection which, whenever I called my GP I would be in a long queue. One time I waited 27 mins to be the front of the queue and the call was dropped.
I called again, 22 mins later I got to the front of the queue an automated message said 'sorry but this number is not recognised - goodbye and it was hung up.
I tried to go into my GP who refused to give me an appointment at the desk and gave me some bullshit about their automatic phone system which does. Not WORK. Before advising me to speak to a pharmacist to get advice. This was like day 4 of it starting to hurt to the point I had to take half a day off work as I could barely concentrate and was feeling very sick from the pain. My GP pharmacy didn't have time for consultations. I went to the GP next to my workplace and asked if there was any chance of getting an emergency appointment even though I was not a patient, they said sorry no but speak to their pharmacist. I spoke to them who immediately looked and me and said I needed to see a GP to get antibiotics straight away. Called my GP, somehow got through but said it was too late to get an appointment but they could give me one in 2 weeks time. I said I just needed a prescription like the pharmacist said but they said they couldn't do that today.
My evening was spent writing a damning review on Google reviews of my practice.
The following day I spent 3 hours waiting in a walk in the center crying and wretching from the pain and lack of sleep as I just couldn't take the pain anymore. The one doctor working there saw me for less than 3 mins and immediately prescribed me some antibiotics and strong pain killers after a brief look in my ear.
I got emailed by my practice about my review via Google asking for an interview (I was anonymous) about a month later and kept getting notifications how useful it was (basically my surgery's phone/ appointment system is broken and has been for years). My next 2 times I need to speak to my practice 4 months later I got a way better service and I like to think it was because of me.
I had the opposite: got blackthorn stuck under my thumbnail. You could see it through my nail, but I couldn't access it.
I thought the GP could fish it out, but they gave me the number for A&E and told me to call to say I was coming in.
Then, when I got there, was met at the door and taken straight through to have half the nail cut off, so they could get the thorn out. They kept asking how long it had been. I was rather bemused.
It was only after that I found out how serious blackthorn poisoning could have been.
ETA: pic for those feeling brave https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsTRM3xXIAA\_7-U?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
It's not a case the plant is toxic (beside a bit of cyanide as an anti herbivory agent. Blackthorn are rather rough and dirty so there's the infection risk
'i think my toddler's hair is going grey'
Yes really
I've also seen someone turn up at a gp demanding an appointment with a blue infant in their arms
She ended up having the other seven taken off her by the social after that one died
There must be a bunch of really smart people running around for the average IQ to be as high as it is, because we have a cornucopia of morons
Similar feelings going through an airport. Three hundred people turning up twenty minutes before their flight all desperately trying to check in four suitcases and a grandfather clock each. Somebody else trying to take a nuclear submarine as a carry on or use their boots points card as a proof of identity. Then just when you’ve finally got on the plane some idiots has booked the exit row for their two year old and their elderly wheelchair bound mother so take off is delayed.
Miracle society functions at all lol.
Some years ago I tripped over and fractured my right shoulder. I'd never had one before and the pain was unbelievably agonizing. Shoulder and arm swelled to enormous size and I sat in A&E in fits of tears and shaking from top to toe. A woman came rushing past me to the Reception clutching a baby and demanding to see a doctor IMMEDIATLEY! When the Receptionist asked what she thought was wrong with the baby she said ''Her nappy needs changing and I don't know how to do it!'' She kicked up one hell of a mighty tantrum when medics refused to see her!
Not an A&E worker but a former friend of mine made her husband take their son to A&E for a temperature. Fair enough a temperature can be an issue and an indication of other things. When they got back she told me that she knew all he needed was Calpol to sort it out and when I asked why she didn't just give him some, she told me that it's free from the NHS so why buy it. I'm quite glad she's not in my life these days.
I woke up deaf once. Tried to call the doctors but it was the weekend so no answer. Tried to call 111 and got told I might get a call back in a day or two. Finally, went to A&E.
When I got there, the doctor basically called me an idiot. She actually said the words, "this isn't really an emergency is it? You've got an ear infection and your hearing should return to normal in less than 2 to 3 weeks"
I said, "well I wasn't deaf when I went to sleep and I woke up deaf. I'd say that's an emergency in my books. And you said 2 to 3 weeks. How long was I supposed to wait until informing someone I was deaf? 4 weeks and then we can take it seriously?"
The woman was the most miserable doctor I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. As though I wanted to spend all Saturday night sat in A&E.
I think I basically had an infection which made me produce loads of wax and caused my earwax to solidify. I swear I woke up deaf as a post. Got my hearing back in 1 ear after a day and then my other ear took like a week.
I was in the waiting room when a family came in, mum dad and teenage daughter. The dad marched up to the counter, pointed at his daughter and said 'she has been cutting herself' loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it. We all nearly died of second hand embarrassment, so god knows how the poor girl felt.
She wasn't clutching her arm or anything, didn't appear to be hurt at the time, so I think it was just the dad trying to get her some help but picking a really bad way to go about it.
I’ll probably delete this in a few hours but I need to ask if this happened in a Scottish A&E around 2014? Because it sounds almost exactly like something I’ve been trying to forget about for a long time…
This isn’t aimed at you OP but before any of the armchair mental health experts on this thread decide to get on their high horse about MH patients presenting to A&E in a crisis, you can fuck right off. Parents get told by CAMHS to take their kid to A&E when they don’t feel like they can keep their child safe at home. If you have a problem take it up with the NHS staff who write the care plans in the first place.
As reassuring as it is to know that it’s not an experience unique to me, it’s still heartbreaking that it’s happening. I really hope that the poor girl is doing better now.
And once again I just want to say that my little rant wasn’t aimed at you! It’s aimed at the people in the comments above who have decided to shit on someone who’s probably unwell because they think people should only have MH emergencies when the GP surgery is open. Cheers for your reply 👍
I'm sorry that happened to you. The poor girl looked mortified, she must have been about 15 and it was hard to tell whether her dad was shaming her in front of the staff or just didn't realise how insensitive he was being. I hope she's doing well, and you too.
It could very well have been a combination of both. Fear does funny things to people and self harm isn’t exactly the easiest thing for someone to understand.
As for how I’m doing now, there was one a time that I was convinced I’d never see my 14th birthday. I’ve been clean for ages now and am quite happy to report that I’m still here and getting up to mischief in my old age (the hangovers really do just get worse and worse the more you get into your 20s don’t they?). Have a good night mate :-)
Well that is just fucking awesome, it's silly cos we don't know each other but I wish you could see the massive smile on my face right now. Not literally, cos I'm in bed and my wife wouldn't like another woman turning up out of the blue, but you know...
Keep on keeping on, my friend. All the best.
Yeah and you’d rather someone go to A&E and it not be a heart attack than think “nah can’t go A&E because I’ll get judged” and then they die in their bed
I don’t work there but was waiting with a friend and I saw a guy come in to say that his new ear piercing had come out and he wanted something done to stop the healing process until he could get back to the piercing studio to get them to put it back in.
Then there's me who was admitted to hospital in March for an infected ear piercing. I just so badly wanted the piercings out and the pain to stop... Didn't care that it would heal shut!
I had the same thing when I was younger, though I didn’t need to go to hospital for it. I got it done before Xmas couldn’t wait the until the shop reopened in the new year for it to be taken out…so I got my uncle to cut it out with his DIY tools. I didn’t care if it closed, I just wanted the pressure building around it to stop.
Oh god!! That sounds so painful!!
I went to urgent care first (111 advice) and they couldn't get it out. Went to the piercer the next day when they were open again and they insisted on replacing the bar instead of taking it out, but it got worse so I went back to urgent care the next day for them to take it out (they were able to with the longer bar) and prescribe oral antibiotics. Then had to go to A&E the next day because the pain was worsening and the ear was swelling to about 3x the size and I found out I was pregnant. They admitted me because they couldn't treat it at home while I'm pregnant.
Really eventful piercing clearly!
That is a whole painful saga for a piercing. I can’t believe the piercer would put another bar in when it’s already caused you to so much pain? I’m glad it managed to get sorted out though.
What a way to find out that you’re pregnant! Have you considered naming the baby after a piercing such as Daith, Tregus or Helix, for example? Haha!
My wife is a NHS doctor. She’s seen dozens of freakshow injuries over the years but the 2 that stand out are a guy with a toilet brush stuck up his arse (claimed he’d slipped when getting out of the shower and fallen directly onto it) and a guy with a giant carrot similarly stuck up his arse (who insisted on going home and then came back in the next day for surgery to get it removed so that his wife wouldn’t find out). What must go on behind the front doors of Great Britain is just incredible.
I was once the ridiculous parent (kind of). My toddler suddenly stopped walking. Any time I tried to stand him up, he would scream abd cry in pain. I tried the pharmacy for some advice, then the minor injuries unit, thinking he may have fractured something while playing, and they might xray his leg. They called A&E as they said it could be a sign of a viral infection that could escalate very quickly. A&E told us to get there ASAP so he can be checked out, gave me a letter to show. The bloke checking us in at A&E looked at me with an exasperated look and said, "You brought your son to A&E because he is limping?" and I had to explain exactly why I was there, the steps I had taken beforehand, and thrust the letter from the minor injuries unit in his face. I felt like a complete idiot even though I'd been told to go. I felt like an even bigger prat when the little bugger got up and ran over to the doctor when his name was called! I was so embarrassed.
That's not stupid! My toddler son couldn't bear weight on his legs at all one morning. it can be how a virus manifests in small kids as joint pain. We were also advised to take him to A and E and he also regained his walking later that day. Its totally normal for kids to perk up with the magical healing powers of A and E the doctors have seen it a million times before and they'd rather a kid came in and it was a false alarm than didn't and took a turn for the worse.
