Coping With Appendectomy

I have rheumatoid arthritis and tend to pain I may have. TEN years ago I told my GP that my right side hurt. He pushed and prodded and diagnosed me with a very minor hernia. “When it starts to really bother you, we’ll look into doing something for it.” It still hurt months later, so to rule out his original diagnosis, I had a colonscopy [colonoscopy] (nothing) and then an exploratory endoscopy to check out my female parts (a little cyst on right ovary). Everything else was fine. So I learned to ignore my discomfort. Finally my GYN stated that it could be a nerve that is caught in scar tissue from two past cesareans.

I had a hysterectomy in Feb (for bleeding) and before I went under, I asked the doc to please take a look at my appendix, as I heard they’ll remove an unhealthy one in surgery. I also was hoping the hysterectomy and ovary removal would cure the right side pain. Doc claimed the appendix was “fine” and left it where it belonged.

This Friday I was in such pain. Right side hurt, nauseated, felt bloated and like I was about to have a torn up stomach. Never did. But I did vomit, which relieved some of the pain. I waited for Saturday morning, as my doctor’s office opens early, but they were too busy to take me, so I went to the ER. An ultrasound showed a gallbladder packed full of stones. The CAT scan showed a badly inflamed appendix. The doctors won’t do both at once, so the appendix was removed.

I go to the surgeon’s office on Friday to have staples removed and set up an appointment to have the gall bladder removed. Whew! The surgeon tells me my appendix had been chronically inflamed and was so wrapped in scar tissue it took an hour and a half to remove. I don’t think the GYN that performed the hysterectomy even looked, do you?

Pretty crazy having both problems at once, though, don’t you think? The nurses were excited…I could hear them on the phones talking to other nurse friends, “Guess what we have here?!! A gallstone/appendicitis!”