My Appendicitis Nightmare: A Year Later, It Still Feels Like a Lifetime Ago

Hello everyone!

I have to say, the biggest nightmare for me was appendicitis and the resulting surgery. I was terrified for a lot of reasons - first and foremost, it's your health, and there's no pleasantness in that. I'm a firm believer that our bodies have everything they need, and I didn't want to get rid of any organs, even if they're considered vestigial.

Secondly, I just couldn't imagine being stuck at home with a sick kid. I mean, who wants to be a sick kid's caregiver? And thirdly, work, of course. Who's going to keep an employee out of commission for so long, even if it's for a legitimate reason?

But it happened, and it's done. As the saying goes, if there's a chance something will happen, it'll happen sooner or later.

Background: how it all started.

My story is similar to most of the ones you'll read here. To put it bluntly, I was thinking about something entirely different. I was at work one evening, and I decided to order some sushi/rolls. And as it often is at the end of the day - I was starving, so I went all out with them.

At 2 am, my stomach started to hurt, and of course, I blamed it on the sushi. I thought it was just a stomach bug. I didn't even consider food poisoning, since there was no vomiting or diarrhea.

I spent the whole night with a stomachache, shivering, and sleeping under two blankets (the night before, I had a sore throat, so I thought it was just a cold on top of a stomach bug).

I managed to sleep for a few hours that night, but by morning, the symptoms hadn't gone away - they'd actually gotten worse and had shifted to the right side.

I settled in to work from home that day, thank goodness. By lunchtime, I was in agony – I couldn't even speak from the pain. I went online to research my symptoms, and everything pointed to appendicitis. I called my sister, who tried to calm me down, saying it was probably just a stomach bug and not to freak out. I called my grandma, who was a bit more serious, insisting I call an ambulance.

As an aside, I hadn't had any appetite that morning, so I hadn't eaten anything since the previous night's sushi. I did take some Polysorb just in case, but it didn't do much good.

The ambulance arrived quickly, within 30 minutes. They poked and prodded me, took my temperature (37.4°), and gave me a preliminary diagnosis of appendicitis.

I quickly grabbed my stuff and documents and hopped into the ambulance. On the way, every bump felt like a sledgehammer. I was sobbing uncontrollably – I'm not kidding.

We arrived, but little did I know that someone with appendicitis symptoms would still have to wait an hour to see the on-call surgeon. He sent me to see a gynecologist just in case.

The gynecologist examined me and asked some questions, and then dropped a bombshell: 'You might have a ruptured ovary.'

I was beyond tears – I was in shock. A million questions flooded my mind: what if it's not appendicitis? What do I do? How can I be sure? I asked if an ultrasound was necessary, but they didn't have one available. So, I went back to the surgeon to sign the papers for hospitalization.

I ended up in the ward after an hour, and then it was just a long wait. For two hours, I was sitting alone, and no nurse or doctor came to see me. I'd already cried all my tears and was getting more anxious - the pain was getting worse and better in waves. I kept thinking, maybe the doctors are waiting for it to pass, maybe it's all just a mistake, and they'll send me home. But with the internet at my fingertips, I was pretty sure I had appendicitis. The paramedics on the ambulance confirmed it, and the duty surgeon confirmed it when they examined me. So, I just had to wait. But I had no idea what was going on...

Two hours later, they took my blood tests, gave me a no-shpu injection, and took an ECG.

At 7 pm (I'd arrived at 2 pm) they finally told me it was definitely appendicitis.

They said there would be surgery, probably today, whenever the doctor was free. And that's when a new wave of panic hit me - I'd never been under anesthesia, and the thought of being on the operating table was terrifying. Plus, I'd read all the comments about the surgery and the recovery period, and it was making me nervous. And to top it all off, if it's 100% appendicitis, why did I have to wait so long? I mean, a ruptured appendix is still a possibility...

Within an hour, things moved at lightning speed - the anesthesiologist arrived to talk about anesthesia. She asked about allergies, how I react to medication, and so on. She suggested either local or general anesthesia. I was terrified of the general kind, after my neighbor in the ward freaked me out saying you might not even wake up from it... The anesthesiologist agreed, gave me some sort of form to sign, and I signed it without even looking – what's the difference, really?