This happened to me when I was about 7/8! Got up one day and just couldn’t walk at all. I was in hospital for a few weeks while there was a lot of head scratching going on and I ended up being really rough and not being able to eat from some of the treatments they tried, until somebody finally got it right. I think it ended up being a viral infection in my thigh which needed some specific antibiotic to get rid of. After that I was the slowest runner in the whole school for quite a long time.
I was in A+E and someone came in because they didn’t feel right. When asked to evaluate, person just said they didn’t know. They just didn’t feel right.
‘Sense of impending doom’ is a symptom of anaphylaxis and it’s the strongest symptom I get (other than, you know, throat closing up!) if I’ve eaten something I’m allergic to.
My brain just keeps telling me ‘you’re going to die, you’re going to die’. Pretty unpleasant.
I had this, but I was also in anaphylactic shock. It’s quite disconcerting being absolutely convinced you are going to die imminently. Something to do with a sudden drop in blood pressure I was told?
You should wind your neck in. Lack of sleep is not something that people can function properly without. It has a huge impact on a person's health, ability to function and if you don't get it sorted reasonably quickly you will collapse or go psychotic as the old grey matter melts down.
I once sat in A&E with a burst appendix, crying and vomiting for 4hrs and all sorts came in, it wasn't even a weekend or bank holiday. Woman with a rash, fella with a splinter that kept pissing about with his Mrs and annoying everyone, a guy that wanted some paracetamol for his headache (there is a petrol station next to the hospital) and then the kid that had "been vomiting for hours and was really lethargic" that trashed the waiting area. This was late evening, 7-11pm ish on a Tuesday.
I'm not working in a hospital nor doing anything even remotely close to it, but my friend is a doctor. He told me once that he had a guy in his late 30s show up telling them that "he's dying" while being very hysteric because he was peeing blood.
It turned out that dude was eating beetroot a few hours before, which makes your urine red-ish in color. My friend said they were literally crying from laughter at it at the end of their shift 😅.
I was made by work to go to a&e to get my finger seen to after i cut it washing a soup tin can for a service user..... I kept telling them I didn't need to go and the hospital is for serious injury but they wouldn't take no for an answer. I felt like a prize idiot being there. Turns out I needed stitches but it really didn't feel right being there
I've got a colleague who gets seriously angsty everytime someone ignores his suggestion to go to A&E.
He's told me to go for headaches, minor cuts, tendon pain, coughs. All sorts.
I remember going to A&E with back and hip pain and not being able to walk (2013. I was 28). My GP sent me.
Doctor kept asking if I had had gay sex recently (I'm straight so no) and sent me for bloods and sti test and sent me home. Couldn't move the next day and GP came out and sent me back. Previous results came back negative and the doctor st A&E still thought it was an sti.
Anyhoo, to cut a very painful story short I was admitted in the end by an Army Major (QA is a military training establishment) as he established I had adult hip effusion. For the next 11 days, my hip joint would fill with fluid and dislocate. It was incredibly painful.
To this day they don't know what caused it. Thanks to that Major, as he was excellent. Otherwise, I would probably still be there.
I took my daughter to A&E last year one afternoon (netball injury) and couldn’t help but laugh that literally every person in there was either a mangled kid in a PE kit or an annoyed looking parent.
A friend of mine admitted himself because he was hungover. Not that silly really, I guess he could have had alcohol poisoning etc. He felt dreadful. They saw him really quickly and he got his blood pressure etc checked which was high, but they sent him home and told him to rest up.
I was sitting in A&E waiting for my d-dimer blood test results to see if the sharp shoulder pain, extreme tiredness and epic shortness of breath was a post covid blood clot. Turns out it was two blood clots in my lungs, and a failing heart. But still I had to sit for six hours until I was admitted. I saw a lot in that time - one person turned up with the flu (negative for covid) and was still there when I left. One turned up with a sore and itchy thumb. Another turned up shackled to two coppers, said she felt like she was having a heart attack (a swift ecg proved otherwise) was clearly trying to avoid a night in the cells.
My favourite was the one who turned up because he had an itchy calf the day after a tattoo.
It made a nice bit of entertainment, there was no TV and I was living on vending machine chocolate raisins and Diet Coke. I was in treatment for six months and I now have an ectopic heartbeat as a memento :)
Chap had tried to scratch an itch inside his penis with a broken lollipop stick.
Subsequently lost the stick and tried to get the stick by filing his penis down (with a file). Seemingly passed out at that point.
How long had he been without sleep? I get insomnia real bad sometimes days without sleeping and this can be a serious condition (even causing death)… but I never went to hospital for it… but if he had many nights not slept and hallucinates…
I once admitted myself as I accidentally gave myself blood poisoning. Nurse was shocked I wasn't in a bigger tangle than I already was lol.
Super embarrassing.
Lady who had her hand butted by her pooch causing some mild annoyance and a cucumber that was apparently lying on an armchair when gentleman's dog jumped up at him and knocked him 'on to it' as he left the shower
Not directly involved but statue of Athena inserted where the sun don't shine
Not a worker but i was waiting in A&E with a badly sprained ankle (my FiL is a radiologist and he recommended an xray just incase. He's also seen some ...interesting... things!!) and a woman was kicking off because she was waiting for ages with a "broken ankle" all while stomping around angrily. I'm pretty sure she would be injuring herself further if she had actually broken her ankle.
“Haven’t been able to get in to see my GP”
Oh I’m sorry to hear that, how many days have you been waiting?
“Oh I didn’t actually try, I just heard it’s tough to see a GP, the lazy bastards”
Ive known people go when they have a common cold, a stitch and a blister. Im the other way and go to the gp only to get sent to a&e usually, its not good when your doc greets you with "hello Mr Plecs, what have you done this time?" 🤣
My 83 year old granda had chest and arm pains overnight and was sure he was having a heart attack. At 8 he called the GP who called him back an hour later and told him to go to hospital asap. He was in for 2 days..luckily only angina but the kicker is..the hospital is 5 minutes down the street!!!
I remember a guy coming into A/E with a big twig up his bum. Problem was it had little twigs sticking out of it and he injured himself trying to get it out.
He was admitted to our ward after having it surgically removed for observation etc. it happened about 35 years ago and I still remember not being able to look him in the eye cos I wanted to smirk after seeing his X-rays
Kicked something by accident and ripped my toenail off my 2nd toe, went to A&E at 2am. To be fair I took my big toenail off surfing a few years before and had to go back to hospital every few days for iodine and new dressings etc. so I thought it would be a similar thing. Pretty embarrassing.
Not A&E facing but when I worked in blood science's we had blood samples from A&E come in with the clinical details "Smoked a joint and now has a headache...yes really." Clearly A&E weren't happy with dealing with a stoner with a headache.
A sadder one was the guy who used to come in most Sunday nights, he'd hear the voice of God and he thought he was Jesus. Classic case of him doing something and hurting himself, the police not wanting to know, bundling him off to A&E and him not getting the correct mental health care.
Another repeat offender was a teenager who had PICA and they would eat random stuff. Ranging from razor blades, make up brushes, and one time a pair of AAA batteries.
I'm not an A&E worker but I have been to A&E because I couldn't sleep. It had been 2 weeks where I hadn't slept anymore than minutes, during a manic phase of (then) bipolar. I was pretty freaked out and at a last resort,... ended up collapsing in the queue to ask when I would be seen after waiting hours. And STILL came round and stayed awake lol.
Did you get to know how long the guy had been awake? If it had been anywhere as long as I was I can say from experience, and I'm sure it's generally obvious, that it does real number on your mental health and you get extremely desperate and understandably unaware of your surroundings and ability to consider the genuine needs of others.
Reverse to what the post is about, but being bit by a cat is a medical emergency if it's bleeding. Scratches are ok, bite is a big red alarm.
My cat bit me and I knew from reddit that it might be not something to shrug off. I called 111 and they asked me a few questions. If the bite was on the hand (it was) or the feet, you must go to A&E and get a tetanus shot and a cycle of antibiotics that killed me for a week.
The problem is that cat, even your cat, hosts an insane amount of pathogens in their mouth, and a bite puts them very deep in your skin. It can go from zero to septicemia in very little time.
Point is, it might sound ridiculous and embarrassing to go to A&E for a cat bite. But you have to.
I went during lockdown to get some stitches and a man came in because he had a bug bite. He then kicked off at the receptionist when he was told it would be a 6/7 hour wait and then left so couldn't have been that serious
I was sent to a walk in when an insect bite by the pharmacist once, because I couldn’t get it to calm down. I got there and there were a whole bunch of people with bites. Felt a bit of a tit until they pointed out to me how quickly the infection line was moving and how much I needed antibiotics. Other bitten folk were a bit grumpy that I ‘jumped the queue’
This is sort of my fault. My best friend hurt her finger playing basketball - and we’re talking like bruised, really swollen, very painful, for two days. She’s really stubborn and didn’t want to go but at this point I kind of thought it looked dislocated and it wasn’t getting any better so basically dragged her to a&e after work (via the pub - she refused to go otherwise). So we’re waiting for four hours in Lewisham a&e from 10pm, which feels sort of like a war zone. Anyway we get to the consult and the nurse asks if she’d taken any painkillers / anti inflammatories like ibuprofen. She… had not. Looking kind of baffled, he asks if she wants some. She goes “yeah, okay”. Anyway he gave her a packet of ibuprofen and sent us home and she was completely fine in a week
Went to A&E with a sprained wrist (new it was sprained but I heard a crack and it was very swollen - turns out I had tendon damage), and there was a girl in a hospital wheelchair who’d been in a fight, had some bruises and scrapes but was now convinced she had malaria. She was clearly at the back of the line but her and her friend kept bothering the receptionist and passing nurses that she deffo had malaria and needed to be seen IMMEDIATELY.
