How to Self-Diagnose Appendicitis
83Do you need your appendix out?
Let me start by saying that I AM NOT A MEDICAL DOCTOR. I have no training in diagnosis or treament of any disease or condition. What I do have are some cuts in my belly where my appendix was a few days ago--I was lucky enough to see medical professionals at the right time--and wanted to share my experience with anyone else going through the same painful process. Here are some basic guidelines to help determine whether or not what you're feeling is in fact appendicitis:
1. Stomach Pain You feel a pain in your gut. A stomachache that seems familiar. A sensation that may have once caused you to announce to your kindetgarten teacher, "I hafta fart." It hurts in the front of your abdomen, to the left, right, and middle. Could be indigestion, or a bad case of heartburn.
What happens next tells you if it's your appendix or not. If the pain goes away after a while, or if some Tums or Pepto Bismol or ginger ale does the trick, it probably was gas, indigestion, or heartburn. If the pain stays and you're getting chills, body aches, cold sweats, it's probably just the flu--you know the drill on that. If not, read on...
Ok, its a few hours later (or the next morning), and the pain is bad. Same place, but stronger. It's like ten thousand tiny sabres, pushing out, poking at your stomach and intestines. Pressure and pain, pain and pressure, maybe worse than you've ever felt.
2. Nausea/Vomiting and Right Side Sensitivity The over-the-counter stomach medicine you took came up an hour or two later (nasty), as did anything else you ate to try and settle your tum-tum. If you get to this point, try a little self-exam: push aganst your stomach with medium pressure on the left, middle (right below your belly button), and right side. It'll most likely hurt in all three places, but the key is where it hurts the most. Your appendix hangs off the end of your large intestine (or colon), on the right side of you amdomen. If pushing on the right side makes the pain go from 100 to 1,000, that's a pretty solid indicator that your appendix is inflamed--appendicitis.
3. Fever Perhaps the least significant symptom to look for is a fever, mostly because it could be an indicator of a variety of other health problems (such as a flu, as mentioned above). Combined with the other symptoms, however, a fever can be the clinching factor that indicates appedicitis. Because appendicitis is a bacterial infection of the appendix, your immune system raises your body temperature (to between 99˚ and 103˚F) to try and kill of the problematic bacteria.
If all that describes what you've going through, see a doctor IMMEDIATELY or get yourself to the closest hospital emergency room. This is critical, because an untreated, inflamed appendix could burst, PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK. The doctors will do a bunch of tests and tell you for sure what your problem is. If they confirm that it is appendicitis, they will probably operate as soon as possible to get your appendix out. Once again, if you have felt all of what's described above stop reading right now and SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION. If you don't, you could die!
So, that's the run down on appendicitis. Brutal pain, but a simple problem with a simple solution. Because your appendix (like your wisdom teeth) is pretty much useless to the inner workings of your body, taking it out doesn't really present any problems. Your appendix is a tiny pouch of tissue that hangs off of your large intestine, but doesn't help with digestion. A nurse at the hospital told me she heard from a med professor that it was once a pouch used to store rocks in our caveman anscestors, which they swallowed to help digest raw meat and other unpleasant caveman food. About 1 out of 15 people get appendicitis, usually between the ages of 10 and 30.
After admittance to a hospital and prior to surgery, appendicitis patiens can expect to be treated for pain and bacterial infection. Intraveanous pain medication, hydrating fluids, and antibiotics are usually administered. Additional examinations such as a CAT scan may also be used to visually examine the appendix for inflamation to be sure of an accurate diagnosis.
As for the surgery, it's pretty routine, and therefore not terribly risky as surgeries go. Modern techniques allow for a laproscopic (also known as minimally-invasive surgery--tiny tube-shaped tools are used to perform the operation through three or four small incisions in the abdomen) appendectomy. Certain circumstances may require a traditional appendectomy (one large incision directly over the appendix), which requires a longer recovery time, due to the larger incision in the abdominal wall. Although the recovery time for laproscopic surgery is slightly shorter, appendectomy patients should not count on lifting heavy objects, running, biking, spelunking, or participating in any other high-intensity physical activities for four to six weeks after the operation.
LINKS
WebMd: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/digestive-diseases-appendicitis
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendicitis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendectomy
Six days after a laparoscopic appendectomy
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Comments
I also had appendecitis and a laproscopic appendectomy just recently, and my symptoms were exactly as above. I had a pain in my lower stomach that wouldn't go away. It felt as if I had to have a bowel movement, you know, that upset stomach feeling that you get that goes away after you bm... well I would try to deficate, and I would not be able to go. I went the the health clinic on my university campus thinking that it was a stomach bug, and after blood work and many other diagnostics, they refered me to an ER.
Here is the clincher that made me and the ER doctor realize that it was probably appendicitis... When my doctor push down on my lower stomach, and then released really quickly, the pain was extreme...
I also had a bandage exactly like the one in the picture, on my belly button, but I only had bandaids on the upper and lower incisions. It has been 8 days since the surgery, and my stitchs are already dissolving and the pain is completly gone. If you catch appendicitis early enough and can have a laproscopic appendectomy opposed to the cessarian type (cut open your whole belly) it is a much simpler and easier to get through surgery.
I am reading this while recovering from my own laparoscopic appendectomy four days ago. My symptoms were slightly different from those described by jgarrett82. I had been going to the pool and doing a self-designed water aerobic workout two to three times a week for several weeks. I began having some discomfort in my lower right abdomen at night and thought I had pulled a muscle. I laid off the workouts for a few weeks, but the discomfort did not resolve. In fact, I had begun sleeping with my right leg bent at all times to alleviate the "muscle pull". At work, I noticed more frequent trips to the restroom, but no relief in that area. After a visit to a friend's house for dinner, I stood up to leave and felt a lot of pressure in the lower right abdomen, of which I said "that really hurts" and excused myself to the restroom. My friend said the location of the pain was where my appendix is located. I agreed that I thought it may be my appendix that was a problem. That did not relieve the pressure. I began feeling nauseous, went outside for fresh air and vomited the entire contents of my stomach. I was unable to hold down a nausea medication and got clammy and feverish. My husband helped me to the car and took me home. Since flu is all around these days, I assumed it was the flu and went to bed. The nausea and pain reduced, but did not end. I slept off and on the next day and went to an urgent care clinic that afternoon (ER was full of flu patients and at this point I had no fever and felt sure it was appendicitis). The urgent care clinic did blood work, started and IV and sent me for an outpatient CT scan to rule out appendicitis. The CT scan confirmed acute appendicitis and the hospital admitted me immediately. The surgeon removed the offending appendix the following morning and told my husband the appendix was extremely acute and he was surprised it hadn't ruptured. He told me later I have a very high pain tolerance. The results of the abdominal examination by the surgeon was slightly different in my case. Regardless of where he applied pressure, my right lower abdomen hurt. When he applied the slightest pressure on the right lower abdomen, it was much more painful. Immediately prior to the surgery, all he had to do was touch the skin above the appendix and it hurt.
A ruptured appendix is very dangerous and can be life-threatening, as it releases the poisons from your appendix and intestines into your system. I am not a medical professional and don't play one on tv, but sharing this personal experience is important to me. Symptoms vary among appendicitis sufferers. Seek medical attention immediately if you have any symptoms that you feel may be appendicitis. Stomach pain can also indicate other problems, so do not ignore it. Get it checked.
ikealady says:
17 months ago
ouch!