Early Appenditicis (sorry its long)

[Stacy9402]

My 7yr old DD was seen at Peds at nite - sort like urgent care for kids - on Saturday nite. She was having pain above her pelvic area. While there they discovered she was tender on her right side and said they wanted her to be seen at the ER to have a sonogram done for her appendix. So off we go to the ER. Her only other symptom was a small fever of 99.4. So we get there at 9pm and they do a sonogram which didnt prove to be useful so they done a CT Scan which was suspicious so they done another Ct Scan which was still suspicious. She was now saying she was hurting but when they pushed on her she would flinch (she was sleeping during this time). So they said she was fibbing. Maybe she was since they told her what would happen if it was her appendix.. Anyways she got admitted at 4 am and got to room by 5:30 am. They took more blood, more urine and just observed and they let her go home later that afternoon. With instructions of bringing her back if pain return, fever over 100.4, vomiting, etc...
Yesterday she seemed fine just not jumping around all over the place.. Today she comes home from school and said her stomach hurt during PE and that she felt dizzy and hot. So we take her temp and she is 101 so I call the peds and they say to take her back to the ER. So do you all really think this is her appendix? She is not complaining of pain. It is not excruciating just hurts or feels weird (her words) when you push around on her belly.

Alos what does it mean when they say The CT scan was really hard to read because she is so compact and really small (she is a petite little girl). Plus they said the dye did not go all the way into the intestines or the appendix.

Thanks in advance

 

[mhsjax]

I really don't have ay advice. But it must be in the air. On Jan 10th my son out of nowhere doubled over and said his rt side hurt. He didn't even want to eat. 13 yo boy, big clue, something is wrong. Took him to the ER, wasn't running a fever or any other symptoms, did a CT said appendix was slightly enlarged. Sent him to the children's hospital and out it came the next day. now he is 13 and a big boy, so they had no trouble reading the CT.

i would push the issue if you think something in wrong. You know your DD better than anyone and chances are if you think something is wrong ten there is. Mommy knows best sometimes.

Anyway, that is my story, and for his 13th Birthday DS got an appendectomy. He was home the next day. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[mhsjax]

OOPS, sorry, forgot to quote.

 

[jemgumby]

While uncommon the appendix can rupture slowly over time. That is what mine did. I actually had symptoms (didn't know what it was) until it became ACUTE appendicitis. I would followup as it is better to be safe than sorry. Also not everybody's symptoms are the same. I had already been admitted to the hospital by my fam doc for appendicitis and the blood work proved to show that was the cause. However, I had mentioned to the surgeon that I was STARVING and that really threw him for a loop as he had never heard of a person with appendicitis being hungry (I guess they usually vomit). So he did a CAT Scan just to make sure and sure enough it was about to rupture. I was in surgery within minutes. So just saying she may not have the "typical" symptoms of appendicitis but could still have it....

 

[JCJRSmith]

Mine too. When I was 10 I had what we thought was a stomach flu and I spent a week home from school. By Friday afternoon I felt better and at lunch time I convinced my mom to bring me back to school because I was so bored at home. Woke up Saturday and went shopping with my sister and while we were in the store the pain in the gut came roaring back. By that afternoon I was in the hospital and that night my appendix was removed. From the doctor's estimate, it had been inflamed all week and burst on Saturday.

Hope your little one is over this soon. Today and appendectomy, if necessary, is a laproscopic procedure with a short recovery.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

My DD was 15 when she had to have hers removed. She was sick to her stomach and had a fever & pain on her side. They said it was common in children from 7-16.

 

[Stacy9402]

Thanks. She is still at the ER.. ugh another long night

 

[jemgumby]

Thanks. She is still at the ER.. ugh another long night

So sorry. Please keep us posted!

 

[Feralpeg]

When my brother was 10, he got sick one night. He vomited several times and had a slight fever. My folks assumed he had a stomach virus. The next day, the vomiting stopped. He still had a low grade fever, but seemed to feel better. He walked around like nothing hurt. We even went to a football game. At the game, my mom told my aunt, who is an RN, about my brother. She told my folks that he should be checked. My dad thought it was nothing, but my mom was nervous. They took him to the ER. A few hours later, they took out his appendix. He never had a lot of pain to indicate it was appendicitis.

OP, better to be safe than sorry.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Thanks. She is still at the ER.. ugh another long night

I feel for you. We got there at 3:00 in the afternoon & they took it out at 11:00 that night. It was after midnight before she got back to the room. I hope everything goes well for you.