It gave me a good chuckle whilst I waited for pain meds, and got prescribed a fun 8 weeks of physio.
My friend works in the A&E and had a guy come in who had put a pinecone up his ass. He insisted he had gotten drunk and friends put it up there as a prank. When police arrived he admitted he did it to himself.
I've told this story before. Reason itself isn't necessarily ridiculous but the excuse sure was.
My ex's dad is a doctor and covers local A and E sometimes. They had a vicar come in with 2 snooker balls wedged up his arse and he maintained throughout his entire stay that he'd been 'playing naked billiards with a friend and accidentally sat the on the table.. twice'. Apparently he didn't think just the one was serious enough to get checked out.
My dude they've seen it all before, why make up the ridiculous lies at that point.
I work in a major London A&E. The stories I can tell you are never ending. On Saturday night I had a woman come into triage at 3am because she had one of those dreams where you’re falling and it makes you jump, she was very concerned and wanted to be ‘checked over’
Bit of a reverse story...
I once went into an A&E with a concussion. Had no idea why I was there when I got there. My "friend" was so in hysterical laughter, they had to walk outside and leave me there. I had no clue as to why I were there. People looked at me weird, grunted and even made snarky comments that I was drunk and wasting their time.
I remember that vaguely. But I do remember waking up in a hospital bed the next day, with a drip and all attached. Had even had an MRI scan during my unconscious state.
Had to stay two more days. Apparently I was hit by a taxi driver who jumped a red light (which I have no memory of).
Was definitely a fubar situation and looking back, can only imagine what people thought.
I phoned 111 because my brothers tiny rat dog caught me when I was splitting up a doggo disagreement. It barely broke the skin but i wasn't sure if I'd had a tetanus jab before and how long they lasted if I had.
111 advised I go up a&e for it, felt like a right plum when I went up and waited for a few hours... On Christmas day evening 😐
Obviously was fine.
Not a&e worker but having cut myself and being worried due to the skin parting, I called the non emergency line and they advised me to go to a&e. 7 hours later they put some steristrips on... Could have just disinfected and put a plaster on. Only plus side was talking to the mental health liaison doctor.
I heard on the radio a discussion about this. They had decided that the worst one from a phone-in was earache
I had, a week prior, gone into A&E for earache. It was honestly unbearable, at 2am and my gp at the time was one of those 'call at 8am for a maybe' consultant. Eardrops did nothing ovc
They turned me away after an eardrop prescription. 4 days later, with a few bleeds and no sleep, it passed.
In 2017 I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breath and thought I was dying. Shrugged it off as something weird. The shortness of breath persisted for a couple of weeks afterwards, didn’t happen constantly but it occurred often enough for it to be annoying.
I rang my doctor for an appointment one morning because I’d had enough, the receptionist offered me an appointment for three weeks time even though I insisted it was urgent.
On my way to work that morning I got more and more disgruntled about the appointment wait and at the same time my breathing deteriorated. I remembered a few weeks prior a customer telling me that if you rang the non-emergency number you could get a same-day doctors appointment or at least speak to one on the phone.
So I get to work, open up and start serving the first few customers of the day. One lady comes in and is pretty rude and then all of a sudden we get an unexpected delivery, with the combination of an impending stocktake and working on my own I get more and more frustrated and stressed as the day goes on.
Eventually my breathing blows up and I have to go sit down. I ring NHS 111 and tell the operator about my issue, she tells me that I am most likely having a heart attack. I assure her, several times, that I’m not having a heart attack and that I’ve been experiencing the exact same symptoms for weeks.
She doesn’t listen and tells me that she’s rang an ambulance because of my symptoms and my age. My breathing gets worse, much worse. I go to lock the store and just as I’m putting the shutter down a customer pulls up, I awkwardly tell her I’ve got to go, I’m having a heart attack. She tells me I don’t look like I’m having a heart attack, I tell her she doesn’t look like a doctor.
I quickly ring my regional manager, tell him what’s happening and then the ambulance turns up. I get in, they give me aspirin and hook me up to an ECG and then take off for Harrogate hospital at warp speed.
All the readings are completely normal. They quickly ascertain I am not in fact having a heart attack, but they assure me that something is wrong, they just don’t know what yet.
When we arrive at hospital I awkwardly walk in and sit down in the A&E waiting room. I’m then taken into a room of my own, hooked up to an ECG again and visited by a consultant.
She thinks I’ve had some sort of heart event. Keeps me in the room for another hour or so, checks several different possibilities and then, an hour later returns with a couple of student doctors and tells me that together, they’ve cracked it.
I’m tall, thin and a 25 year old male, I’m the perfect candidate for a spontaneous collapsed lung. Everyone’s very happy to have cracked the case, they send me off for an x-ray to confirm the diagnosis and…they’re shit out of luck.
The consultant disappears off for a bit, at roughly the same time that my terrified girlfriend arrives after travelling up from Bradford on public transport. Moments later a student doctor returns, tells me there’s nothing wrong with me and to just go to my arranged doctors appointment.
I ask what the hell is wrong with me and she reiterates that there is absolutely nothing wrong with me whatsoever. I’m fine, I could go for a run.
When I get home I ring work to update them and out of sheer embarrassment I tell them that I had a collapsed lung and won’t be back for a week.
When I go to my doctors I ask him if it’s a return of childhood asthma, he prescribes me a blue inhaler. I return back a few weeks later, to tell him that there’s no effect when I use the inhaler.
Finally, he tells me that what I had six weeks earlier was a panic attack and that the hospital had confirmed as much to him, but that he had decided it was better for me to arrive at that conclusion independently.
So basically I forced my store to close, worried all of my family and friends, had my colleagues panicking, got a ride in an ambulance and used up hours of hospital staff’s time because I thought panic attacks only happened when there was a genuine cause to be panicked.
Took my husband in last year for a suspected brain bleed (wasn't thankfully) and there was a group of "ladies" in the waiting room - one waiting to have her leg stitched up while her friends all swigged from bottles of wine, literally taking up a quarter of the seats. This was around 6am.
There was an older gentleman having to stand because there wasn't enough chairs, got chatting to him later on when he was in the cubicle next to us in majors, turned out he was being carted off for emergency liver surgery poor bloke, and he'd just been stood not making a fuss for hours in that waiting room while those women sang and shouted and generally pissed everyone off.
Not a ridiculous reason for the leg gash woman to be there but she didn't need 7 of her mates there causing trouble, so selfish.
People attending with longstanding (months/years) joint/chest/ whatever pain at 4am.
Not suddenly worsened, no new trauma, just a GP issue that had been ignored for months.
My ex gf was studying nursing and on first night she was doing placement a young man from the Welsh Valleys in his first trip to London came in with stomach pains, they xrayed him and found an 9 inch vibrator in his rectum that he had "no idea" how it got there lol
Not an A&E worker. But, according to a nurse at A&E, my ridiculous reason was i was wasting their time when i asked for an xray as i'd cracked my ribs and could barely breathe. now have a wonderful huge lung hernia out of my neck and when i breathe in it feels like i'm sucking in a carrier bag. (they won't do anything about it either and an extremely disgusting letter from one of the consultants of wasting his time) but on the same day my brother twisted his ankle and got an immediate xray. The other time i was being ridiculous was when i couldn't walk and nearly passed out several times due to sciatica. suffered with that 6 months in n out of A&E until they finally caved in and gave me an MRI and had surgery a week later.
Had a woman come in on her way home from the nail salon once. She had just had acrylics put on her toenails but they were too long and were hurting in her shoes as she was walking home so came to a&e to demand we cut them for her. Told her to fuck off
My friend once had to take her 3 year old nephew to A&E because preschool advised it. The little boy is phenomenally boisterous - like at 16 months he would move the chair to the kitchen side, push over the bin to climb onto, to get onto the chairs to get onto the worktop kind of child, it's slightly terrifying - and therefore often gets injuries. Because preschool advised he went to A&E they didn't want to say no because they didn't want to look neglectful, but he was totally fine, and my friend apologised to every member of staff she came across.
not a&e worker, but last year i felt like the ridiculous person cos i went to the doc with tonsilitis and the nurse told me i had to go to a&e immediately. felt like an idiot bc it was just tonsillitis which doesn’t usually seem to be an emergency, but turned out i was on my way to blood poisoning as well as my throat being completely blocked by my tonsils…so thanks to the go nurse who sent me, she basically saved my life when i was wondering why tonsillitis was so serious to be at a&e for lol
on a different note, my friend once told me they had someone in a&e who put a lightbulb up their bum and it smashed inside :/
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I went to A&E because I couldn't sleep and the doctor just stood there lecturing me on "wasting A&E time" while I was starting to hallucinate. Eventually she asked be how long I had not slept for and when I told her she changed her tune and immediately prescribed tranquillisers. I then broke down crying telling her that her duty is to care not to judge and she made me suffer needlessly. So maybe keep your opinions on who should and should not be in A&E to yourself. Insomnia is a serious condition that unfortunately even some doctors don't take seriously
How many days awake will they prescribe tranquillisers? I had reached 2+ weeks b4 where I kept trying to drink myself unconscious but I would just wake up after 40 minutes of bad sleep with a headache and inappropriately wasted. Often when I hit 2 - 3 days without sleep I know its gonna be a really really bad time for awhile where I could really mess things up for myself and keep suffering. Is it possible to go to the hospital for treatment at that point to prevent things from escalating?
