1. Community
  2. Gut, bowel and stomach
  3. Appendicitis

Suspected Appendicitis

Posted , 3 users are following.

james40298
james40298

Hi

I am trying to work out if i have chronic appendicitis. The reason i say this is that there seems to be some difference of opinion as to whether chronic appendicitis is a recognised condition.

For over a week now i have been having some mild pain in my lower right quadrant along with rumbling stomach, mild nausea and intermittent fever/high temp/sweats.

I saw my GP in the week and he suggested it could be the appendix playing up but unless it was acute discomfort it is not necessarily my appendix. I recently had a CT scan of abdomen and pelvis for something unrelated and upon reviewing it, it read, 'signs of mild thickening of the appendix wall with no inflammatory changes'. The chap reading the scan suggested this was not an issue.

I am a bit confused as appadently chronic appendicitis is rare and this is clearly not acute. Not yet anyway.

Has anyone had similar symptoms that either developed into acute appendicitis or that resulted in a different diagnosis.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

James

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • susan556
    susan556 james40298

    Posted

    James i have two sons, both had a grumbling appendix, one was told they would do nothing as it can clear on its own which it did,and this was years ago, however my other son was walking around for months feeling unwell, pain hot sweats and severe pain, was repeatedly  going back to the drs, given meds for IBS!

    To cut  a long story short he ended up with burst appendix due to neglect of gp, unlike you he had no scan, in correct area, only upper abdomen which showed nothing of course.  When they finally opened him up he was one bad real bad mess inside, So bad they couldnt do keyhole surgery, had been walking around with poisons building up  for months! Dont wish to scare you and it sounds as though your dr is keeping a better eye on you than my sons GP did plus you had scan on correct area as well but if you find the pains get worse with nausea and sweats go back to your gp.  Why was their thickening of the appendix wall, whats this mean?.

    Son is ok now but wouldnt want anyone else to got through what he went through

    Just keep an eye on things thats all. 

    It may well settle down like my first son.

    Wishing you all the best

    Sue 

    • james40298
      james40298 susan556

      Posted

      Hi Sue.

      Thanks for the response. Your advice is very valuable and consistent with that of my GP, in so much as should the pain get worse, and to be honest it is not painful, just noticeable at present, then i need to get to the a&e department.

      Your other question is one that i do not fully understand and one that i need to pursue. I assume that the appendix wall thickening would mean that the organ was inflamed, yet then there were no inflammatory changes of the appendix, which begs the question, what could cause thickening of the appendix wall if it is not the appendix?

      James

  • susan556
    susan556 james40298

    Posted

    Hi James

    Thanks for reply, was a bit worried id scared you, just wouldn't  want to see anyone else suffer like my son, forwarned is forarmed as they say.

    Sue 

  • rae99290
    rae99290 james40298

    Posted

    I was first diagnosed with a 'grumbling' appendix when I was 14. I was having very similar symptoms to yours, although I never had a temp. I would literally sit in the hospital waiting room trying to curl in on myself because it hurt so much. In the end, I just stopped going. It always went away or my GP gave me antibiotics. Until it became acute, and therefore necessary to do surgery, they weren't willing to help me. Their aim is to leave people whole and to never do surgery unless it's absolutely necessary. I raved a lot about that in the 14 years that have past since my first flare up.

    However, as annoying as it was, to go through the pain over and over again to only be told they couldn't/wouldn't do anything, I knew exactly what I had the moment I woke up with acute appendicitis last month. The pain was the same but worse. I was hunched over unable to stand up, shivering uncontrollably, a tiny bit nauseous from infection or pain, I'm not sure. And when the surgeon poked me in McBurney's point I almost kneed him in the face on reflex. There is a clear difference, or there was in my case, between chronic and acute symptoms. It doesn't help in the interim, I know, but if it should ever become acute, you'll know and you should be able to get to the hospital in time. In my case, I woke up at 4, was at the hospital at 6, admitted by 8am and had my surgery 10pm that night and it hadn't burst. I had a lap surgery, got the all clear at rounds the next morning to go home and have been right as rain ever since.

    I also think that acute appendicitis resulting from chronic appendicitis is inevitable -- it's consistently becoming inflammed so it has to give eventually. I just hope it doesn't take you 14 years like it did for me. If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer them in the scope of my experience. smile

    • susan556
      susan556 rae99290

      Posted

      Rae your lucky,our son was left laying in hospital in so much pain he was begging them to take it out. They left him all night! He was stapled afterwards and then they gave way so he was left with an open wound to heal, had to keep being stuffed with this gauze or what ever it was ever day, took weeks to get over and he couldnt even walk properly, Now got awful scars from his navel downwards.They then gave him a course of antibiotics but realised they had given him the wrong ones! so had to give him another lot.  He was expected to get himself to the drs every morning to have the dressings changed, he could hardly walk! Aventually they did a home visit after his partner request this and the nurse was very off with him until she saw the exstent of his op, and it was ah and oh, mmmm i can see why you couldnt walk to the surgery! 
    • rae99290
      rae99290 susan556

      Posted

      I'm very sorry to hear that! I had a lot of times over the years when my appendix would flare up chronically for me and I would beg them to take it out but they never did. Probably the worse parts of my stay in hospital was being starved for 30 hours because they didn't know when my surgery would be. It would have been longer if my mum hadn't brought me a bag of snacks for later. I was so hungry I woke up at 5am and despite being very sore from being intubated, I managed to eat a snack bar. In fact no one changed my board in the morning [I was nil by mouth] so if I hadn't explained that I had already had my surgery I wouldn't have gotten breakfast either. Oh and how a nurse and two doctors also denied me blankets despite being freezing cold in case it gave me a fever until a lovely nurse who came to take me to the ward snuck me two. So I feel like they get caught up so much in protocol they can forget about the patient. But he survived and he's feeling better I hope?

Back to top

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.