r/appendicitis

I initially thought I had food poisoning which started my symptoms 7-8 days ago. I had extreme diarrhea and bloating on the first night. The second day I went to work and had a splitting headache and a fever with chills, not to mention very severe body aches. I swear I had ice packs on all my major muscles. All my symptoms felt consistent with food poisoning in the past. The night I was the worst my stomach was in absolute agony, I've never felt anything like this but I assumed it was stomach cramps due to food poisoning. My stomach was swollen and firm to the touch but sensitive overall.

The following day I couldn't move my torso in all directions due to whatever was going on inside. Any time I ate food I would get a stabbing pain nearly 30 to 60 mins later. I figured my bowels were still angry following food poisoning the night prior.

I slowly got better and my fever, body aches, and headache subsided over 6ish days. However I had diarrhea nearly every day the past week, felt bloated, and occasionally felt a dull pain on my lower right abdomen. Eating was still at a minimum. Yesterday was my first full meal but I still had minor pain following the meal which I can only describe feels as bloating. Today I had a semi normal bowel movement, but the dull ache on my right remains and especially hurts if the area is pushed on (which I'm not doing because I know it could cause an appendix to rupture if already inflamed).

My problem right now is I'm located in Canada and it's our thanksgiving weekend. I don't feel like what I experienced was typical food poisoning but my current state doesn't exactly point me to an ER right now. I feel like I've trended towards recovery last week.

I wonder what the folks of Reddit have to say or if anyone has similar experiences.

Thank you in advance.

Hey everyone!

I had open appendectomy surgery 10 days ago, and for the past 3–4 days, I've noticed something strange. Whenever I get out of bed and start walking, I hear a gurgling sound on my left side, somewhere around my lower chest or between my chest and upper stomach. I'm not sure if it's gas, my heartbeat, or something else.

Has anyone experienced something similar after an appendectomy? I'd really appreciate it if you could share your experience.

Also, I've been sleeping on my back since the day of surgery because I'm a bit afraid to sleep on my side. I tried turning onto my side once, but I heard/felt something that sounded like gas moving, so I got scared and turned back. 😅

When did you feel comfortable sleeping on your side again?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences! 🙏

26f - i had an emergency uncomplicated laproscopic appendectomy 10 days ago (september 29) and I am genuinely depressed.

it was in a very shitty hospital (i thought i just had food poisoning when i went in at 2am, so I didnt choose carefully) and I had a terrible experience with everything EXCEPT the surgery itself. but I didn't feel that any of the doctors or nurses were paying attention to me aside from when I was just about to go into surgery. details:

• less than 10ml blood loss
• uncomplicated, no rupture or anything
• 3 incisions (no belly button incision)
• biggest incision is 12mm and they sutured the fascia on the inside
• only thing was a quite high WBC count that did show downward trending after the surgery so I was discharged that night
• 10 days post op - 2/10 pain with coughing or laughing and sometimes when I lay on the wrong spot, otherwise I am nearly pain-free. no opioids.

I am trying so, so hard to understand when it is okay to return to exercise, but the advice given to me BY THE HOSPITAL even contradicts itself. surgeon said 2 weeks. nurse said 3 weeks. discharge packet said 6 weeks on one page, 3 weeks on the next. the internet and scientific studies are the same.

I was weightlifting 5 days a week and had recently been making a ton of progress. literally HOURS before my surgery a random person in the gym complimented my progress. not being able to exercise and move and everything is extremely triggering for me. im already feeling depressed and like my life has been taken away from me. no sex life, no dating (im single), no working out, and im also a grad student and my lack of ability to think this past week due to fatigue has been really hard for me. the day after returning to school this past week I felt really severe exhaustion, like i was coming down with the flu, but I also slept poorly that night because I had a big presentation and was running on adrenaline after. (and the days before i hadnt slept because my neighbors were blasting music all night.) i had class the last 2 days as well, and slept better last night and I feel much better today.