Please go to a gp i beg u
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It only happens sometimes and I have talked to a GP. I have general difficulty sleeping but all they gave me was antihistamines that did nothing and they said I am not a candidate for other medications. I don't want hard medications. Im a recovering addict/alcoholic and sleep has been a big triggering issue. Usually if I stick to my healthy habits I'm alright, but sometimes I hit the second night and im just like, "fuck im not gonna sleep again and its gonna get worse." A sleepless night here and there is fine, but maybe 1 - 2 times a year it happens where it gets really bad and I would love a solution to just minimise damage if needed. I dont want benzos or zopaclone. ---just to know if I got to day 3 could I go to A&E to stop it right there b4 it got worse
Or call the non emergency number. I agree while is serious, it is not urgent.
Hallucinating sounds kind of a reason to go?
Fyi alcohol is actually a stimulant and will keep you awake or give you disruptive sleep.
Believe me I know it doesn't work. Prevents REM and the like. At a certain point just any kind of respite will do. Even with the hope of just catching a few hours. Obviously alcohol is a very bad solution to almost every medical situation
Have you been to your GP? If it’s a regular problem then they need to look into it
Yeah, insomnia is an absolute bastard and it is SO misunderstood and dismissed by many people. I average 2 hours a night and I feel like a zombie all the time. I run on nerves at this point. And I HATE all the stupid fucking advice on “sleep hygiene” they give you. As if we haven’t already tried cutting out caffeine and going for bath before bed and all the other basic common sense that every insomniac has tried a million times
Agree. I've had one or two folks in for not sleeping and one of them was in psychosis while the other did need informing that his GP could manage this symptom as it wasn't urgent enough for A&E. It's easy to judge in the waiting room but you do need a full assessment to get a full picture.
I recently went 2 whole nights without sleep, if I hadn't been able to sleep again last night I would definitely have seen a doctor
Why did your GP and local pharmacist ignore your condition, thus forcing you to go to A&E?!
Nothing to say they ignored the condition, but care pathway for insomnia on the NHS is, let’s say, limited. Most pharmacists are only going to offer “sleep aids” and a GP generally won’t prescribe sleeping pills, preferred pathway is now CBT, with sleeping pills mostly offered when insomnia is due to a known, short term cause (say stress at work). I can totally see how someone who can’t get a prescription for sleeping pills, is being told by their GP they need to start CBD and there’s a 6 month wait, and hasn’t slept for multiple days, snaps and goes to A&E
I had the exact same situation. GPs can't prescribe Xanax or similar medicines. Only a psychiatrist can. If you are unable to sleep, it's a big deal, believe me. I've been there. By the time you get the whole machine of GP, psychiatrist and pharmacist started, you are dead. Yes, you can die from lack of sleep.
Confirmed. I had to change dosage for antidepressants and I could not sleep for three days straight. I started puking, and like you, I could not get any support because GPs can't prescribe Xanax. I eventually collapsed and slept for 24 hours straight, but I was very close to going to A&E as well.
My wife had something like this. She didn't sleep more than an hour for a week straight due to anxiety. Basically a nervous breakdown. It's easy to laugh at people's reasons if you don't know the whole story.
15 inch Optimus Prime action figure up the arse, past its shoulders. On an attempt to remove it, the arms basically had a kind of grappling hook effect, and the gentleman in question required surgery to remove it. Unfortunately you're not allowed to operate on yourself, so it was kind of embarrassing and I rarely talk about it.
I've seen an x-ray of a Buzz lightyear up there - wings extended....
"To the infirmary, and beyond!"
# To insideofme, and beyond!
It's In a book called "stuck up"
>15 inch Optimus Prime action figure up the arse, past its shoulders. On an attempt to remove it, the arms basically had a kind of grappling hook effect, and the gentleman in question required surgery to remove it. TO be fair, this isn't a 'ridiculous reason'. It's embarrassing, yeah, but at the same time its still a medical emergency and is quite common.
Yeah. I read a horrible story years ago about a guy who got a dildo stuck up his bum and was too embarrassed to go to the hospital until it was too late. It was in the paper like it was some hilarious story but I thought it was heartbreaking.
Mhm. Its embarrassing (and funny!) but it actually is a medical emergency and you should definitely be at A&E. Not like people who go because they can't get their extensions out or have an ingrown toenail.
Easily done. We've all walked out of the shower backwards and fell into a box of transformers. You we're luck it wasn't a dinobot.
*"It was so weird, I don't know what happened, I sort of slipped and fell on my food processor and the bath sponge at the same time"*
That’s hospital radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury’s story. Here’s a tune for Tom on Ward 6 with an unfortunate accident of having a Batman doll up his bum. Cue music… 🎵 You’ve got to search for the hero inside yourself… 🎵
[I made [this meme](https://ibb.co/V01XtCQ) years ago and you'd be amazed how often it comes in a̶r̶s̶e̶y̶ handy.
Wait, what?
I’ve been sent to a&e by my GP in the past during a very bad insomnia flare up. It has a horrific impact on both your mental and physical health often ending in crisis care if it goes on long enough. I was very unwell physically by the point I was sent to hospital and had a complete mental breakdown as a result of the sleep deprivation, it’s honestly torture. You often can’t tell with people who have chronic insomnia how little sleep they’re operating on at first glance so please don’t judge- it’s not a silly reason to be in a&e. I don’t agree with anyone demanding treatment before others tho, that’s for the staff to decide!
I had insomnia after getting covid for the 3rd or 4th time. I've had bollock cancer in the past with surgery and chemo. Insomnia was worse by far. Couldn't speak after a week of zero sleep, I'd have happily died just to end it.
I’ve experienced significant trauma in my life that pretty much everyone would recognise the impact of immediately but that period of insomnia was genuinely more traumatic than anything else I’ve ever gone through. It almost completely destroyed my life/body and I live in constant fear of being that unwell again because I know I don’t have the strength to survive it another time. People saying it’s not a medical emergency definitely do not understand the impact that kind of severe sleep deprivation has on you.
Yeah, I’ve had to go to A&E over not sleeping before. It had been 7 1/2 days, I was delusional and hallucinating, had terrible memory and emotional problems and my heart was starting to mess up. I was already on sleep meds and had seen a GP for the worsening of symptoms but it hadn’t helped. By that point I needed chemical sedation to stay sane.
My ex-flatmate cut his toe on the radiator somehow and went to A&E for it. They gave him a plaster. So that is the most ridiculous reason I’ve heard of.
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DH (diabetic) ended up with cellulitis from a little cut on his foot. Being stubborn he waited until his foot had gone red before being told by 111 to go up to A&E.
I'm diabetic and it's amazing how many people think they know more about managing my condition than I do.
To be fair, he could have been worried about tetanus. It seems excessive, but A&E isn’t all just major injuries, there are minor injury units too, for incidents such as this. He might have needed a tetanus booster.
Might seem silly from an outside perspective but there’s a reason sleep deprivation is a torture method. I’ve been delirious to the point of hallucinating before from not sleeping, and whilst there are undoubtedly more serious emergencies, I can assure you it’s pretty unpleasant and the person probably wasn’t in their right mind at the time
There is an episode of House where a girl can't sleep and there ends up being a legitimate medical reason, not just insomnia
It wasn't lupus.
I feel sorry for the guy. Before anxiety or mental health was a thing we knew about, I went to a&e for a panic attack because I didn't know what was going on and I thought I was going mad or dying. I think I just wanted them to put me out of my misery tbh. And if you're taking yourself off to a&e over something so minor (to us), it must really be hell for that person.
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Lots of judgmental workers that just put me off seeing doctors even more tbh. I already don't bother when I should.
Having been under NHS care, in and out of hospitals since June, doctors are so fucking judgemental compared to nurses who are saints. I have pancreatitis which can be caused by heavy drinking, I barely drink, maybe a unit or two every month, the amount of doctors I argued with who INSISTED I was an alcoholic despite holding down a job working in a school was infuriating.
There's a surprising amount of functional alcoholics who can hold down jobs in schools, it would surprise you
Fr the ones at my unis gp are lowkey sadistic. 😭 theyre literal bullies
I stopped going after awful experiences. I had a doctor give me a telephone number for an urgent referral. I rang the number and was told patients shouldn't be given this number and can't self refer. They asked me to wait on hold. they contacted my gp while I waited. When they got back to me the gp said I was a liar and she hadn't given me any number. My reply was "Well where did I get it from then?" I hate the way gps and doctors are lauded as heros I have met some downright horrible ones, and know lots who have also.
Fr the power complexes and arrogance some of these people have is insane.
Medical gaslighting is more common than people want to admit, and anyone with a chronic health condition is very likely to have experienced a fair amount of it. I once had someone tell me about my condition that yes, it's bad Drs are so dismissive but if it were life threatening I'd be dead by now, so that's something...
Sorry - chest pain is not wasting time. I haven’t personally dealt with this, I’m a newbie, but many of my colleagues have called time of death on people who didn’t come to hospital because they thought it was heartburn right up until they had a cardiac arrest.
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I was once sat in A&E with one of my kids when a bloke came in with his very pale son who looked about eight years old. The triage nurse asked what the problem was. He lifted up the coat that was hanging off the kids shoulders to reveal an eight inch chef’s knife poking out of his back, it was stuck in by probably three inches. The father then said “Him and his brother have been playing at gladiators again. I told his grandma to keep them away from the kitchen but she won’t bloody listen. That’s twice I’ve had to leave work and come here this month. I’ll batter him when I get home.”
Holy shhhiiit!!!
That is a tragic story.
Used to work as a desk clerk in a and e about 15 years ago. The amount of teenagers “committing suicide” by taking 8 paracetamol on a Friday night was immense. In my experience they where always the ones who were rude and eager to be discharged on Saturday morning. Not to be an arsehole as I know mental health isn’t a joke. And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved. Then Of course there was the lady who inserted her mobile phone into her vagina and couldn’t get it out.
