Surprise! Go have your appendix removed. Right Now!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday, my wife went to the doctor for a complaint of numbness in her hand. She also mentioned having had pains on the right side of her abdomen for a few days. Next thing, she’s being pumped full of liquids and having a CAT scan. Then the doctor tells her to go to the hospital right away, to have her appendix removed!

So, she’s been for the operation and spent last night in the hospital with her mom, and her dad and I are going back shortly. Her surgery was done not by making an incision and going in with the power tools, but they made three small holes in her belly and went in with a tiny camera and robot tools!

I’m wondering if anyone else here has had appendicitis and an -ectomy and can give me some idea of what to tell her to expect in recovery. Were you sore for a long time? How long before you were back to normal? How long did you spend on pain medicine? Is there anything she absolutely should not do for awhile? How long should she take off work?

We haven’t been able to get any of these questions answered by anyone at the hospital yet, so I’m putting out the questions to The Dopers Without Appendices. Thanks!

2

Deb had an almost identical experience a few years ago. (It was during her “I need to be in the hospital on Tom’s birthday” period and she claims to have been planning to come home that evening before the doctor made her go to the hospital.)

Unfortunately, after the laparoscopic surgery, the doctor figured he might have missed some of the infected material, so they opened her up the old fashioned way, as well. She was back to work in a couple of weeks.

A couple of years earlier, she had had laparoscopic surgery to look over a case of endemetriosis. From that she was back to normal in just two days, although she had some pain for over a week.

3

I had mine about (holy smokes!!!) 20 years ago. I was in the hospital for 3 days, and had to take pain meds (morphine) after surgery only once. IIRC, I was back to about 99% in a little over a week maybe. It’s been awhile.

Appendicitis sucks. It’s like the most intense gas pain times a thousand.

4

I had a laparoscopic appendectomy a year ago (Feb. 20, 2004). I had my operation on Friday evening and was discharged from the hospital 24 hours later. At first, I felt like a train had hit me, but I regained strength very quickly. I went back to work the following Tuesday, and by a month later I was fully recovered.

My surgeon told me to not lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for the first 6 weeks, and that when I went back to the gym to take things easy for the next couple of months.

5

I’m pretty sure mines still in there, so I have nothing to contribute other than well-wishes for the wifey.
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery. :slight_smile:

6

My dad had an emergency appendectomy about 11 years ago, following a week of serious sickness and three misdiagnoses. It was real emergency, as in, go to the hospital now, no time for preliminary tests and such.

He was in the hospital for a few days afterwards - I think it was nearly a week, and returned to work after about 3 weeks total, IIRC. however, they did his the old-fashioned, slice-and-dice way, so I assume the less cutting, the less recovery time.

Curiousity makes me ask: when the do surgery like that with the teeny-tiny incisions, how do they then remove the stuff they’re taking out? Chop it up to suitable size inside you?

7

With my gall bladder, they pulled that sucker right through my belly button. I asked the doctor to let me see the gall bladder after surgery, it was in a plastic bag (colored) so I just got to feel it. It was the size of a large hot dog. My stone was the size of a big marble.

I think I saw a picture of an appendix on surgery channel last week and its not very fat, just long.

My recovery from surgery has been horrible, 3 months and I’m still not back to normal. From what I hear, my case is not normal and most people are fine in a few weeks.

8

I had mine removed about five years ago. I probably shouldn’t elaborate on my experience, as it was a fluke and would’ve led to a malpractice lawsuit if we could’ve afforded a lawyer at the time.

9

About 10 days after my son was born, I woke up late, about noon. I had been stumbling up and feeding and changing him and going back to bed.

I had the heat cranked up in my apartment. In Florida. In August. I was freezing.

Ivylad, who was stationed in San Francisco, called me. I was unable to walk upright, and had to hobble to the phone. He discovered something was wrong, told me to take care of the baby and he would call his sister and mother.

They came over, Mom took the baby and SIL took me to the hospital. This was a weekend, and I was told they didn’t want to bother my OB/GYN until Monday.

I was hospitalized for about two weeks, while they dithered back and forth between Crohn’s disease and other stuff that I don’t remember. This was a Navy hospital, so my doctor, a Commander, read my husband’s Lieutenant the riot act over the phone when he refused to allow my husband to come home. He had just been home, you see, when Ivyboy was born, so there was no reason to come home again so soon. Except, (I didn’t know this) I was gravely ill and there was some concern I could die. :eek:

They finally did an ultrasound and determined my appendix had burst and had sealed itself off, so my abdomen was filled with pockets of pus. No invasive surgery, they stuck in a huge syringe and sucked the pus out. They called it bandaid surgery.

