Ugh...I'm sore. Easter Sunday I start getting sick as hell around 7pm, come 11pm I'm in so much pain that I can't handle it anymore. So I have my girlfriend drive me to the hospital. The damn place was packed, but thankfully I didn't have to wait because they saw how much pain I was in.

They loaded me up with dilatid (sp?) and anti nausea meds and gave me a CT scan. Turns out I had severe appendicitis. So Monday morning at 9am I underwent an emergency appendectomy to have my appendix removed. I'm off work atleast until next week....thank God for paid time off.

I hate going to hospitals..and I almost just decided to tough it out. I figured I had just eaten too much candy and Easter food. I never would have guessed appendix, particularly because the pain started below my sternum, and not where the appendix actually is. But apparently thats where it starts usually. Thank God I went though, bc appendicitis has a 50% mortality rate! I'm on percocets and just hanging out now, lol.

Oh goodness, I am glad you are okay. Take it easy and don't push yourself too hard. Make sure you are well healed, because it you start being active before you have given your body time to heal, you will pay for it dearly. I have seen this before.

only a 50% mortality rate if you don't go in... that'* another reason to always get checked even if it turns out to be nothing.

glad youre ok though, enjoy being paid to do nothing!

Glad to hear you're on the mend. Dilaudid is an extremely potent narcotic analgesic. There are so many things that can cause abdominal pain it can sometimes be tricky to diagnose. Appendicitis often starts peri-umbilical (around the belly button) and later moves down into the right lower quadrant. There are some other variations though. Because of this, people don't always think appendix. The abdomen is well known for "referred pain", meaning the problem is in one spot but felt elsewhere. The appendicitis itself doesn't carry a high mortality, it'* after a rupture and the often resulting sepsis that sets in. If it'* caught early (pre-rupture) it is quite routine.

Glad you're back and good luck on your recovery

Glad to see you are okay! Admit it...your gf talked you into going right? Lol...j/k

Wow, glad to hear you're OK now. How long are you supposed be off your feet?

Thanks guys, I'm doing OK. The surgeon said atleast until Monday...but that it will probably hurt for 2-3 weeks. I would take this pain over the appendicitis pain ANY day though. And you're right...she did do a little convinving to get me to the hospital, haha.

DDalder - dilaudid worked wonders for me. The morphine, vicodin, and percocet seem to have no actual effect as far as lessening pain, unfortunately. It started exactly there, at the belly button...which is why I thought it was just a bad case of indigestion from all the Easter candy and food. I never would have guessed appendicitis...so just a word of advice, anyone feeling extreme pain down there..don't just discount it as nothing!

Wow... you were lucky you decided to go!

Sooo..... any pictures of the gore?

Wellll...I have some pics of me in the hospital...and some internal pics of my appendix, but i'm not sure if thats too graphic for here. Mods?

Morphine, Vicodin and Percocet are all fine pain killers under most circumstances. I've found with many patients that as horrible a drug as it can be, meperidine (Demerol) can in some cases also work very well with abdominal pain. It needs to be used with some caution because one of its most common side effects is extreme nausea and vomiting (despite copious amounts of an anti-nauseant). Vomiting can make an already bad case of abdominal pain even worse.

What'* scary is that appendicitis pain goes away if it ruptures. This is until the individual start to become very ill due to the infection that will set in.