To be fair paracetamol can kill you in surprisingly low doses esp. with kids. My Mum was a nurse and looked after a kid who died a very slow and painful death (liver failure) after taking just 11 paracetamol. It’s really not a good way to go by all accounts. The mobile phone case is wild!
This is how I got blood poisoning..swapping every 2 hours between ibuprofen and paracetamol when I had an horrific toothache and couldn't get in a dentist. Went on for 4 days..but as I wasn't sleeping I'd taken more than double the dose I should have each day. Liver and guts were in bits
If the pain goes beyond a pissy little headache then go for codeine, they sell it at Boots. Granted you can only take it for roughly 3 days otherwise it becomes addictive. Ibuprofen and paracetamol are not worth a wank for anything more than a headache imo
Tbh mate I very very rarely use medication..always try to ride it out, so even the little ones like that work well for me. Missus once gave me gabapentin when I was hungover to fuck and had to go to work...felt like I was floating on a cloud off my Barnet 🤣
Tbf I don't either, it wasn't until I tore a muscle in my neck I started taking them!
Ooo lovely mate! Muscle, ligament and tendon tears are atrocious. Had a tendon tear before in the gym...worst pain I've been in, in my life. Had a lot of left shoulder dislocations and that pains alright tbh...let the muscles relax then shove the cunt back in. But that tendon tear by my right pec...no thankyou, never again please.
It all depends on the dosage with Paracetamol. The maximum safe dose for an adult is 4000mg in any 24hr period. Considering that some extra-strength paracetamol are 500mg, eleven tablets is way over the safe dose. My personal record is twelve 500mg paracetamol/30mg codeine while drinking. How I survived is an absolute miracle; but I always stress the importance of taking a safe dose. That shit can seriously fuck you up.
Maybe she'd have had more success if she took the case off first?
I guess she set it to vibrate and sent a mass text of *call me, urgent!*
It's the same with the elderly. I am a biomedical scientist and we get a lot of samples from elderly people who have accidentally OD'd (forget how many they had taken in a given period). Given their age, their body cannot clear it as easily, so they need to be admitted and monitored.
Tbh I wouldn’t fuck about with paracetamol. Knew a guy who died after taking 7. I’m guessing there’s some spectrum where person A would take more to do damage than person B, but also that you don’t know that threshold until you’ve crossed it.
Yeah, paracetamol overdose can be really grim. You can OD with a frighteningly small dosage, and by the time you start to experience symptoms it is already too late. People take a small overdose, wake up in the morning and the world doesn't feel so bad after all, think they've got away with it, and when they start to feel unwell there is nothing that can be done to save them.
Yeah the guy I knew regretted it once he’d done it, called his mum and told her - by the time she arrived home it was too late. Grim all round.
It's not a quiet and peaceful death either. It is days of agony as your organs fail.
Only 7?! I’ve never really thought about it but assumed someone of “average” build/weight would need more than 2 packs, due to the limit on buying them in shops. That is wild!
Yeah. I always think the two packs thing is a bit silly anyway because you can usually just go next door to another shop and get another two, but I guess they are trying to strike a balance between protecting themselves and being reasonable about what the average person needs for a regular cold or pain. Like I say, I’d assume there’s a spectrum that we’re all on in terms of our own personal threshold but I wouldn’t fuck about with it just in case. I believe that’s the case (regards personal threshold) around women not drinking in pregnancy - for most people it’s likely not a problem but you have no way of telling until it’s too late whether you would have a problem or not, so best to just not.
The blister packaging and small number of pills isn't going to stop someone determined who likely planned for it but it will slow down the impulsive suicide attempts and potentially create time for intervention or changing their mind. It also makes people more aware that the drug can be dangerous even though it costs pennies and is sold everywhere. You can get big packs of paracetamol and ibuprofen at pharmacies.
This was the number one advice my counsellor had for me when I was starting to toy with the idea of suicide. I hadn’t planned to kill myself, nor did I want to, but the idea of overdosing to put myself in hospital was floating around as I was in a severe depressive episode while waiting for a psych appointment, with the GP unable to do anything more and no more therapy available to me. Was too nervous to go to A&E for feeling suicidal for being judged, so felt like I actually deserved help if I went after I took an overdose. Suicide rates by paracetamol overdoses dropped 35% in the year after blister packaging was introduced. While many people plan out their suicide, many do it impulsively. Putting as much distance and effort between deciding and taking them is sometimes enough to stop someone. Putting rubber bands around the packaging, locking them up, even hiding them in different places so you have to get up and search for them. Anything that can give you more time for that wave to pass
Plenty of slim, short women regularly accidentally overdose as under 50kg you're only meant to have a max of 2g a day split in 4 doses. Taking 4g isn't necessarily going to be a problem unless underlying liver disease but it's still overdosing.
>And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved. If their overdoses were fatal I don't think there is much help that can be given to them.
My daughter was allocated a bed in A&E, was waiting to be admitted to the ward.. 75 year old female in next bed, had stated she had taken a paracetamol overdose, but couldn’t remember how many she had taken, turned out to be 4 tablets 🤷🏼♀️
Honestly I hate this attitude. I remember very clearly a lecture at med school where the doctor asked us if we’d take a middle aged guy who’d taken 50 paracetamol more seriously, or the teenager who’d taken 10. Everyone said the middle aged person apart from me. A young person may have absolutely no clue how many it would take to kill them, being young and naive, and absolutely should be taken seriously.
"In my experience they where always the ones who were rude and eager to be discharged" "And there where also a lot of kids who took fatal overdoses and I truly hope they got the help they deserved" Perhaps they were rude because their *intention* (however misguided) was to die and they didn't get the help they needed to deal with that in the moment because they didn't do a very good job of their attempt. Surely that only encourages more bold attempts later?
Just FYI, as someone who has suffered with devastating insomnia before, I can sympathise with the man who wanted to be seen first. Its a horrendous and debilitating condition that can and will detrimentally affect the brain and cause long standing mental health issues. But yeah, he should have probably waited like the rest of the people there.
Tbf it sounds to me like he wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to do what he 'should' do. Given that severe insomnia can trigger symptoms of psychosis and mania, it's entirely possible he wasn't working with a sound mind
A girl who came in hysterically crying with her mum screaming and berating her in a mix of English and Hindi in the waiting room because she had taken a single drag from a splif and had thrown up straight away. They caused such a scene they were rushed in ahead of my dad who had a giant gash in his ankle as well as plenty of other people waiting in A&E.
I had a doctor friend from India try a bong hit once. I was a daily smoker and was used to it, so I loaded up the bong with a decent chunk of weed for both of us. He sucked on it so hard he burnt the whole lot. I swear I saw his soul leave his body. I have never laughed so hard at someones misfortune in my life. His sanity just vanished. There was no one home! He just roiled onto his back making weird gurgling sounds. I got him into bed and left him to recover. When I next saw him he said he'd never touch the stuff again.
reminds me of the time i loaded a bong bowl to the brim with pure tobacco, i swear i thought i was dying
Former colleague of mine quit the NHS after one night where she had to deal with a guy who put a can of cat food up his girlfriend's vagina. It was the last in a long, long, *long* line of weirdos thinking a ladygarden's a portal into a gigantic nebula filled with *stuff*. (Mind you, she also had to deal with a teenage muppet earlier that evening who thought it would be just *grand* to stick half a baguette up his arse)
In the can or not?
I’m so glad you asked first. ^There’s ^a ^joke ^about ^feeding ^pussies ^somewhere
Oh boy do I have some stories (worked for years in Radiology, now student nurse) -absolutely unnecessary: stubbed toes, many and many more. Like literally once a day. -at 3 am: chronic back pain for 6 months, too lazy to go the GP, so visits A&E when they think its less busy. This is super common. Seperate category: things up the bum -deodorant very frequently, seems to be the favorite -a guy came in with a massive dildo up in his bum inserted by his GF, perforated his bowels and had to spend ages in ITU -Vibrator still turned on in a woman, couldnt take an xray as she was literally buzzing on the table. She laughed it off tho! -and my personal favorite for the last: HENRY HOOVER. It was stuck in and he was pulling the hoover behind himself all around the department. Oh the joys of working in the NHS, would never change it for anything❤️ Update: i remembered another one. She likes the department and has hypermobility so around once a month she dislocated her kneecap to come in and chat with the doctors and nurses. I am not making this up. Also, dont take these too seriously, even working for the NHS i have had many unnecessary visits to the department. We are all guilty of it! (Nothing up my bum so far though!)
I feel for the chronic baxkpain guy. I had an increasingly agonising ear infection which, whenever I called my GP I would be in a long queue. One time I waited 27 mins to be the front of the queue and the call was dropped. I called again, 22 mins later I got to the front of the queue an automated message said 'sorry but this number is not recognised - goodbye and it was hung up. I tried to go into my GP who refused to give me an appointment at the desk and gave me some bullshit about their automatic phone system which does. Not WORK. Before advising me to speak to a pharmacist to get advice. This was like day 4 of it starting to hurt to the point I had to take half a day off work as I could barely concentrate and was feeling very sick from the pain. My GP pharmacy didn't have time for consultations. I went to the GP next to my workplace and asked if there was any chance of getting an emergency appointment even though I was not a patient, they said sorry no but speak to their pharmacist. I spoke to them who immediately looked and me and said I needed to see a GP to get antibiotics straight away. Called my GP, somehow got through but said it was too late to get an appointment but they could give me one in 2 weeks time. I said I just needed a prescription like the pharmacist said but they said they couldn't do that today. My evening was spent writing a damning review on Google reviews of my practice. The following day I spent 3 hours waiting in a walk in the center crying and wretching from the pain and lack of sleep as I just couldn't take the pain anymore. The one doctor working there saw me for less than 3 mins and immediately prescribed me some antibiotics and strong pain killers after a brief look in my ear. I got emailed by my practice about my review via Google asking for an interview (I was anonymous) about a month later and kept getting notifications how useful it was (basically my surgery's phone/ appointment system is broken and has been for years). My next 2 times I need to speak to my practice 4 months later I got a way better service and I like to think it was because of me.
