[Glaslyn] The Patient Speaks

Kellie Hardy khemail at swbell.net
Sun Sep 23 11:31:41 PDT 2001


Hi everyone,
Since several of you have called or emailed inquiring as to what the
heck is wrong with me, and wearying now of telling my war story, let me
address the issue as briefly as possible in this forum and then be
done.  By the way, thank you for your expressions of concern.  I really
appreciate it.

Last Thursday, the 13th, my appendix ruptured.  I was misdiagnosed in a
Plano ER as having an ovarian cyst.  Don't ask.  Fritz and I and our
entourage went to Raven's Fort, and I took lots of painkillers.  On
Monday, my OB-gyn said, "b-----it", and sent me to Baylor ER, where on
Tuesday an abdominal CT showed a largish abcess covering my appendix.
On Thursday, after MANY antibiotics had been pumped in my system, using
ultrasound technology they sucked out the abcess and put in a drain.  I
will sport that lovely accessory for a week.  I was discharged on
Saturday.  I will return to hospital in about a month to have the
appendix itself removed.
When one's appendix ruptures, one of two scenarios follow:
1. The nasty little organ spews its poisonous infection all over your
gut, and dramatic surgery follows to stave off peritonitis and death.
Hopefully.
2. The membrane surrounding the abdominal organs (peritoneum) forms a
pocket and "walls off" the infectious goo as an abcess.  Surgery is far
less dramatic, and the infection is contained and easily managed.  This
is what happened to me.  Thank Almighty and Merciful God.

FYI, your appendix is on your right side.  Draw a line between your
belly button and the top of your pelvic bone.  In the middle sits your
appendix.  Sudden, severe pain in this area SHOULD NOT be ignored.
There is a textbook presentation of symptoms, which my doctors said is
"never" how it presents.  Don't second-guess the pain, or hope it will
go away, like I did.  See a (good) doctor.  I got really, really lucky.

Catrin
Steppes




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