I am looking for advice or personal experiences about returning to weightlifting and just being a person again. I work from home and I feel so depressed and isolated and ashamed because of not moving.

if you lift weights, when did you start again? how much lighter? what exercises?

for people who are gonna say "wait six weeks before anything to be on the safe side" - it does not honestly feel mentally "safe" for me to sit on my ass for the next five weeks as someone who was extremely active and social before this random stomach pain at 2am on a tuesday followed by an honestly horrific ER experience took it all away. im healthy and aware of my body.

separately, when did people return to a normal social life (drinking, smoking)?

thanks everyone in advance this sucks <3

I had my appendix removed yesterday, and I started off feeling fine the next morning. But exactly 24 hours after the surgery, the pain hit hard, like I’m about to burst, in my lower right groin. The intensity is so severe that I can’t lift my right leg or even sit down. I've been taking antibiotics, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Gas-X, and Colace, but is this normal after surgery? I’m honestly scared there might be another complication, like an infection. The pain is so intense that walking is nearly impossible.

I thought I’d share my story as I am 1 day post-op appendectomy and wanted to see if anyone could relate since I am new here.

Around early September, I woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in my stomach. That night, I had cooked dinner for myself and just assumed that I was having a GERD flare up. It is possible that there was some type of overlap, but it felt similar to my previous episodes so I shrugged it off… for over a week.

And boy was I wrong.

I had central stomach pain that radiated to my lower back and pelvic area. I was barely eating anything. I was nauseous as hell. I remember seeing my favorite foods and gagging so hard. I struggled to sit down and get up. I work two demanding jobs, and as someone who fears calling off, I continued to work through the pain and took Pepto Bismol in the mean time.

It had been 4 days in when I decided to go to urgent care because I was not sleeping or eating and they sent me to a ED. The doctors there had also assumed my GERD was the issue because of how I presented so I was treated with a GI cocktail and IV fluids for dehydration, but obviously that did nothing.

Usually when I go to an ED for my GERD episodes, they confirm it with imaging so this was red flag #1 that they did not do more.

A few more days went by and I began to feel so weak, which is when I knew something was off. I couldn’t keep anything down anymore, even liquids and meds so I went to a different ED. They did a CT scan and as you can imagine, it was appendicitis.

Every doctor I encountered thought it was so weird that my symptoms did not match the typical appendicitis patient, but that thing was huge and forming pockets of abscess. The infection even spread to my colon so I was initially hospitalized and treated with antibiotics, with a plan for an interval appendectomy in November when the inflammation was calm and it was safer to operate without the risk of removing part of my colon.

Long story short, I had another unexpected episode this week and now I am recovering from my lap appy 🫂❤️‍🩹.

Listen to your body the first time. I grew up with hypochondria and was never taken serious because of my fears but that does not mean ignore any signs your body gives you that something is off.

Hey guys so i just had my open apendix removal surgery 6 days ago im doing very well and i know one of my friend also had it but he said he can swim and do all kinds of stuff in just 2 months time without problem

But when i ask my doctor i can do normal activities in 3 months but gym and strenuous activities in 8 months to be sure that i wont get hernia

Doctor said the reason is that because my muscle has to be stiched and it can go off even tho my outer scar is fully healed

Maybe someone who undergo this surgery can tell me what should i do? Any help or answer would mean a lot to me

because im a very active person and getting limited for 8 months is very depressing to me 💔

Hi all,

My brother (12M) has recurrent stomach pain around central area and in the past 5 months, twice in the lower right quadrant (had to take school off).

Not sure if it's appendicitis, pain episode lasts for 3-4 days. We called 111 and saw a doctor today who said it's not appendicitis, but should return if pain recurs often.

Was wondering what sort of tests we should go for (would like to test for any other GI issues too), happy to go private clinics but we're not sure of any in Central / East London. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello! Looking for some advice - I went to the hospital on September 20th for severe stomach pain (had been up all night throwing up and pain did not subside at all) and was diagnosed with appendicitis. However, they said that my cecum was also inflamed, so they did not want to operate and sent me home with antibiotics and a plan to get it removed in 6-8 weeks.