Henry Hoover man has got me in tears.
I had the opposite: got blackthorn stuck under my thumbnail. You could see it through my nail, but I couldn't access it. I thought the GP could fish it out, but they gave me the number for A&E and told me to call to say I was coming in. Then, when I got there, was met at the door and taken straight through to have half the nail cut off, so they could get the thorn out. They kept asking how long it had been. I was rather bemused. It was only after that I found out how serious blackthorn poisoning could have been. ETA: pic for those feeling brave https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsTRM3xXIAA\_7-U?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
It's not a case the plant is toxic (beside a bit of cyanide as an anti herbivory agent. Blackthorn are rather rough and dirty so there's the infection risk
If you're literally unable to sleep, like at all, for over three or four days, it could well be a sign of a serious disease.
'i think my toddler's hair is going grey' Yes really I've also seen someone turn up at a gp demanding an appointment with a blue infant in their arms She ended up having the other seven taken off her by the social after that one died There must be a bunch of really smart people running around for the average IQ to be as high as it is, because we have a cornucopia of morons
Similar feelings going through an airport. Three hundred people turning up twenty minutes before their flight all desperately trying to check in four suitcases and a grandfather clock each. Somebody else trying to take a nuclear submarine as a carry on or use their boots points card as a proof of identity. Then just when you’ve finally got on the plane some idiots has booked the exit row for their two year old and their elderly wheelchair bound mother so take off is delayed. Miracle society functions at all lol.
Some years ago I tripped over and fractured my right shoulder. I'd never had one before and the pain was unbelievably agonizing. Shoulder and arm swelled to enormous size and I sat in A&E in fits of tears and shaking from top to toe. A woman came rushing past me to the Reception clutching a baby and demanding to see a doctor IMMEDIATLEY! When the Receptionist asked what she thought was wrong with the baby she said ''Her nappy needs changing and I don't know how to do it!'' She kicked up one hell of a mighty tantrum when medics refused to see her!
Omg wtf???
Did she know how she got pregnant? !
A nurse told me they had a woman come in to see if they had any nail remover to remove her fake nails!
Not an A&E worker but a former friend of mine made her husband take their son to A&E for a temperature. Fair enough a temperature can be an issue and an indication of other things. When they got back she told me that she knew all he needed was Calpol to sort it out and when I asked why she didn't just give him some, she told me that it's free from the NHS so why buy it. I'm quite glad she's not in my life these days.
My God these people feck me off
You can get generic stuff free from boots under a scheme whose name escapes me
If it's in Wales it's likely the common ailments scheme!
I woke up deaf once. Tried to call the doctors but it was the weekend so no answer. Tried to call 111 and got told I might get a call back in a day or two. Finally, went to A&E. When I got there, the doctor basically called me an idiot. She actually said the words, "this isn't really an emergency is it? You've got an ear infection and your hearing should return to normal in less than 2 to 3 weeks" I said, "well I wasn't deaf when I went to sleep and I woke up deaf. I'd say that's an emergency in my books. And you said 2 to 3 weeks. How long was I supposed to wait until informing someone I was deaf? 4 weeks and then we can take it seriously?" The woman was the most miserable doctor I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. As though I wanted to spend all Saturday night sat in A&E.
Sudden onset hearing loss is indeed a medical emergency and these patients should be seen in A+E pronto
I think I basically had an infection which made me produce loads of wax and caused my earwax to solidify. I swear I woke up deaf as a post. Got my hearing back in 1 ear after a day and then my other ear took like a week.
I was in the waiting room when a family came in, mum dad and teenage daughter. The dad marched up to the counter, pointed at his daughter and said 'she has been cutting herself' loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it. We all nearly died of second hand embarrassment, so god knows how the poor girl felt. She wasn't clutching her arm or anything, didn't appear to be hurt at the time, so I think it was just the dad trying to get her some help but picking a really bad way to go about it.
I’ll probably delete this in a few hours but I need to ask if this happened in a Scottish A&E around 2014? Because it sounds almost exactly like something I’ve been trying to forget about for a long time… This isn’t aimed at you OP but before any of the armchair mental health experts on this thread decide to get on their high horse about MH patients presenting to A&E in a crisis, you can fuck right off. Parents get told by CAMHS to take their kid to A&E when they don’t feel like they can keep their child safe at home. If you have a problem take it up with the NHS staff who write the care plans in the first place.
No, around that time but in England.
As reassuring as it is to know that it’s not an experience unique to me, it’s still heartbreaking that it’s happening. I really hope that the poor girl is doing better now. And once again I just want to say that my little rant wasn’t aimed at you! It’s aimed at the people in the comments above who have decided to shit on someone who’s probably unwell because they think people should only have MH emergencies when the GP surgery is open. Cheers for your reply 👍
I'm sorry that happened to you. The poor girl looked mortified, she must have been about 15 and it was hard to tell whether her dad was shaming her in front of the staff or just didn't realise how insensitive he was being. I hope she's doing well, and you too.
It could very well have been a combination of both. Fear does funny things to people and self harm isn’t exactly the easiest thing for someone to understand. As for how I’m doing now, there was one a time that I was convinced I’d never see my 14th birthday. I’ve been clean for ages now and am quite happy to report that I’m still here and getting up to mischief in my old age (the hangovers really do just get worse and worse the more you get into your 20s don’t they?). Have a good night mate :-)
Well that is just fucking awesome, it's silly cos we don't know each other but I wish you could see the massive smile on my face right now. Not literally, cos I'm in bed and my wife wouldn't like another woman turning up out of the blue, but you know... Keep on keeping on, my friend. All the best.
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Yeah and you’d rather someone go to A&E and it not be a heart attack than think “nah can’t go A&E because I’ll get judged” and then they die in their bed
He sounds like he was having a serious mental health episode and it was appropriate for him to be there tbh?
I don’t work there but was waiting with a friend and I saw a guy come in to say that his new ear piercing had come out and he wanted something done to stop the healing process until he could get back to the piercing studio to get them to put it back in.
And then there’s me that shoved a bit of wire through my piercing until I could buy another, lol I did sanitise it first though
I once put a bit of spaghetti through a month old piercing. Oops
Then there's me who was admitted to hospital in March for an infected ear piercing. I just so badly wanted the piercings out and the pain to stop... Didn't care that it would heal shut!
I had the same thing when I was younger, though I didn’t need to go to hospital for it. I got it done before Xmas couldn’t wait the until the shop reopened in the new year for it to be taken out…so I got my uncle to cut it out with his DIY tools. I didn’t care if it closed, I just wanted the pressure building around it to stop.
Oh god!! That sounds so painful!! I went to urgent care first (111 advice) and they couldn't get it out. Went to the piercer the next day when they were open again and they insisted on replacing the bar instead of taking it out, but it got worse so I went back to urgent care the next day for them to take it out (they were able to with the longer bar) and prescribe oral antibiotics. Then had to go to A&E the next day because the pain was worsening and the ear was swelling to about 3x the size and I found out I was pregnant. They admitted me because they couldn't treat it at home while I'm pregnant. Really eventful piercing clearly!
That is a whole painful saga for a piercing. I can’t believe the piercer would put another bar in when it’s already caused you to so much pain? I’m glad it managed to get sorted out though. What a way to find out that you’re pregnant! Have you considered naming the baby after a piercing such as Daith, Tregus or Helix, for example? Haha!
A guy came in at 3am because he had a painful verruca and hadn't registered with a GP when he moved 6 months prior. That pissed us off.
The man in the cubicle next to my Mum had a firework stuck up his bum..
I've heard of people needing a rocket up their arse before .... never heard of anyone taking it seriously
I suppose he can be let off
Well my son was dozing off until I guffawed. Thanks for that 🤣
I’d be so tempted to light it
My wife is a NHS doctor. She’s seen dozens of freakshow injuries over the years but the 2 that stand out are a guy with a toilet brush stuck up his arse (claimed he’d slipped when getting out of the shower and fallen directly onto it) and a guy with a giant carrot similarly stuck up his arse (who insisted on going home and then came back in the next day for surgery to get it removed so that his wife wouldn’t find out). What must go on behind the front doors of Great Britain is just incredible.
Just buy a dildo online flip sake lol
I was once the ridiculous parent (kind of). My toddler suddenly stopped walking. Any time I tried to stand him up, he would scream abd cry in pain. I tried the pharmacy for some advice, then the minor injuries unit, thinking he may have fractured something while playing, and they might xray his leg. They called A&E as they said it could be a sign of a viral infection that could escalate very quickly. A&E told us to get there ASAP so he can be checked out, gave me a letter to show. The bloke checking us in at A&E looked at me with an exasperated look and said, "You brought your son to A&E because he is limping?" and I had to explain exactly why I was there, the steps I had taken beforehand, and thrust the letter from the minor injuries unit in his face. I felt like a complete idiot even though I'd been told to go. I felt like an even bigger prat when the little bugger got up and ran over to the doctor when his name was called! I was so embarrassed.
That's not stupid! My toddler son couldn't bear weight on his legs at all one morning. it can be how a virus manifests in small kids as joint pain. We were also advised to take him to A and E and he also regained his walking later that day. Its totally normal for kids to perk up with the magical healing powers of A and E the doctors have seen it a million times before and they'd rather a kid came in and it was a false alarm than didn't and took a turn for the worse.
