Stomach upset is usually bearable and can be relieved by bowel movement or enough rest. The real danger begins when the pain stubbornly remains even after applying your usual medications. There is a big difference between stomach upset and abdominal pain, and you know that the latter cannot be relieved by simply refraining from a physical activity or going to the washroom. You know there is something wrong as you keep throwing up almost the whole day. You can’t stand up properly because there’s just too much pain in your abdomen, and you are too weak because of dehydration.
Your mother brings you to the hospital the moment she arrives from work and she sees you curling up in pain. You can’t talk and move and you can’t even explain what’s wrong. Your mother knows she needs to bring you to a doctor.
At the emergency clinic, the doctor reveals that you may have been dead by now have you not been brought to the hospital. If the check up was delayed for a few minutes, the poison may have spread inside your body and emergency operations may not be even enough to help you survive. You wonder what’s happening to you, and your doctor says that your appendix just broke. It’s a clear sign of appendicitis.
Appendicitis: Why and How
Until now, the causes of appendicitis are still unclear. Doctors and scientists, however, believe that it is the result of one or more of the following: invasion of bacteria, the formation and growth of ulceration (which happens as cells die, accompanied by an abnormal change in tissue) and an obstruction within your appendix. Bacteria may increase within your appendix under these conditions.
Your appendix gathers pus to protect you from infection. Pus is a fluid that comes from a particular infected tissue, and is a combination of cellular debris and blood cells. Your appendix may rupture because of excess pus.
The infection and inflammation starts when there is a blockage within the appendix. Intestinal contents filled with bacteria are spilled into the abdominal cavity, resulting in a life-threatening condition called peritonitis. If you are a woman, your ovaries and fallopian tubes may also be infected, so females should be doubly careful to avoid infertility.
If your appendix ruptures, you will experience the symptoms for more than 24 hours. The moment the rupture occurs, you may suddenly feel pain near your belly button or right in the middle of your abdomen. The pain slowly moves towards the right hip over a day, but the development of all the symptoms may take place in four to 48 hours. Symptoms include abdominal pain, vomiting, loss of appetite, high count of white blood cells, fever and fast heartbeat. On very rare instances, the symptoms and inflammation may go away but recur again after some time.
Seek medical care if you show symptoms of fever, lower/right or lower/middle abdominal pain and vomiting. An urgent evaluation must be done if abdominal pain stays for more than three hours. The most common method for treating appendicitis is surgery. In some cases though, medication will do the trick, but only when the doctor is not sure if the condition is appendicitis or not.
Appendicitis: Just Beat It
Appendectomy — The process of removing the appendix through surgery is called appendectomy. In this medical process, the vermiform appendix is removed. Appendectomy is an emergency procedure for people with acute appendicitis, where a small incision is created at the abdomen’s lower right area. Sometimes, laparoscope is used to perform surgery in which incisions are smaller, but are greater in number. Using laparoscope requires three to four small incisions.
Of course, before starting appendectomy, there are preoperative preparations that you need to go through to be well-equipped for the surgery. You also need to provide an informed written consent to allow surgeons to remove your appendix.
Your body will be kept hydrated with IV fluids. To avoid aspiration during anesthesia, you will be kept nil orally before the surgery is started. Necessary and appropriate antibiotics must be taken in, and sometimes painkillers are prescribed. To completely prepare you for surgery, your genital area may be shaved.
If the surgery is an elective procedure, you can’t be admitted to the hospital without some formalities especially if you are under a private health insurance. Your insurance provider should give the hospital an authorization.
Before the surgery, or the night before it, a bath is highly recommended. You need to clean your abdominal and genital areas to lessen bacterial count. This way, infection from surgery is avoided.
Laparoscopic Surgery – Laparascopic surgery is also called ben ogg surgery, keyhole surgery, bandaid surgery and MIS or minimally invasive surgery. It is a new technique where two to three centimeter-incisions are created in the abdomen. It can be performed on pelvic cavities or abdominal cavities.
If you are given the chance to choose between appendectomy and laparoscopic surgery, you may want to opt for the latter because it has many advantages that you can’t find in appendectomy. Your need for blood transfusion is reduced because with this method, your blood loss is minimized.
Your recovery time is also shortened due to the small incisions done. Since you have smaller wounds, you will feel less pain. You will need less medication for pain too. The only disadvantage of laparoscopic surgery is the length of the procedure, but your stay in the hospital is shortened compared to your recovery period from appendectomy. In fact, with laparoscopic surgery, you may be discharged from the hospital the same day as the operation. You can also immediately do the things you normally do everyday.
With laparoscopic surgery, exposure of internal organs to contaminants is reduced, thereby minimizing the risk of getting infections. You can also undergo laparoscopic surgery to put your egg cells back to your fallopian tubes.
Antibiotics — Sometimes, the symptoms of appendicitis and infections are the same. If your health care provider can’t readily release a sure diagnosis, you will have to take antibiotics. The pain you are feeling is caused by infection if, after taking antibiotics, the symptoms subside with intravenous fluids and intravenous antibiotics.
Your body can sometimes control a hole, technically called appendiceal perforation, by abscess formation. The formation of abscess comes in just when an infection is walled off in one of your body parts. As part of treating appendicitis, your doctor can drain the abscess for a few weeks. After some time, you will still need to have your appendix removed through appendectomy.
Lesson Learned
The appendix is sometimes regarded as one of the most useless organs in the human body because you can live without it, but you could have not survived all these years without the protection it provides against contaminants and toxins.
Now that your appendix has been removed, you should help yourself by avoiding foods that you are not allowed to eat anymore, taking medications to protect yourself from toxins and bacteria, and generally following your doctor’s advice.
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