 

[VillageMama]

PAIN IS NOT A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL!

I can't believe they thought your daughter was "fibbing" or that she wasn't in enough pain for it to be appendicitis.

My 13 year old son had a ruptured appendix. He ended up spending six weeks in the hospital and received Last Rites three times.

He was deathly ill but at no time was he in excruciating pain. I missed the early signs of appendicitis because all he had was vomiting and lethargy... and a little bit of tummy pain.

I am praying for your dear daughter and hoping that they get to the bottom of this very, very soon. If caught early enough, the recovery is much quicker than my son's. (Who made a complete recovery eventually.)

 

[mhsjax]

PAIN IS NOT A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL!

I can't believe they thought your daughter was "fibbing" or that she wasn't in enough pain for it to be appendicitis.

My 13 year old son had a ruptured appendix. He ended up spending six weeks in the hospital and received Last Rites three times.

He was deathly ill but at no time was he in excruciating pain. I missed the early signs of appendicitis because all he had was vomiting and lethargy... and a little bit of tummy pain.

I am praying for your dear daughter and hoping that they get to the bottom of this very, very soon. If caught early enough, the recovery is much quicker than my son's. (Who made a complete recovery eventually.)

wow, that is terrible. And true, they recover when caught early. The only reason they took my kiddo's out is because and I quote from the Dr. "They don't improve with time and you caught yours really early" They operated the next day at 8:30 am and if it hadn't been so late that night whe the nurse realized how well he was doing, they would have paged the Dr that night to see if he could go home. As it was they discharged him the next am.
stayed home for a few days (luckily they had a 4 day weekend) And he is now playing baskeball and has been for over a week.

All because they listened to his parents at the ER and ran tests. Like I said sometimes parent know best and the ER should listen to us. Although sometimes as in your case, it isn't even clear to the parents.

 

[dwdreamer]

I had my appendix out last April. I had been having pain for about a month. I thought it was related to my cycle because of when the pain started. With me, the pain would come and go, and I didn't have a fever until the day the I had the ct scan and was sent directly to the hospital. Turned out it had ruptured and formed an abcess. One thing the Dr. had me do when I saw him was jump up and down, which I could do because I wasn't in pain at the time. He said if it was my appendix, I wouldn't have been able to do it, and when I was in pain I couldn't.

 

[Stacy9402]

Well they let her come back home last night even though her appendiz was borderline by the ultrasound. Her appendix is a 6 if it was 7 she would have been admitted and it removed. She has to go see the surgeon today. But she really is not having pain or not speaking of it and no fever this morning.. will update later..

 

[Stacy9402]

Well went to go see the surgeon and she said she was fine. I really dont understand but she seems fine I will just keep a close eye on her..

 

[themarquis]

Watch her closely, stacy, and if you see any relapsing of symptoms (even minor) get her into the ER right away.

The appendix ... well, the truth of the matter is that it's one of the trickiest thing for doctors to diagnose. It's also one of the most common (or the most common) malpractice areas ... mostly because a ton of patients don't have SEVERE symptoms so they sort of get missed or schlepped back and forth between doctors and ERs for a while. So what you and others are describing is really really common! "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't" sort of thing.

I'll tell you why I know this in a moment, but it also turns out that a lot of medical folks are just plain wrong about appendicitis -- they think it's going to be a big flashing sign over the patient's head and the patient deteriorates and gets really really sick. They think it couldn't possibly be the case that a patient would get a little sick, get a little better (or completely better), a little sick again, etc. And they're wrong about that.

My story -- to keep it brief, I was hospitalized twice for appendicitis -- a year apart. I was totally well in between! So I had "a little bit of appendicitis", got better and then a year later, got sick again! First time, they gave me IV antibiotics (ct was inconclusive and they were keeping me on ice for a while while they figured out what to do) and I got better the next day!! They said "yeah, we don't know what that was..." and sent me home. Second time, much more painful, but still no severe symptoms. CT and other tests were much more conclusive, although they still waffled for about 16 hours about whether to operate So out it came!

Afterwords, I read up on the issue and it turns out that a large number of people do get "a little bit of appendicitis" and either never go to the ER in the first place or get the "wait and see" approach in the ER and it gets better! They've also done studies of people living in remote areas (like the arctic or on an oil rig) that get appendicitis and can't be operated on because of the remoteness. They give them antibiotics and 90 percent of them get better. Then later in life, a certain percentage of them have another "bout" with appendicitis and it does come out.