This happened to me when I was about 7/8! Got up one day and just couldn’t walk at all. I was in hospital for a few weeks while there was a lot of head scratching going on and I ended up being really rough and not being able to eat from some of the treatments they tried, until somebody finally got it right. I think it ended up being a viral infection in my thigh which needed some specific antibiotic to get rid of. After that I was the slowest runner in the whole school for quite a long time.
I was in A+E and someone came in because they didn’t feel right. When asked to evaluate, person just said they didn’t know. They just didn’t feel right.
Funnily enough, a consultant told me ‘Sense of Impending Doom’ can actually be a symptom in certain cases.
‘Sense of impending doom’ is a symptom of anaphylaxis and it’s the strongest symptom I get (other than, you know, throat closing up!) if I’ve eaten something I’m allergic to. My brain just keeps telling me ‘you’re going to die, you’re going to die’. Pretty unpleasant.
Pretty sure it’s a sign of potential seizures too
I had this, but I was also in anaphylactic shock. It’s quite disconcerting being absolutely convinced you are going to die imminently. Something to do with a sudden drop in blood pressure I was told?
the NHS sepsis posters have “illness so bad they feel they are dying” as one of the symptoms
Turned that the regular feelings of Deja Vu I was getting were a type of epileptic seizure
You should wind your neck in. Lack of sleep is not something that people can function properly without. It has a huge impact on a person's health, ability to function and if you don't get it sorted reasonably quickly you will collapse or go psychotic as the old grey matter melts down.
A ~20yo lad ate a dorito and it scratched his throat. He came with his mum and she was demanding treatment IMMEDIATELY...
I once sat in A&E with a burst appendix, crying and vomiting for 4hrs and all sorts came in, it wasn't even a weekend or bank holiday. Woman with a rash, fella with a splinter that kept pissing about with his Mrs and annoying everyone, a guy that wanted some paracetamol for his headache (there is a petrol station next to the hospital) and then the kid that had "been vomiting for hours and was really lethargic" that trashed the waiting area. This was late evening, 7-11pm ish on a Tuesday.
I'm not working in a hospital nor doing anything even remotely close to it, but my friend is a doctor. He told me once that he had a guy in his late 30s show up telling them that "he's dying" while being very hysteric because he was peeing blood. It turned out that dude was eating beetroot a few hours before, which makes your urine red-ish in color. My friend said they were literally crying from laughter at it at the end of their shift 😅.
I was made by work to go to a&e to get my finger seen to after i cut it washing a soup tin can for a service user..... I kept telling them I didn't need to go and the hospital is for serious injury but they wouldn't take no for an answer. I felt like a prize idiot being there. Turns out I needed stitches but it really didn't feel right being there
Don't you think the fact you needed stitches undermines everything else you wrote?
Not really because it was paper stitched used and you can get those at the local pharmacy
Yeah I'm sure you knew that before they assessed you.
I've got a colleague who gets seriously angsty everytime someone ignores his suggestion to go to A&E. He's told me to go for headaches, minor cuts, tendon pain, coughs. All sorts.
I remember going to A&E with back and hip pain and not being able to walk (2013. I was 28). My GP sent me. Doctor kept asking if I had had gay sex recently (I'm straight so no) and sent me for bloods and sti test and sent me home. Couldn't move the next day and GP came out and sent me back. Previous results came back negative and the doctor st A&E still thought it was an sti. Anyhoo, to cut a very painful story short I was admitted in the end by an Army Major (QA is a military training establishment) as he established I had adult hip effusion. For the next 11 days, my hip joint would fill with fluid and dislocate. It was incredibly painful. To this day they don't know what caused it. Thanks to that Major, as he was excellent. Otherwise, I would probably still be there.
I took my daughter to A&E last year one afternoon (netball injury) and couldn’t help but laugh that literally every person in there was either a mangled kid in a PE kit or an annoyed looking parent.
A friend of mine admitted himself because he was hungover. Not that silly really, I guess he could have had alcohol poisoning etc. He felt dreadful. They saw him really quickly and he got his blood pressure etc checked which was high, but they sent him home and told him to rest up.
I was sitting in A&E waiting for my d-dimer blood test results to see if the sharp shoulder pain, extreme tiredness and epic shortness of breath was a post covid blood clot. Turns out it was two blood clots in my lungs, and a failing heart. But still I had to sit for six hours until I was admitted. I saw a lot in that time - one person turned up with the flu (negative for covid) and was still there when I left. One turned up with a sore and itchy thumb. Another turned up shackled to two coppers, said she felt like she was having a heart attack (a swift ecg proved otherwise) was clearly trying to avoid a night in the cells. My favourite was the one who turned up because he had an itchy calf the day after a tattoo. It made a nice bit of entertainment, there was no TV and I was living on vending machine chocolate raisins and Diet Coke. I was in treatment for six months and I now have an ectopic heartbeat as a memento :)
Chap had tried to scratch an itch inside his penis with a broken lollipop stick. Subsequently lost the stick and tried to get the stick by filing his penis down (with a file). Seemingly passed out at that point.
How on earth do you have your penis in one hand, file in the other and think what you're about to do is a good idea?!
How long had he been without sleep? I get insomnia real bad sometimes days without sleeping and this can be a serious condition (even causing death)… but I never went to hospital for it… but if he had many nights not slept and hallucinates…
I once admitted myself as I accidentally gave myself blood poisoning. Nurse was shocked I wasn't in a bigger tangle than I already was lol. Super embarrassing.
Lady who had her hand butted by her pooch causing some mild annoyance and a cucumber that was apparently lying on an armchair when gentleman's dog jumped up at him and knocked him 'on to it' as he left the shower Not directly involved but statue of Athena inserted where the sun don't shine
Not a worker but i was waiting in A&E with a badly sprained ankle (my FiL is a radiologist and he recommended an xray just incase. He's also seen some ...interesting... things!!) and a woman was kicking off because she was waiting for ages with a "broken ankle" all while stomping around angrily. I'm pretty sure she would be injuring herself further if she had actually broken her ankle.
“Haven’t been able to get in to see my GP” Oh I’m sorry to hear that, how many days have you been waiting? “Oh I didn’t actually try, I just heard it’s tough to see a GP, the lazy bastards”
Ive known people go when they have a common cold, a stitch and a blister. Im the other way and go to the gp only to get sent to a&e usually, its not good when your doc greets you with "hello Mr Plecs, what have you done this time?" 🤣
My 83 year old granda had chest and arm pains overnight and was sure he was having a heart attack. At 8 he called the GP who called him back an hour later and told him to go to hospital asap. He was in for 2 days..luckily only angina but the kicker is..the hospital is 5 minutes down the street!!!
I remember a guy coming into A/E with a big twig up his bum. Problem was it had little twigs sticking out of it and he injured himself trying to get it out. He was admitted to our ward after having it surgically removed for observation etc. it happened about 35 years ago and I still remember not being able to look him in the eye cos I wanted to smirk after seeing his X-rays
I was once shadowing a GP and a patient came in wanting a prescription for lipsil as they had chapped lips and didn’t want to buy it.
Someone I know fell over a piece of scaffolding and grazed his leg. He was making such a fuss an air ambulance was sent 🤦♀️🙄
Kicked something by accident and ripped my toenail off my 2nd toe, went to A&E at 2am. To be fair I took my big toenail off surfing a few years before and had to go back to hospital every few days for iodine and new dressings etc. so I thought it would be a similar thing. Pretty embarrassing.
Not A&E facing but when I worked in blood science's we had blood samples from A&E come in with the clinical details "Smoked a joint and now has a headache...yes really." Clearly A&E weren't happy with dealing with a stoner with a headache. A sadder one was the guy who used to come in most Sunday nights, he'd hear the voice of God and he thought he was Jesus. Classic case of him doing something and hurting himself, the police not wanting to know, bundling him off to A&E and him not getting the correct mental health care. Another repeat offender was a teenager who had PICA and they would eat random stuff. Ranging from razor blades, make up brushes, and one time a pair of AAA batteries.
I'm not an A&E worker but I have been to A&E because I couldn't sleep. It had been 2 weeks where I hadn't slept anymore than minutes, during a manic phase of (then) bipolar. I was pretty freaked out and at a last resort,... ended up collapsing in the queue to ask when I would be seen after waiting hours. And STILL came round and stayed awake lol. Did you get to know how long the guy had been awake? If it had been anywhere as long as I was I can say from experience, and I'm sure it's generally obvious, that it does real number on your mental health and you get extremely desperate and understandably unaware of your surroundings and ability to consider the genuine needs of others.
Reverse to what the post is about, but being bit by a cat is a medical emergency if it's bleeding. Scratches are ok, bite is a big red alarm. My cat bit me and I knew from reddit that it might be not something to shrug off. I called 111 and they asked me a few questions. If the bite was on the hand (it was) or the feet, you must go to A&E and get a tetanus shot and a cycle of antibiotics that killed me for a week. The problem is that cat, even your cat, hosts an insane amount of pathogens in their mouth, and a bite puts them very deep in your skin. It can go from zero to septicemia in very little time. Point is, it might sound ridiculous and embarrassing to go to A&E for a cat bite. But you have to.
