Reply With QuoteThanks for this!
I almost had an appendectomy for Christmas! Almost. Instead, I kept the appendix and got injected with a small amount of narcotics.
I had stomach cramps and low grade fever starting last Wed. I've been on this diet, so I thought that had something to do with how I was feeling. Called the doctor at the Health Club, followed his advice, but didn't feel any better.
The next day I went to see the on-call doctor at my doctor's office. He feels pretty strongly it's appendicitis and sends me to the ER. The ER doc says it's definately appendicitis and asks me to sign some forms while he talks to the surgeon. The surgeon says he wants me to get a CAT scan. The CAT scan says my appendix is fine. So I end up spending the whole day Saturday in the ER and then I get to go home with my appendix, some stomach cramps, and a small injection of dillaudid.
Not a bad haul.
Thanks for this!
What the hell? Get that thing outta there!
At least I have something for next year's secret santa!
"It's the appendix."
"Agreed, definitely the appendix."
"Sorry Doctors, we ran the CT scan and the appendix is fine."
"Great job, Doctor."
"You too, Doctor. Send him home."
You forgot the other thing you brought home. Bills!Originally Posted by Bullhajj
It could be lupus.
You gotta love the Internets!
In my country, getting the appendix out is costing less than CAT scan to see if you need it out. Also, is considered delicacy for the pregnant women. Very delicious nice.
Are you sure they waved the cat directly over your appendix? Sounds like grounds for malpractice to me!
A surgeon took my appendix out when I was 10 years old because another doctor thought the pain I had in the side of my abdomen was a piece of shit that had gotten stuck around there causing my appendix to swell.
When he cut in there, he saw that the appendix was healthy and not swollen at all. But since he'd already gone this far, he took it out anyway. It's not like I needed the thing.
He gave it to me wrapped in a gauze bandage, and I put it into a jar and kept it until dried and shriveled up into a nasty-looking, bacon-like piece of jerky.
You mean fecalith, dammit! This is crazy, because I was told the same thing when I was 11. However, mine had burst and had given me peritonitis, which essentially feels like your midsection is full of ground glass. At least I know the surgery was legit though!
That's all well and good, Roger, but what happened to the piece of shit in your abdomen?
But I made up my mind, I'm
Keepin' my 'pendix
Gonna keep my 'pendix
Poo, ooh
Lucky bastard.
No kidding. I don't even want to tell the OP what my share of the costs were for a much, much less significant ER visit earlier this summer.
I think you should shave off all your body hair and look for the tell-tale
"bulls-eye" sign of Lyme's Disease.
Zeo--
I'll just get my chest waxed like the 40 year old virgin
Be sure to donate the hair from that to make wigs for cancer kids.
I just had tons of IV Dilaudid for pancreatitus in the hospital and just got out. It helps my pain but nothing else. What is it people like so much about it and Vicodin etc? Sure it's nice to have pain relieved, but it's not better than not having the pain to begin with. Am I an anomaly?
So, how are things going? All better? If not, I have a seemingly weird question: are you overweight? people, like me, who are obese or pushing it have very poor resolution from CAT scans; the fat causes lots of distortion. So, if you are still having pains that they feel might be appendix-related, insist on an MRI. These are much more effective for big folks. And so it goes....
I suspect a CAT scan is only as good as the doctor reading it. I had my gall bladder out in early October (first ever operation - never had so much as a broken bone or cavity before in my life, good times). But the pain came back and cripplingly so about a week later. I get my boss to drive me to the surgeon so he can see for himself the state I'm in, which was teeth-grittingly awful, and he sends me off to the nearest ER.
That evening I drink all the "contrast" liquid they send me (and man was that unpleasant stuff and what came after was worse...) and get the CAT scan done. I'm a skinny little twig over here. I don't think my girth was an issue. But the surgeon promptly refers me to another doctor who tells me it could be an unrelated issue with my colon. So I'm in some real fun times for those who know and for those who don't, I'll spare the details.
The thing is, though, I'd read before about the fact some gallstones escape the surgery and can cause pain even after the operation (though they dissolve within two or three weeks). I'd mentioned this to my surgeon. Anyhow, I go to see the other specialist (after all the lovely pre-colon investigation preparations - I'm so hating this) and without even looking at me he asks about the pain and notes in my file that I'd mentioned the stray-stone theory before. "Yeah, that's it probably. You're in post op now. Let's get you off the antibiotics and get you more painkillers. Come back in a month if it's still a problem."
I was just so relieved there wasn't going to be another operation and that I was getting off those sick-making antibiotics it didn't occur to me until much later to wonder why my surgeon didn't reach the obvious conclusion and how that CAT scan worked out to confirm something other than the obvious....
Ah, well. Not going to dwell. It's over now. But what a crappy (in so many ways) fall I had.
Unlike most types of imaging, CT scans of the abdomen are easier to read in obese men, especially if they are being done for appendicitis. That's because appendicitis is often diagnosed by inflammation of the surrounding intra-abdominal fat. The more fat is present, the easier it is to see any suspicious inflammation.
Obese women benefit less, because their fat generally accumulates outside of the abdominal cavity (hips, thighs). And abdominal CT is one of the rare cases in which young, athletic people provide the biggest diagnostic challenge. In children, sometimes ultrasound is used instead. MRI for appendicitis is mainly reserved for pregnant women with an inconclusive ultrasound.
Opoids work differently, when you're not in constant pain. That is, if you weren't already in severe pain to begin with, they don't cause analgesia, they cause euphoria. If you're in severe pain, they pretty much only provide analgesia.
I rate this Bullhajj thread a 6. Not enough penis.
I actually had my first experience with morphine after both the surgery and a particularly bad attack a week before the operation. After the surgery I was just kind of a mess in general but I was awake for the attack and the aftermath. Not so much with the giddy or high feelings but a whole lot of relief, for a minute or so, and then the exhaustion just overwhelmed me and I crashed hard.
Yeah. The exhaustion never really goes away. That's the one part of morphine you don't develop much of a tolerance to.
No disrespect intended, but yeah you can develop a tolerance to the nods/lethargy after a while. Thing is, once you do, it means you're hooked bad. There comes a time with opiates that the high isn't what you're looking for, by then you're just looking for a cure for the withdrawal symptoms. It's a tolerance/dosage spiral that can lead to taking just enough to shut down your respiration or the famous aspiration of stomach contents.
But I'm guessing that's not what you actually meant though. If you are not an abuser of opiates, the nods will get you eventually. OTOH, the potential for addiction is different for each individual. So you can still go on the nod if you have a serious addiction. Best bet is to keep a dialog open with your doctor. YMMV.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
Well, I've been on heroic doses of morphine for over four years now, and I still get exhausted after a trip to the corner store to grab some cokes. I've never once gotten a 'high' off them, but they do a passable job of tamping down the screaming agony. There's a reason I was talking about medicinal use, Rich.
Thanks for the concern, though.
In that case I sincerely apologise if I misinterpreted your post. Anything that causes you to be on large doses of any opiate for four years can't be good and I certainly didn't mean to make light of your condition, whatever it may be.
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