Appendicitis FTW! (and Murphy's Law strikes back)

[Captain M4d]

Sunday night around 5pm, I started to have tons of abdominal pain, specifically around the lower right side of my body. I thought it was gas pain and bloating at first because I found myself to be burping and farting a lot that night. The pain persisted throughout the night, and on a scale from 1 to 10, the pain was at 8 or 9. I was supposed to work at 5am the next day so I called my manager and told her I couldn't come in because of the severe pain.

The next morning my mother drove me to a health care center, and the doctor told me that I had all the classic symptoms for appendicitis. My mother drove me to the ER immediately after (around 9:30am) and it was until 4:30pm that I got a CT scan confirming the appendicitis and 9:30pm until I went into surgery. Thankfully I had two Asimov books, a DS, an iPod and some friends to keep me company for the long wait.

This was the best possible week for me to get appendicitis, and by that, I mean WORST WEEK EVAR. My band was supposed to go on a mini-tour through Maine starting on Thursday with a homecoming gig on Saturday night. This was going to be THE BIG BREAK for my band, because we were going to play with two bands that were getting tons of good press from the local media.

Before this shit even happened, the headlining band of the tour broke up and the other band (a duo) lost its bassist. Both of these mishaps happened two or more weeks ago, so even though my band freaked out about these two awful things happening, we still felt determined to press on with the tour. When I was diagnosed with appendicitus on Monday, I knew Murphy's Law dealt its final deadly blow.

My band was no longer on the tour, and though I originally thought that I could recover enough for the Saturday homecoming show, I ultimately decided that I could not risk compromising my recovery for one show that wasn't going to be that great anyway (my band plays best with high energy, and I would have had to sit in a chair without a guitar for the show).


The best things about this week is that I got to see my girlfriend a lot earlier (she lives 2 hours away on summers), I have logged 8 hours of Fallout 3 in the past two days, and I get a huge-ass break where I don't have to work or anything. While I wish I could have gone on tour this weekend, I'm greatly relieved that I can just sit on my ass and chase after my crazy scientist of a father while sitting next to my girlfriend.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I think the question we're all wondering here is: did you eat it?

 

[staticprimer]

I had appendicitis about two months ago. Fortunately I got into the hospital early because I thought the pain was being caused by a chronic condition I had, so I didn't wait around for it to get too severe. I got into the hospital about 6pm, got some nice opiates to stave off the worst of the pain, got the CT scan at about 11pm, and got into surgery at 2:30am. The surgery went so smoothly that I was able to be released at 6pm that second day and I was hanging out with friends (very carefully!) that night. Plus I got some vicodin out of it. Overall a pretty good experience as far as appendicitis goes.

 

[Captain M4d]

I'm realizing that I wrote way too ****ing much. But that may be the oxycodone speaking. Wooooooooooooooooooo

 

[Tyguy]

dude, pain in the bottom right torso, appendicitis!...cahmaaan!

 

[Raziaar]

I get pain in the lower right back side of my torso and have for the past year or so, maybe longer. Comes and goes. How does appendicitis work? Does the shit just hit the fan all of a sudden, or do you notice pains like that coming and going fairly regularly until it all fails?

Glad you're doing alright. Any idea how much the hospital bills will be?

 

[Warped]

a guy i know from work had it happen to him and he said it was unbearable but thought it was just something he ate and when he passed out at work he pretty much knew something was bad when he came to

 

[staticprimer]

I get pain in the lower right back side of my torso and have for the past year or so, maybe longer. Comes and goes. How does appendicitis work? Does the shit just hit the fan all of a sudden, or do you notice pains like that coming and going fairly regularly until it all fails?

Glad you're doing alright. Any idea how much the hospital bills will be?

You can actually have a smoldering appendix for a while before you get appendicitis, but the only symptom may be a raised white blood cell count. My understanding is that once it's inflamed there is no going back. You may start out feeling discomfort like bloating or your stomach just disagreeing with you. The real pain starts as radial pain throughout the entire abdomen and can get very painful. I found myself hyperventilating from breathing so heavily in trying to control the pain. As the infection progresses, the radial pain fades and instead concentrates around the appendix, in the lower right quadrant of your abdomen. The pain is very acute and pretty much incapacitating. This is just based on my experience and what the doctor told me though.

Now I know you didn't ask me, but my bills totaled around $15,000. I am curious how high yours were M4d, for comparison's sake.

 

[Raziaar]

Now I know you didn't ask me, but my bills totaled around $15,000. I am curious how high yours were M4d, for comparison's sake.

This stupid country!

 

[Tyguy]

This stupid country!

get a job with insurance, have the operation (if you need it in the near future), quit job

 

[Captain M4d]

You can actually have a smoldering appendix for a while before you get appendicitis, but the only symptom may be a raised white blood cell count. My understanding is that once it's inflamed there is no going back. You may start out feeling discomfort like bloating or your stomach just disagreeing with you. The real pain starts as radial pain throughout the entire abdomen and can get very painful. I found myself hyperventilating from breathing so heavily in trying to control the pain. As the infection progresses, the radial pain fades and instead concentrates around the appendix, in the lower right quadrant of your abdomen. The pain is very acute and pretty much incapacitating. This is just based on my experience and what the doctor told me though.

Now I know you didn't ask me, but my bills totaled around $15,000. I am curious how high yours were M4d, for comparison's sake.

Well, we'll see. Hopefully my dad's insurance covered a lot of it. If not, back to the coal mines!

 

[dfc05]

Ouch! Good thing you're ok. I've heard some really bad stories about appendicitis (one woman whose appendix burst couldn't have children anymore, and a guy at school started having chest pains so they literally cut open his chest to see if something was wrong with his heart, then noticed that his appendix was swollen).

 

[Adabiviak]

Yeah, good thing it didn't burst, or the tone of your post might have been a little different. I only had what I thought was a mild stomach ache. Didn't think much of it until the next day when it was still there after the night, so I figured I'd have the doc take a look. Next thing I know I'm in and out of surgery. How'd they get it out?