Emergency?
Feb. 9th, 2009 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianSo today, I woke up with a total inability to deal with any light source. I mean, at all. Currently it's better, but my head is still killing me and I'm lethargic, slow of thought and tired despite having more or less slept through all those nasty daylight hours. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dodgyhoodoo has suggested that I try going to A&E (Accident and Emergency, for all you non-Brits) as a shortcut to the whole "I can't see a neurologist for two months" issue because this is making our financial situation more and more untenable.
So I went to NHS Direct to see what they had to say about the matter. Clicked on the little "How to handle this particular health problem?" quiz-ish thing they give you to keep people from needlessly ringing for an ambulance or something. First question when narrowing it down to adult headaches? "Do you have a headache that is not going away and is preventing you from doing anything?" Answer, of course, is 'yes'.
Solution: "Ring 999. Go directly to A&E. Do not pass go, do not collect £200."
...Um. The GP never told me this. So I decided, "Hey, the headache does die down sometimes, even if it never goes away", and tried again. After that, they ask about rashes - obviously worried about meningitis. No rash, moving on. "Are you incapable of dealing with light sources, have a stiff neck and/or back, or are you sluggish, tired and/or confused of thought?" Um, yes, yes and yes.
Solution: "Ring 999" again.
.....Oh fuck. Okay, why did my GP not say anything like this? If the faceless website that is trying to discourage people from cluttering up A&E is telling me to ring for a fucking ambulance, how is the GP not saying, "Um ... right. Go to A&E; tell 'em I sent you" instead of asking for a referral that he knows (hell, that I know) is going to take weeks to come through? Though it's possible that the GP did ask for an emergency referral and the Appointments office at Barnet just didn't oblige. That and the blasted headache is the only thing that's keeping me from really wanting to firebomb the entire GP surgery at this point.
In short, I'm not ringing an ambulance. I've managed to get through the last several weeks without dying; I don't think it's all that bad. But I am going to Barnet's A&E tomorrow because hell's bells, maybe they're just trying to catch meningitis sufferers early and that's why they're really careful about people with long-term headaches but either way, a headache that lasts with only bits of waxing and waning for months is probably more serious than a two-month wait would suggest no matter what the cause.
Which means, in short, that I'll be spending my birthday in an emergency department waiting room. I should've checked sooner, I really should've. It would have spared the household a lot of problems and me a lot of pain.
dodgyhoodoo has suggested that I try going to A&E (Accident and Emergency, for all you non-Brits) as a shortcut to the whole "I can't see a neurologist for two months" issue because this is making our financial situation more and more untenable.So I went to NHS Direct to see what they had to say about the matter. Clicked on the little "How to handle this particular health problem?" quiz-ish thing they give you to keep people from needlessly ringing for an ambulance or something. First question when narrowing it down to adult headaches? "Do you have a headache that is not going away and is preventing you from doing anything?" Answer, of course, is 'yes'.
Solution: "Ring 999. Go directly to A&E. Do not pass go, do not collect £200."
...Um. The GP never told me this. So I decided, "Hey, the headache does die down sometimes, even if it never goes away", and tried again. After that, they ask about rashes - obviously worried about meningitis. No rash, moving on. "Are you incapable of dealing with light sources, have a stiff neck and/or back, or are you sluggish, tired and/or confused of thought?" Um, yes, yes and yes.
Solution: "Ring 999" again.
.....Oh fuck. Okay, why did my GP not say anything like this? If the faceless website that is trying to discourage people from cluttering up A&E is telling me to ring for a fucking ambulance, how is the GP not saying, "Um ... right. Go to A&E; tell 'em I sent you" instead of asking for a referral that he knows (hell, that I know) is going to take weeks to come through? Though it's possible that the GP did ask for an emergency referral and the Appointments office at Barnet just didn't oblige. That and the blasted headache is the only thing that's keeping me from really wanting to firebomb the entire GP surgery at this point.
In short, I'm not ringing an ambulance. I've managed to get through the last several weeks without dying; I don't think it's all that bad. But I am going to Barnet's A&E tomorrow because hell's bells, maybe they're just trying to catch meningitis sufferers early and that's why they're really careful about people with long-term headaches but either way, a headache that lasts with only bits of waxing and waning for months is probably more serious than a two-month wait would suggest no matter what the cause.
Which means, in short, that I'll be spending my birthday in an emergency department waiting room. I should've checked sooner, I really should've. It would have spared the household a lot of problems and me a lot of pain.