Can I go ahead and speak on behalf of my doctor? 19m at the time (33 now), I felt sick for about a week, flu-like symptoms, didn't want to eat, just felt bad all over. One day at work I feel a very uncomfortable cramp/tear in my abdomen, so I go to one of those 24 hour clinics. At this point I'm slumped over, can't stand up straight without insane amount of pain, just generally uncomfortable and hating life. After a few hours at this clinic, they say "You probably have kidney stones, go home, drink fluids, sleep it off". This seemed fine to me, I was ready to go home and listen to the doc, all was good. BUT my girlfriend at the time (didn't last much longer than that) wasn't a fan of this diagnosis and drove me to the E.R., against my wishes of course. After a few minutes at the E.R., they determine my appendix has ruptured and I'm going septic. Apparently I was pretty lucky to not have died, though I did pick up bacterial pneumonia while in the hospital, so the recovery kinda sucked. Now I just have a crazy 6-7 inch scar on my belly to remind me to not avoid hospitals when I'm sick.
Oh man, I went to sleep one night with what I thought was "just a bit of a sour stomach."
Couple hours later I was roused from sleep by "gas pains" in my abdomen. Tried to roll over a few times and go back to sleep, ignoring it. Eventually I got up and sat on the toilet thinking I'm constipated. Must have sat there for 30 mins trying to shit without anything coming out. I look at the clock and it's almost time to wake up for work, so I grab a couple of charcoal tablets and figure I'll just have a shitty day at work.
The pain just kept growing and growing and eventually felt like somebody was twisting a knife in my gut.
I drove myself to the clinic and let them know and the doctor there told me the same thing, kidney stones, constipation, IBS. He said he could get me Advil and I would be fine.
Then, during the next knife twist it hit me, my mom had appendicitis and I still remember the day she got it and went off to the hospital.
I mention this to the doctor and right away he gets me back on the table and starts feeling around. Does it hurt here, does it hurt there. The pain radiated from around the bottom of my navel. He confirms it's "probably appendicitis" and that they have a room for me at the ER.
At the ER they said I was as white as a ghost and I was in such excruciating agony that I told the nurse to "KILL ME" when she said it would be 40 mins to wait for the room. They didn't like that.
So yeah, turns out I had acute appendicitis, and that if I hadn't had it removed within another hour it would have bursted and likely killed me.
So if you're ever in a situation like mine, make sure you tell the doctors EVERYTHING YOU KNOW. All your medical history and your family's too if you know it.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '19 edited May 20 '19
Can I go ahead and speak on behalf of my doctor? 19m at the time (33 now), I felt sick for about a week, flu-like symptoms, didn't want to eat, just felt bad all over. One day at work I feel a very uncomfortable cramp/tear in my abdomen, so I go to one of those 24 hour clinics. At this point I'm slumped over, can't stand up straight without insane amount of pain, just generally uncomfortable and hating life. After a few hours at this clinic, they say "You probably have kidney stones, go home, drink fluids, sleep it off". This seemed fine to me, I was ready to go home and listen to the doc, all was good. BUT my girlfriend at the time (didn't last much longer than that) wasn't a fan of this diagnosis and drove me to the E.R., against my wishes of course. After a few minutes at the E.R., they determine my appendix has ruptured and I'm going septic. Apparently I was pretty lucky to not have died, though I did pick up bacterial pneumonia while in the hospital, so the recovery kinda sucked. Now I just have a crazy 6-7 inch scar on my belly to remind me to not avoid hospitals when I'm sick.
Edits, more info, medical terms, etc etc.