I’m glad your wife didn’t have to suffer the mucking around, the horrible nurses (I was told that I had to go down and have an ultrasound, and when I told the nurse I didn’t know where it was, I was informed the hospital was not that big and I would find it on my own. So I’m hobbling around, in a hospital gown and slippers, clutching the IV pole, trying to find radiology) and got prompt attention.

10

Oh, I was on Flagyl (sp?) for about a month. I was not able to nurse, so I had to pump to keep the milk flowing and feed my son formula. After that he popped right back on (thank goodness.)

This was about 15 years ago, and I’ve been fine since. That was my first real illness since I had a tonsilectomy as a child.

11

I had mine out when I was fourteen, 34 years ago, before the invention of laparoscopic surgery, so recovery was much slower. I remember I had difficulty getting in and out of bed because I could only lie on one side and couldn’t roll over. I got out of gym class for the rest of the year, but I also wasn’t allowed to play my flute in band, so I had to attend the biggest concert of the year as a spectator, and I’d been first chair that year (I think) so I was kind of crushed. I felt fine enough to play, but the doc said no. I really felt just fine after about two weeks, but had to take it easy for much longer.

Hope the wife is doing fine.

12

My dad had his appendix out a couple years ago. He went into the doctor right before it was ready to pop, as he’d been ignoring (!!!) the incredibly sharp pain in his abdomen for at least three days. He’s very dumb like that. Thought he could tough it out. He had old-fashioned, cut ya open surgery.

The hospital folk didn’t want to release him until he had a bowel movement, so he was in the hospital for a week or so, until they finally released him out of pity. For longer than I want to remember, we had enormous bottles of fiber capsules and suppositories and other constipation related things lying around the house. Imagine grabbing for the Tylenol and discovering that you’d actually grabbed your father’s suppositories. :eek: (I’m sure that’s the face he would make if he knew I was talking about his bowel movements online. Heh.)

Anyway, I played nursemaid to him while he was recovering at home, and I found that keeping him placated with rental movies and books was the best route for mental happiness. He was sore for a month or so, but his surgical incision was pretty big. He also rather unwilling to use prescription pain medication, so after a few days on the prescription meds (once or twice a day), he switched to Aleve. (Same deal when he fell out of the haymow this summer. One day on codeine, then straight to Aleve.) His recovery probably would have been faster if he’d listened to his doctors and actually rested for six weeks, instead of sneaking out of the house and doing barn chores after three.

In case you haven’t realized it, my father is incredibly stubborn and has a high tolerance for pain. He hates to admit weakness in anything. YMMV

13

Thanks for your stories and support, everyone!

I guess you don’t know you have appendicitis until you go ask the doctor why your abdomen hurts. If my wife hadn’t had the doctor’s appointment for the other thing, it seems almost certain now that it would have burst any day, and she would have been at risk of peritonitis. There would have been an ambulance and all of that stuff.

Her appendix was removed in time, they got all of it, and she’s in the living room now with a blanket and a drink of juice and a kitty or two. They have her on an antibiotic and Hydrocodone (Vicodin). For somebody who was on the operating table 24 hours ago, she seems to be doing pretty well. The people on the night shift at Tallahassee Memorial were all very nice (the day shift was apparently a different kettle of fish).

I’m sorry to hear about the experience you had with the hospital staff, ivylass. (Why are supposed medical professionals allowed to get away with that???)

I’m so lucky. The most ill I have ever been was a couple of years ago, when we both had pneumonia. I’ve never had an operation or had anything more severe than a pilonidal cyst. Let’s hope it stays that way!

14

Yeah, as long as they catch you before you have your appendix burst, you’re pretty much ok. My problem was that I sat in the emergency room for almost thirteen hours because the doctor on duty was so thoroughly convinced that I was just another teen pregnancy, possibly also suffering a touch of the flu, that all he’d do was have a nurse give me two pregancy tests; the only reason I even got on the operating table at all was that right after the shifts changed and a new doctor showed up, my appendix burst just in time for the new doctor to stop by and check on me and go “oh shit.”