Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Requiem for an Appendix: How to Turn Day Surgery into a Week in the Hospital

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Quoth AccountingDrone View Post
    I know that when Rob's appendix blew when he was 12 he spent almost a month in hospital, and caused his surgeon to vomit when they opened his abdomen [he went a week between his appendix bursting and getting admitted to the hospital, it has plenty of time to sit and fester.] He has a seriously huge - wide and long - scar remaining from that dance.
    I've seen people have to have open abdominal incisions after a burst appendix on order to allow it to drain. The edges are loosely held together with retention sutures.

    Nasty

    My Gods Gift to Paramedics ex-roommate got appendicitis; textbook case, and wouldn't let me take him to the hospital for a couple of hours before the pain got so bad I told him he could either get in the car or I could call 911.

    So I describe the textbook symptoms to the ER staff and tell them I'm sure it's a hot appendix (he'd already had his gallbladder out in an open procedure by refusing to go to the hospital in time).

    His fiance arrives and is the only one allowed back. After several hours she comes to the waiting room and says to me, "how long should this take?"

    I ask if the blood tests are back. She doesn't know. So I go back and talk to the nurse. She says the CBC has been back for a couple of hours.

    Well, what was the white count (WBC) I ask? She doesn't know. So she looks. Well over 10,000 (5-10 thousand is normal).

    That plus the physical symptoms is diagnostic for acute appendicitis.

    So when's the surgeon coming in, I ask?

    He hasn't even been called, I find out.

    Turns out the same idiot PA who misdiagnosed my first kidney stone about a year earlier is taking care of GGP. So I confront him. When are you calling a surgeon, I ask.

    He hems and haws and has no real answer. So I tell him if he doesn't call the surgeon RIGHT NOW I will start raising all kinds of holy hell. I was furious.

    Surgeon is there in 10 minutes, comes right out to fiance and me to tell us GGP is going to the OR right now!

    After surgery, the doc tells us the appendix was about to rupture. He got to the OR in the nick of time.

    And that, folks, is why I nearly killed myself a few years later by refusing to go to that ER when I was bleeding to death.
    They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

    Comment


    • #17
      My SIL is a licensed trauma room nurse. She wasn't feeling well, thought it might be appendicitis and went to the local hospital. Doc says you're fine, it isn't anything to worry about, go home if it's still bothering you in the morning go see you GP. SIL knew something was wrong so they go to a different hospital - she's in surgery ASAP for acute appendicitis. I believe she had some words with the first doctor and the hospital admin about him almost killing her.
      Figers are vicious I tell ya. They crawl up your leg and steal your belly button lint.

      I'm a case study.

      Comment


      • #18
        I wound up with the complete OPPOSITE when I was in the hospital.

        They thought it was appendicitis because I had a high fever and abdominal pain. Turns out that it was actually a dominant ovarian follicle which had ruptured (it was too small to count as a cyst). They did try and get the appendix on the ultrasound, but they also told me that sometimes its hard to pick up on an ultrasound and they'd have to do exploratory surgery.

        The fever was the result of a cold I was getting over. They doped me up on pain meds and kept me in overnight. As a result, my partner has informed me that I can no longer have panadeine forte because I will talk in my sleep with it!
        The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

        Now queen of USSR-Land...

        Comment


        • #19
          Friend had the same problem.. first hospital diagosed him with a gastro bug... his appendix went explody and he landed in the hospital until they controlled the infection. Previous hospital tried billing him for the tests until his surgeon called them up screaming stating they are lucky they're not getting a malpractice case.

          Comment


          • #20
            Robs mom is a nurse ... so of course his stomach ache was just a stomach ache ... until it exploded =)
            EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

            Comment


            • #21
              For my father (in the US Navy on a ship at the time) he was fine one moment, the next he was passed out on the deck.

              They rushed him to surgery and opened him up, finding nothing. Then the doctor decided to check and found his appendix was literally ready to burst. Removed it and that was the end of that tour of duty...

              Comment


              • #22
                My partner just had a stomach bug until he went back to the GP and passed out on the front desk, then they sent him to hospital and his appendix was very close to going boom...
                Final Fantasy XIV - Acorna Starfall - Ragnarok (EU Legacy)

                Comment


                • #23
                  I think the most epic appendix story I've heard after telling mine is an elderly friend of mine. His dad's appendix was taken out almost on the battlefield at Ypres.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X