Long story short, yes, your dd could have it in some kind of "mild" form that they are uncomfortable diagnosing. If I were her mom, I might start pushing the docs to operate. You don't want this to drag out forever, and an appendectomy is a simple, relatively safe surgical procedure.

 

[Debbie7452]

My 7yr old DD was seen at Peds at nite - sort like urgent care for kids - on Saturday nite. She was having pain above her pelvic area. While there they discovered she was tender on her right side and said they wanted her to be seen at the ER to have a sonogram done for her appendix. So off we go to the ER. Her only other symptom was a small fever of 99.4. So we get there at 9pm and they do a sonogram which didnt prove to be useful so they done a CT Scan which was suspicious so they done another Ct Scan which was still suspicious. She was now saying she was hurting but when they pushed on her she would flinch (she was sleeping during this time). So they said she was fibbing. Maybe she was since they told her what would happen if it was her appendix.. Anyways she got admitted at 4 am and got to room by 5:30 am. They took more blood, more urine and just observed and they let her go home later that afternoon. With instructions of bringing her back if pain return, fever over 100.4, vomiting, etc...
Yesterday she seemed fine just not jumping around all over the place.. Today she comes home from school and said her stomach hurt during PE and that she felt dizzy and hot. So we take her temp and she is 101 so I call the peds and they say to take her back to the ER. So do you all really think this is her appendix? She is not complaining of pain. It is not excruciating just hurts or feels weird (her words) when you push around on her belly.

Alos what does it mean when they say The CT scan was really hard to read because she is so compact and really small (she is a petite little girl). Plus they said the dye did not go all the way into the intestines or the appendix.

Thanks in advance

Your thread was so timely for me! My DH has had some intermittant pain for a week now. I could tell it was getting worse but he didn't have any of the
"classic" appendicitis symptoms, so he was resisting getting it checked. After reading this thread I convinced him to go see my internal medicine Dr. this morning. He was sent straight to the hospital and is booked for a 7:30 am appendectomy tomorrow morning!

Whew, thank goodness we caught it in time. He didn't have fever or nausea and still had a decent appetite. It didn't even show up in his bloodwork which confused the surgeon, but the CAT scan was conclusive...

Thank you DISers for sharing your stories!

 

[luvmyfam444]

Your thread was so timely for me! My DH has had some intermittant pain for a week now. I could tell it was getting worse but he didn't have any of the
"classic" appendicitis symptoms, so he was resisting getting it checked. After reading this thread I convinced him to go see my internal medicine Dr. this morning. He was sent straight to the hospital and is booked for a 7:30 am appendectomy tomorrow morning!

Whew, thank goodness we caught it in time. He didn't have fever or nausea and still had a decent appetite. It didn't even show up in his bloodwork which confused the surgeon, but the CAT scan was conclusive...

Thank you DISers for sharing your stories!

wow - that's a cool story -to catch something 'cause of DISers stories!

But I have to ask - did you tell dh that you read on the Dis that he needed to have it out? Mine would just roll his eyes & run if I told him that!

Hope all goes well for him!

 

[Tinijocaro]

Also, remember that pain doesn't always occur where it is "supposed to". Saturday I had pain on the left side of my navel, very strong pain. Everyone at the ER said it couldn't be appendix or gallbladder cause the pain is on the "wrong" side. Well, after a cscan, they found out my gb was very infected so out it came on Monday.

It's called "referred pain" when the pain doesn't appear where it is supposed to.

 

[VillageMama]

Debbie, I am so glad to hear that this thread alerted you to appendicitis and that your dh is going to be treated soon. Thank you for sharing that with us. I've turned into an Appendicitis Alerter! because of what happened to my son.

Tinijocaro, you are so right about abdominal pain. It's not always present or where it's "supposed" to be. I hope that you have an easy recovery from your surgery.

Themarquis, I agree with every word you said. If I were the OP, I would push for an appendectomy. Her daughter's appendix is already going bad, why wait for it to get worse before removing it?

The operation can be done via laparoscopy and has a fairly quick recovery time. But if the appendix is left to get worse... or rupture... it turns into a nightmare. No one wants to stand by their child's hospital bed as a priest absolves him from all sins and prepares him to enter eternity.