They came and gave me two shots (one in my right leg and one in my left). I asked what the shots were, but they just replied 'preparation, preoperative' and that was it.

By 8 am, two nurses came to get me. They told me to completely undress, remove all jewelry, and take off my hair clips. I lay down on a gurney, got covered with a sheet and a blanket, and we were off... As I left the ward, one of the nurses asked who was operating and how qualified the doctor was. I got a reassuring 'I don't know.' My mind was racing – 'this is like a movie, I'm just going along for the ride.' I tried to read the signs on the doors as we passed by, but I forgot everything instantly. What stuck with me, though, was the feeling of going over the hospital's potholed roads – I wish I'd taken a photo, but I guess it's just a way to distract patients from their impending surgery.

We made our way down to the operating room, where they took off the blanket and left me with just the sheet on. That's when I felt the cold and shivering that everyone talks about.

They put a cap on my head, some slippers on my feet, and asked again about my jewelry and teeth.

I got wheeled into the operating room and helped onto the operating table. They put a blood pressure cuff on my right arm and some other sensor on my left arm. A catheter was inserted, and I think they gave me some kind of meds or anesthesia, but I'm not entirely sure. The prep took almost 30 minutes, and I was lying there thinking, 'If the prep takes this long, how am I going to handle the actual surgery while I'm awake?' I started crying again.

The anesthesiologist came in and told me they'd decided to go with general anesthesia instead – which would be better for me, given that my period was about to start.

As scary as general anesthesia was, it actually calmed me down. I'd sleep through the whole thing and wake up feeling fine.

I don't remember the moment I fell asleep, but I do remember waking up, feeling like I'd had a good but short nap.

I didn't have any weird dreams or anything.

I really wanted to sleep, but they kept telling me not to, and I'd hear them asking, 'What's wrong, everything's okay.' But I wasn't crying – my eyes were just running.

After the surgery, I don't remember how I got from the operating table to the gurney, or how I made it to my room. All I remember is being told not to sleep for two hours. But my eyes kept getting heavy. I managed to fight off the sleep long enough to call my family and let them know the surgery was over, and that I was coming out of the anesthesia. The whole thing took 40 minutes.

I tried to sleep at 4 am, but I was only able to doze off in short bursts, waking up every 30 minutes.

I have to say, the first few days after the procedure were pretty intense. By day 6, I was getting injections, taking my temperature, and asking how I felt. Next up was hygiene, and I was sleeping in until around 9 am. At 9-10 am, I'd have a visit from the doctor. After that, I'd get my dressings changed. The nurse would come into my room, and I'd get to see what was under the bandage – my neighbor in the room told me the stitches looked great, and everything was healing well. I was a bit hesitant to look at my drainage tube, but it didn't look too bad, thankfully. I mean, I'd seen some pretty rough-looking tubes on other patients in the hallway.

On the first morning, I got two injections – one for antibiotics and one for pain relief (ketorol). I was supposed to get some other meds, but they held off due to the critical nature of my condition.

I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for the first day, just to keep my mouth moist with water. Interestingly, the hunger pangs were gone, but I was really thirsty.

The pain was still pretty noticeable, even with the pain meds. I was feeling pretty weak, and I slept for most of the day. I couldn't even get out of bed, let alone try to stand up. I was pretty much bedridden the entire day.

That evening, I got more injections. The antibiotics are a 7-day course, and they started asking about my pain levels from day 3 onwards.

By the second day, I wasn't feeling much different from the day before. They let me eat, but they didn't bring me any breakfast – my first meal of the day was lunch, and get this – it was a big ol' bowl of borscht with a ton of cabbage! I'd read that you shouldn't eat cabbage for the first two months after surgery, but I'm guessing they gave it to me to get things moving, even though I wasn't exactly feeling the need to go to the bathroom. (To be honest, by the second day, I wasn't really feeling any pressure to go, but I guess you have to start somewhere, even if it's just passing gas.)

The nurse recommended I stay in bed, and to be honest, I was trying to get up, but every time I tried, I ended up right back in the same position – lying down. My head was spinning, and I felt like I was going to pass out from weakness.

