Thread: Useless little organ

No, not David Cameron. I'm talking about the human appendix. When it's healthy, it doesn't seem to do much at all (apart from possibly re-stock your gut with good bacteria after you've shat or spewed them all out), and when it gets sick it can kill you.

I've just had mine removed, so there is now no danger that it will try to kill me. I may need to eat yoghurt more in the future, but apart from that there seems to be no other downside.

How do you know if you may have appendicitis? I had a sharp pain in the lower right abdomen, and it didn't go away overnight. Went to the hospital in the morning and saw two doctors. One said probably appendicitis, one said probably not. There's a palpation test they do as the first test. They press hard on the spot where it hurts, and when they stop pressing, the pain is supposed to get worse. Mine didn't, hence the contradictory diagnoses. Second stage is blood and urine tests. Blood in the urine or increased white blood cell counts can be positive indicators, but again my results weren't clear. Normal urine, and only very slightly raised WBC count indicating a possible mild infection somewhere. Stage three was an ultrasound scan. This can show an enlarged appendix, unless of course, like me, the useless little organ is hiding away behind the large intestine where the ultrasound can't see it. Stage four, then is the CT scan. You swallow a couple of bottles of liquid over a period of an hour, and this fills your digestive tract. Into the CT scanner, and you can see the high contrast liquid all the way through your system. If there's liquid in the appendix, it's not blocked, so the pain is probably something else. But if there's no contrast liquid in the appendix, you have your diagnosis - a blocked appendix and the little bugger has to come out.

Two hours later, I was coming round slowly in the recovery room. The next day, the surgeon showed me a photo of the offending organ, swollen and bloody on the OR table. Gotcha.

Glad to see you got your appendix looked after and the problem resolved BB. A burst appendix is not the death sentence so many think it is. But it ain't no fuckin picnic.

Been debating posting this. This thread just tipped the scales. It's been a helluva year for me. never-mind hitting a cow on the interstate at speed in my e30 convertible, that left some physical problems I was, and am, dealing with; let me get straight on to my appendix related adventure.

July 20 or 21 (not real sure) mine burst. POP goes the appendix. pain was bad, but noting like I would expect an exploding organ to feel. Friday night was terrible pain all day Saturday I fought it off until, finally, My son's sweetie talked me into a trip to the ER. Yep, appendicitis. At this point I got a CT scan and was wisked into surgery. Still unaware the thing was "perforated."

In fact I was unaware of that fact until my follow up appointment with the surgeon, fuckin' guy never came to see me while I was in recovery. I was given antibiotics, anti-coagulants, anti this vitamin and no goddam food for days. Without knowing my situation I got kinda uncooperative and argumentative. Eventually packed my shit and left, against doctors orders. If I had been informed of the seriousness (I did ask, no one knew) of my adventure, I might have been more compliant. No real problem took me longer to heal than most appendectomies, but on par with those of us with a popped one.

About ten days after walking off I went in to see the surgeon. Told him the symptoms and travails during my recovery at home. He says to me, "Well, that's the good news. Now for the bad... We found cancer." They found a malignant carcinoid tumor in the appendix, about 6cm long, and they wanted to remove a section of my large intestine and "harvest some lymph nodes." I wanted a second, third and fourth opinion. I wanted an oncologist in on any decision to cut me up any further. (I mean if this shits' gonna kill me anyway, why be miserable for a couple months of and already shortened life, right?

Some cancer researchers at Stanford medical in Palo Alto (I think) concurred. My oncologist concurred. I had tests. LOTS of tests. I looked pretty clean in there blood was good, piss was good, even my lungs were good. But they need to see some actual tissue under a microscope so I was scheduled for the tummy tuck.

Had the op October 17. No food or drink, of any kind for six days; one day before, five after. Then liquids, then they gave me a meal. Time to fuckin leave. I been in some pretty bad prisons and jailhouses in my time. This hospital has, by far, the worst food I have ever eaten! The doc let me go home. I was out the door waiting on the street for my son to pick me up; stainless steel grill work down my belly and all. The next day, I sneezed. blood and "other fluids" squirted out between the wires and continued to pour out for a couple hours, until I let me kid talk me into going to the ER.

26 hours on a gurney in the ER and I'm back in surgery. At this point I'm thinkin the cancer woulda been the better choice. No stitches or stainless wires this time. 6 more days of recovery/abuse at the hands of some cute Filipina nurse and they took the vacuum cleaner off my belly and showed me how to repack the fucking canyon down the middle of my gut.

I'm gettin pretty good at it and today I was able to get in my car and drive a short distance. Gotta practice that driving, Going to the airport on Friday to pick up my ol lady. We're gonna get married next month. maybe this one. Over nine years together.

Oh, yeah; met with the oncologist(s) last week. There is no indication of cancer anywhere, not gonna be going through any chemo. I'm done with it. Carcinoid cancer is kind of a weak-assed cancer. If you gotta have a cancer, it's the one you wanna get.

I don't do "going to the doctor." In last ten years been maybe twice (before the above mentioned adventure). This little side trip has been informative. Now that the cancer's gone, I'm healthy as fuck.