I finished my antibiotics two days ago and while I was on a walk yesterday I started to feel some pain/discomfort on my right side, and my stomach was very bloated/ distended. I decided to wait it out and see how I felt in the morning and I’d say the symptoms are the same today. My appetite is also reduced. Has anyone who has been treated with antibiotics had such a quick reoccurrence? I can’t decide if I should wait it out and see if my symptoms get worse/subside or just go and get it checked out. Thanks!!

And lemme tell you, I was VERY proud of how well I held it together until they dumped me out of the wheel chair into the car before I burst into tears after having to do TWO preps, everything running 2 hours behind schedule while I was starving, having hope that was going to be the thing where the results didn't come back normal, and then for it to not only come back normal, but to feel so insulted and dismissed like I'm not a 35 year old, active, ambulatory adult who doesn't know what pulled muscles feel like and how they work. Because they definitely don't work by spontaneously pulling themselves while I'm sitting at a stop light and then resolving themselves 10 minutes later???? Lady even doubled down on my follow up appointment when I brought up that I still think something was wrong with my appendix by telling me to talk to my PCP for a physical therapist referral. Like, REALLY?!

Anyway, I just wanted to share that for anybody else reading who's been dealing with chronic/recurrent appendicitis and having trouble either being taken seriously or with the discouragement of getting normal result after normal result after normal result. You're not crazy! You're not dumb. You're not a hypochondriac. Your appendix is a huge jerk, and this stuff is just kind of a nightmare to get actionable, concrete evidence of since you can't make it hurt on demand. FINALLY got a non-normal result about two weeks ago when I was awoken by my worst ever appendix attack after it'd been relatively quiet for 6 months, and my abdomen was still so tender and my appendix itself swollen after the attack resolved that it finally showed up as abnormal on a CT scan at urgent care the next morning. The surgeon on call at the hospital who my scan was sent to for review was like, "ok, yeah, if this has been going on for two years, we're taking it out because it's safer and you having to go back and forth like this is ridiculous." Even gave me his personal cell phone number in case stuff hit the fan real bad before the scheduled yeeting so he could take it out immediately. It felt SO good to not just be believed and heard, but to no longer have it hanging over my head that this thing could just pop without warning and I'd be pretty screwed without having a chance to get a prescription med I'm on that makes opioid painkillers not work get out of my system first. Three days post op as I write this!

Even made myself a really dumb ugly cookie cake with "<my name>'s Appendix DEFEATED" written on it to celebrate getting it out the night before lol. Highly recommend especially if it's been a journey for you, like you're gonna feel crappy and sitting up isn't going to be fun for a few days, but at least you'll have a silly treat waiting for you when you get home and to snack on while you're healing. :]

I woke up with a weird soreness near my belly button five days ago. It didn't bother me much but then a day later it turned into a sharp pain in my lower right side, very tender to touch. It hurt to move around too much or walk up stairs, especially hurt if I jumped (I heard some people use this as a test. I also tried to test myself for rebound tenderness and it didnt hurt more when I let go, just overall felt very tender). Its been getting progressively worse pain wise and I havent shown a temperature (for some reason i rarely get fevers anymore) but I've had zero energy. Walking up and down the stairs is difficult both because of my low energy and pain. I went to the ER on day 2 of this pain, thinking maybe it might be appendicitis, and they took did a urine and blood test with normal labs. Said my white blood cell count was normal and said I must've had some bad constipation so they gave me some laxatives. Ive been taking them and I've had no issues going to the restroom (other than pain in my lower side area still) and Im confused if this could be appendicitis still or not? I know some more unusual cases people have had issues with their appendix for weeks before it needed removed. The pain at this point is a burning and sharp sensation to the lower right of my belly button, still tender to touch, and I can't strain myself much without more pain. The soreness has moved up into my right ribs, Im not sure if thats muscle soreness from trying to compensate not engaging my core muscles very much? Hard to sleep and I've been very bloated even though Im using the restroom a normal amount. Ive been eating regularly even though i have no appetite, some minimal nausea. Has anyone had this experience or know what this could be? I wasnt sure if I should post here or not. I plan to go to urgent care tomorrow, I'm also just unsure of what to tell them and what to expect so I wanted to post here to maybe ease my mind a bit.