By the third and fourth days, I was getting a bit frustrated. It was the weekend, so I didn't have a doctor's visit, just regular medical and hygiene procedures, and feeding. I happened to complain to the on-call doctor that I couldn't pee. It was really hard. I felt like I had a full bladder, but I couldn't make it to the bathroom. The result? I was told not to eat the next day. I was shocked! Instead of checking me out and understanding the cause, they just took me off the menu. So, by the fifth day, I hadn't eaten. The doctor came by during the morning rounds, and I told him about my problem with the bathroom – he just said he'd call in a urologist. I don't have to say that the urologist never showed up? To be honest, I was so down about the whole situation and my overall condition that I had a mini-panic attack that evening. I wasn't sobbing loudly, just quietly crying in the bathroom and in bed.

I didn't take a shower during those days, either. Physically, it was impossible, given the pain I was in. Plus, the shower was freezing, and I was worried I'd catch a cold.

By the sixth day, they promised to discharge me, but something went wrong – they were still waiting for the urologist, and without his check-up, they couldn't let me go. But at least they fed me on the sixth day (no need to go into the details about the argument with the doctor).

Eventually, on the seventh day, the doctor gave the okay for discharge. They discharged me in the evening because he said he didn't have time to write up the discharge papers – I could either wait or come back the next day to pick up the papers. But driving with a fresh wound to the other side of town wasn't exactly appealing. I decided to wait.

The urologist still never showed up, by the way.

<\/a> <\/div><\/div>I'm glad to report that the stitches didn't come undone, but I did have to remove them myself at home. It took around a week or so to do that, depending on how they looked.

The first few days at home were a mix of tough and easy moments. Having a home to come back to was a big relief, and being able to eat and shower normally was a blessing. Of course, I didn't overdo it on the food, just stuck to a normal diet.

My doctor didn't give me any special dietary recommendations when I was discharged, but I figured it was best to play it safe and stick to a balanced diet. No heavy, greasy, or spicy foods for a while, at least.

As for hygiene, I followed the usual routine, but I had to be careful not to get the stitches wet for the first few days. After that, it was business as usual with soap and water.

<\/p>

<\/a> <\/div><\/div>I took care of removing the bandages myself.

When the time came to remove the stitches, I was nervous, thinking it would hurt. But it was just a bit uncomfortable, and the doctor did a great job of getting them out quickly and smoothly. I'd read about the risk of the threads not coming out completely and causing infection, but that wasn't a problem in my case.

<\/p>

<\/a> <\/div><\/div><\/p>

<\/a> <\/div><\/div>My hospital stay was a month, and it wasn't until two weeks after I got home that I managed to catch a cold. Coughing and sneezing with a fresh wound was quite the challenge.

<\/p>

A month laterThree months later.

I've noticed the seam sometimes creaks, and it's definitely there. It's not a huge issue, but it's a bit of a giveaway. So far, it's not been a problem for me, and it's still a nice pink color.

As for my overall health, I've been experiencing pain on the right side, near my kidney, for a while now. Even before my appendicitis surgery, I had it checked out by a doctor, and everything was fine. After the surgery, I thought maybe I had chronic appendicitis, but it seems that's not the case. Now I'm back to visiting doctors to figure out what's going on.

Interestingly, my hemoglobin levels dropped significantly after the surgery. I took iron supplements for a month, and they helped a bit, but then I stopped taking them.

xa0

Six months later.

The seam has faded a bit, but it's still pretty visible. I haven't had any major issues with it, but it can be a bit itchy when I rub against my clothes. I haven't been doing any strenuous activities, so it's not been a problem yet.

I still haven't had an ultrasound or done any follow-up tests.

xa0

Nearly a year later.

xa0

The seam is still pretty noticeable, but it's not causing me any discomfort. I haven't done anything to try to remove or cover it up, and it's not been a problem.

It's been almost a year now (October 2023)I'm still not seeing any significant changes when it comes to my health. My hemoglobin levels are still low, so I'm back to taking iron supplements. But maybe this is just a normal deficiency and not a lingering effect from the surgery.

The stitches have healed up nicely, and I don't feel any discomfort or pulling sensations. Occasionally, it might itch a bit, but that's rare.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty normal at the moment.

Would I recommend the surgery? If you've got the indications, then why not? My only regret is that I didn't get to go through the laparoscopic appendectomy procedure. Maybe the recovery process would have been a lot smoother.

Thanks for reading!