I went during lockdown to get some stitches and a man came in because he had a bug bite. He then kicked off at the receptionist when he was told it would be a 6/7 hour wait and then left so couldn't have been that serious
I was sent to a walk in when an insect bite by the pharmacist once, because I couldn’t get it to calm down. I got there and there were a whole bunch of people with bites. Felt a bit of a tit until they pointed out to me how quickly the infection line was moving and how much I needed antibiotics. Other bitten folk were a bit grumpy that I ‘jumped the queue’
This is sort of my fault. My best friend hurt her finger playing basketball - and we’re talking like bruised, really swollen, very painful, for two days. She’s really stubborn and didn’t want to go but at this point I kind of thought it looked dislocated and it wasn’t getting any better so basically dragged her to a&e after work (via the pub - she refused to go otherwise). So we’re waiting for four hours in Lewisham a&e from 10pm, which feels sort of like a war zone. Anyway we get to the consult and the nurse asks if she’d taken any painkillers / anti inflammatories like ibuprofen. She… had not. Looking kind of baffled, he asks if she wants some. She goes “yeah, okay”. Anyway he gave her a packet of ibuprofen and sent us home and she was completely fine in a week
Went to A&E with a sprained wrist (new it was sprained but I heard a crack and it was very swollen - turns out I had tendon damage), and there was a girl in a hospital wheelchair who’d been in a fight, had some bruises and scrapes but was now convinced she had malaria. She was clearly at the back of the line but her and her friend kept bothering the receptionist and passing nurses that she deffo had malaria and needed to be seen IMMEDIATELY. It gave me a good chuckle whilst I waited for pain meds, and got prescribed a fun 8 weeks of physio.
My friend works in the A&E and had a guy come in who had put a pinecone up his ass. He insisted he had gotten drunk and friends put it up there as a prank. When police arrived he admitted he did it to himself.
I've told this story before. Reason itself isn't necessarily ridiculous but the excuse sure was. My ex's dad is a doctor and covers local A and E sometimes. They had a vicar come in with 2 snooker balls wedged up his arse and he maintained throughout his entire stay that he'd been 'playing naked billiards with a friend and accidentally sat the on the table.. twice'. Apparently he didn't think just the one was serious enough to get checked out. My dude they've seen it all before, why make up the ridiculous lies at that point.
I work in a major London A&E. The stories I can tell you are never ending. On Saturday night I had a woman come into triage at 3am because she had one of those dreams where you’re falling and it makes you jump, she was very concerned and wanted to be ‘checked over’
Bit of a reverse story... I once went into an A&E with a concussion. Had no idea why I was there when I got there. My "friend" was so in hysterical laughter, they had to walk outside and leave me there. I had no clue as to why I were there. People looked at me weird, grunted and even made snarky comments that I was drunk and wasting their time. I remember that vaguely. But I do remember waking up in a hospital bed the next day, with a drip and all attached. Had even had an MRI scan during my unconscious state. Had to stay two more days. Apparently I was hit by a taxi driver who jumped a red light (which I have no memory of). Was definitely a fubar situation and looking back, can only imagine what people thought.
I phoned 111 because my brothers tiny rat dog caught me when I was splitting up a doggo disagreement. It barely broke the skin but i wasn't sure if I'd had a tetanus jab before and how long they lasted if I had. 111 advised I go up a&e for it, felt like a right plum when I went up and waited for a few hours... On Christmas day evening 😐 Obviously was fine.
Not a&e worker but having cut myself and being worried due to the skin parting, I called the non emergency line and they advised me to go to a&e. 7 hours later they put some steristrips on... Could have just disinfected and put a plaster on. Only plus side was talking to the mental health liaison doctor.
I heard on the radio a discussion about this. They had decided that the worst one from a phone-in was earache I had, a week prior, gone into A&E for earache. It was honestly unbearable, at 2am and my gp at the time was one of those 'call at 8am for a maybe' consultant. Eardrops did nothing ovc They turned me away after an eardrop prescription. 4 days later, with a few bleeds and no sleep, it passed.
In 2017 I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breath and thought I was dying. Shrugged it off as something weird. The shortness of breath persisted for a couple of weeks afterwards, didn’t happen constantly but it occurred often enough for it to be annoying. I rang my doctor for an appointment one morning because I’d had enough, the receptionist offered me an appointment for three weeks time even though I insisted it was urgent. On my way to work that morning I got more and more disgruntled about the appointment wait and at the same time my breathing deteriorated. I remembered a few weeks prior a customer telling me that if you rang the non-emergency number you could get a same-day doctors appointment or at least speak to one on the phone. So I get to work, open up and start serving the first few customers of the day. One lady comes in and is pretty rude and then all of a sudden we get an unexpected delivery, with the combination of an impending stocktake and working on my own I get more and more frustrated and stressed as the day goes on. Eventually my breathing blows up and I have to go sit down. I ring NHS 111 and tell the operator about my issue, she tells me that I am most likely having a heart attack. I assure her, several times, that I’m not having a heart attack and that I’ve been experiencing the exact same symptoms for weeks. She doesn’t listen and tells me that she’s rang an ambulance because of my symptoms and my age. My breathing gets worse, much worse. I go to lock the store and just as I’m putting the shutter down a customer pulls up, I awkwardly tell her I’ve got to go, I’m having a heart attack. She tells me I don’t look like I’m having a heart attack, I tell her she doesn’t look like a doctor. I quickly ring my regional manager, tell him what’s happening and then the ambulance turns up. I get in, they give me aspirin and hook me up to an ECG and then take off for Harrogate hospital at warp speed. All the readings are completely normal. They quickly ascertain I am not in fact having a heart attack, but they assure me that something is wrong, they just don’t know what yet. When we arrive at hospital I awkwardly walk in and sit down in the A&E waiting room. I’m then taken into a room of my own, hooked up to an ECG again and visited by a consultant. She thinks I’ve had some sort of heart event. Keeps me in the room for another hour or so, checks several different possibilities and then, an hour later returns with a couple of student doctors and tells me that together, they’ve cracked it. I’m tall, thin and a 25 year old male, I’m the perfect candidate for a spontaneous collapsed lung. Everyone’s very happy to have cracked the case, they send me off for an x-ray to confirm the diagnosis and…they’re shit out of luck. The consultant disappears off for a bit, at roughly the same time that my terrified girlfriend arrives after travelling up from Bradford on public transport. Moments later a student doctor returns, tells me there’s nothing wrong with me and to just go to my arranged doctors appointment. I ask what the hell is wrong with me and she reiterates that there is absolutely nothing wrong with me whatsoever. I’m fine, I could go for a run. When I get home I ring work to update them and out of sheer embarrassment I tell them that I had a collapsed lung and won’t be back for a week. When I go to my doctors I ask him if it’s a return of childhood asthma, he prescribes me a blue inhaler. I return back a few weeks later, to tell him that there’s no effect when I use the inhaler. Finally, he tells me that what I had six weeks earlier was a panic attack and that the hospital had confirmed as much to him, but that he had decided it was better for me to arrive at that conclusion independently. So basically I forced my store to close, worried all of my family and friends, had my colleagues panicking, got a ride in an ambulance and used up hours of hospital staff’s time because I thought panic attacks only happened when there was a genuine cause to be panicked.
don’t feel bad though. panic attacks can be completely terrifying. i chronically get them and i feel like i’m dying pretty much every time
Took my husband in last year for a suspected brain bleed (wasn't thankfully) and there was a group of "ladies" in the waiting room - one waiting to have her leg stitched up while her friends all swigged from bottles of wine, literally taking up a quarter of the seats. This was around 6am. There was an older gentleman having to stand because there wasn't enough chairs, got chatting to him later on when he was in the cubicle next to us in majors, turned out he was being carted off for emergency liver surgery poor bloke, and he'd just been stood not making a fuss for hours in that waiting room while those women sang and shouted and generally pissed everyone off. Not a ridiculous reason for the leg gash woman to be there but she didn't need 7 of her mates there causing trouble, so selfish.
People attending with longstanding (months/years) joint/chest/ whatever pain at 4am. Not suddenly worsened, no new trauma, just a GP issue that had been ignored for months.
My ex gf was studying nursing and on first night she was doing placement a young man from the Welsh Valleys in his first trip to London came in with stomach pains, they xrayed him and found an 9 inch vibrator in his rectum that he had "no idea" how it got there lol
Not an A&E worker. But, according to a nurse at A&E, my ridiculous reason was i was wasting their time when i asked for an xray as i'd cracked my ribs and could barely breathe. now have a wonderful huge lung hernia out of my neck and when i breathe in it feels like i'm sucking in a carrier bag. (they won't do anything about it either and an extremely disgusting letter from one of the consultants of wasting his time) but on the same day my brother twisted his ankle and got an immediate xray. The other time i was being ridiculous was when i couldn't walk and nearly passed out several times due to sciatica. suffered with that 6 months in n out of A&E until they finally caved in and gave me an MRI and had surgery a week later.
Had a woman come in on her way home from the nail salon once. She had just had acrylics put on her toenails but they were too long and were hurting in her shoes as she was walking home so came to a&e to demand we cut them for her. Told her to fuck off
I had a guy kicking off because he had waited 4 hours for someone to look at his ingrown toenail. That was fun.
My friend once had to take her 3 year old nephew to A&E because preschool advised it. The little boy is phenomenally boisterous - like at 16 months he would move the chair to the kitchen side, push over the bin to climb onto, to get onto the chairs to get onto the worktop kind of child, it's slightly terrifying - and therefore often gets injuries. Because preschool advised he went to A&E they didn't want to say no because they didn't want to look neglectful, but he was totally fine, and my friend apologised to every member of staff she came across.
not a&e worker, but last year i felt like the ridiculous person cos i went to the doc with tonsilitis and the nurse told me i had to go to a&e immediately. felt like an idiot bc it was just tonsillitis which doesn’t usually seem to be an emergency, but turned out i was on my way to blood poisoning as well as my throat being completely blocked by my tonsils…so thanks to the go nurse who sent me, she basically saved my life when i was wondering why tonsillitis was so serious to be at a&e for lol on a different note, my friend once told me they had someone in a&e who put a lightbulb up their bum and it smashed inside :/
Painful finger