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As we all know, mack has Problems With Authority.
She also (you may not know) has a wicked bellyache. Wicked! So so so painful!
I told her to go to the e/r. (I forgot about the PWA until after I said it) Of course, she said NO!
I entreat the hatrackizens (hatrack denizens, or hatrack citizens, as preferred) to convince her to go to the emergency room. We are smart people. We should be able to convince her with out Authoritative Wording! It's too late for me to try, because I've already 'commanded' her to do something.
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Tres, because I overreact. *grin* Also because my Uncle had a pain similar to the one mack describes, and he ignored it, and his appendix burst.
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Mack, I'd like to suggest seeing a doctor ASAP - ER if nothing else is available.
Catching appendicitis early is a good thing.
I know - cuz mine wasn't. Due to a variety of medical blunders, my bouts of chronic appendicitis weren't identified, and the final bout wasn't identified until the very last minute. My appendix burst on the way out.
That meant eight days in the hospital with an unclosed surgical incision while being pumped with heavy duty antibiotics intravenously. Recovery wasn't fun either.
Early is better. Just a suggestion. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Is there a wicked hot fever? Is the pain localized to (trying to visualize the man's scar) lower right abdomen? I think these are both symptoms.
Is it possible, Jexx, that you are sensitized by the situation with the tonsilectomy? (This is a low blow, but since Mack and I seldom agree, I figure it would be effective to take an anti-appendectomy stance).
It's possible, pooka, you are right. But mack frustrates me when she won't go to the doctor, so I think it's our history (her and I) that sensitizes me to this, rather than The Boy's Traumatic Day.
It wasn't a low blow, it was an honest question. *smile* Don't worry.
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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while the symptoms you mentioned are "textbook symptoms," you can have appendicitis with no localized pain and without major fever. Some of us had appendixes that never read the text book. The number of cases that depart from the textbook are pretty high, I understand.
In any case, severe prolonged pain in the abdomen could probably be caused by many different things - some serious and some not. Still not a bad idea to have things checked out.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'd say if it doesn't go away in a few hours, go see a doctor. Even if it isn't serious, they might have suggestions for making the pain go away.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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My sister had a similar experience to sndrake's, except her's had been burst for about 5 days before they figured out what it was.
Her intestines got infected, along with one ovary, part of her uterus and colon. They also had to be pulled out because they started to heal together.
She spent 8 days in the hospital, 7 of those with a tube in her abdomen. She dropped from 128 to 99 pounds. It took her several months to fully recover, and she was only 16.
Two years later, she ended up in the hospital again from adhesions--this one obstructed her bowel. It was a complication from the appendix blowing and the surgery that followed. She spent 2 weeks in the hospital this time, and missed a month of college.
She should really go before something really bad happens.
Posts: 463 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I had a really bad bellyache (the pain woke me up) and I went to see the docs, and they made me wait. Then they probed lower right quadrant for tenderness and found none. It was just really bad gas, and other food digestion problems.
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I spent a very long unhappy night in the hospital once for what was suspected to be appendicitis.
I had localized pain and an elevated white count. No fever.
They put me in overnight, to monitor me with the assumption I would need to go to surgery in the morning. When morning came, they ran my white counts again and they were normal. Pain was much lessened. No surgery.
It was kidney stones. Eep! Once I got rid of them I felt much, much better.
My point - it may not be appendicitis, but it could be something else that the docs can help you with, like kidney stones in my case. If you don't want to go to the ER (and who does?) and you don't think it's that bad yet, go to a an urgent care center and at least let someone examine you and run your blood counts.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
There's this great Gary Larson Far Side cartoon of a woman on the OR table and the surgeon pulling a giant porcupine out of her abdomen. Caption reads "Well that explains it!"
Mack, take care of yourself. Go to the ER or make an appointment to see a doctor.
As others have mentioned, this could be lots of things, but it's better not to just wait it out when you have pain and you don't have a good proximal reason why (like a nasty blow to the stomach, bad sushi, or pregnancy for example).
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Okay, speaking from the experience of having two kids who both had to have appendectomies, and the fact that I've worked on an ambulance (volunteer EMT) for ten years...
1) As someone else said here, you don't necessarily have fever with an appendicitis at first -- my son didn't until several hours after he was at the hospital. But you will have the localize tenderness. And if it is that, it SHOULD show a higher white count.
2) However, every single "grown" (not kid) patient that I ran in on the ambulance, that I THOUGHT had symptoms of appendicitis -- all turned out to be STONES -- kidney stones usually. You would think pain would have been in different area, but I think because patient was in so much pain they couldn't tell exactly where it hurt. Because these are very painful. Did they check you for that?
EDIT 3) And I should mention -- since you're female -- many times abdominal pain can be symptoms of: ovarian cysts; twisted ovaries, or endimetrioma I hope they checked all these possibilities.
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Addition to EDIT 3) cuz posts in forums are read by more people than just the person addressed. Ectopic pregnancy, etc can also produce abdominal pain.
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The info might come in handy someday for other readers.
As a RomanCatholic, you should have pointed out that ImmaculateConception refers to Mary being born free of the taint of OriginalSin, and not to parthenogenesis.
And the connotation with the vast majority of people is that it's pregnancy without sex, despite the theological denotation.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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If they don't admit you, sleep in your car in the parking lot.
Chances are, you'll get towed (with your luck), but think of the great lawsuit you'd have going after your appendix bursts in the impound lot!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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