NHS appendicitis nightmare

Ds had appendicitis during covid.
He was bumped from surgery several times and finally went in 24 hours after he'd been admitted.

He'd at that point not eaten for well over 48 hours, but he didn't want to eat, which I was told was typical. If he's hungry and wanting to eat then he's doing okay.
When ds came round afterwards he ate four bowls of cereal.

He won't be able to eat because of the complications and stress digesting food can add to appendicitis - it can cause a bowel blockage so no food is recommended until everything is sorted

I had a gangerous appendix and it had began to rupture, this all happened in 3 days. Thursday night I went out on a works night out, felt terrible all day Saturday but son was vomiting too so assumed a bug. But then pain started on the Sunday and I was on the floor in agony. But drove myself (god knows how) to out of hours Doc based at the hospital Sunday night who gave anti sickness and said see GP Monday morning.

GP sent me to A&E, bloods showed some elevation in CRP levels but not major. Scheduled for surgery Tuesday, interesting the pain was easing which was scary but this is when it began to rupture. Surgery ended up being converted to open surgery from keyhole as the gangerous appendix was stuck to the abdomen wall and in a real mess. I had some decent pain relief post surgery and was released after 4 days but still on some powerful antibiotics to clear the infection.

Seven months later ended up with a gallbladder removal and unfortunately due to damage caused by gallstones ended up with a major surgery called a whipple which removed the head of my pancreas and re plumbed it all. Honestly I was a healthy 30yr old before all of that! He’s in safe hands, try not to worry. They will be keeping a close eye on him

Oh, I'm so very sorry OP. I'll see if I can get it removed. I hope your DH is sorted soon.

I think the NHS is on its knees. My aunt (elderly) was admitted in the morning to the majors ward (finally) with severe abdominal pain and vomiting and then left for hours with no assessment, no support - literally lying on the floor in pain, falling over on the way to the loo, and had a twisted bowel. Then was transferred to another hospital . No surgery til the early hours. It was awful, and really scary that no one was interested in her and I had to keep advocating for someone to come to her.

No experience of appendicitis, but we asked when I was in waiting for an emergency slot for post birth surgery, and we were told IV fluids is fluids only - ie no energy. If the operation hasn't happened by the time you go in this afternoon, it might be worth checking what your husband is getting. If he is only getting fluids then he will have been fasting for over 48 hours by this afternoon which definitely not help how he is feeling! I eventually got approval to eat and drink between 6 pm (when there was definitely no chance of going in on today's list) and something like midnight (when I needed to start fasting again in case I was first on tomorrow's).

My sons friend had about the worst case with waiting. He was bumped for a few days, they discovered a reason they were t keen on operating. It dragged out for over a week and was got under control with antibiotics. Went home to be removed at a later date. 6 months on another flare up, went in for removal and a key test was missed causing surgery to be cancelled last min. Much less pain or problem and sent home again after a day. So in summary it appears it’s not fun but it can be managed it appears longer term, if that rests your mind a little.

Your poor husband, I hope he has his surgery soon. This is the state of the NHS sadly, it’s not acceptable though

It is a difficult job to prioritise emergency surgery and most hospitals will only operate overnight if it is life or limb threatening, as it is much less safe due to skeleton staff being available.
I hope he gets his surgery today.

@Nolongerokay I had similar experience as a very young, fit and healthy adult. (Fri admission, Sunday night op)
It's longer when it's a weekend as fewer staff available.
Mine burst and I had to have open surgery rather than keyhole. Peritonitis. Was awful. 5 days in hospital and a month off work.
Hope he feels better soon

They won’t let him eat/drink because it increases the risk of aspiration (where the stomach contents come back up and then go into the lungs) when you’re under anaesthesia.
In cases of emergency surgery it might be decided that the benefits of doing the surgery immediately outweigh the risks (i.e. it’s more dangerous for the patient to delay the surgery than the risk of aspiration). However, for elective/non-emergency surgery it’s safest for the patient to be nil by mouth for a few hours beforehand.

I hope they manage to get your husband in soon and he has a quick recovery!

Hope he gets seen soon OP, I had appendicitis in March 2022.
I had a newborn baby who I was breastfeeding but luckily could and would take a bottle, she wasn’t allowed to come into the ward so I could feed her, this was when we still had bloody covid restrictions.

I had my appendix removed and went home 2-3 days after being admitted as my blood pressure kept dropping.

Hopefully he’ll have it removed soon and soon be on the mend.

@Nolongerokay if you come in and need immediate lifesaving surgery it outweighs the risk of aspirating. In your husbands case they know he needs surgery and the risk of him aspirating can be eliminated by keeping him nil by mouth.

Please escalate this. Last year my elderly neighbour was rushed in with appendicitis and he ended up dying on a trolley in the corridor because he was left for too long and his leaking appendix (that they had missed) shut his organs down.
His wife has been too traumatised to do anything about it. But yes, these things do happen.

This happened to my sister - she spent the waiting time on a trolley in a corridor because there were no ward beds. She was fine when her appendix was finally removed.

I spent about 4 days waiting for a diagnosis of appendicitis by the NHS & by the time they operated it had raptured. I was in a lot of pain & afterwards was taken off of drip etc too quickly which made me feel worse&resulted in extra time in hospital. But there were no complications from the rupture.

This exact situation happened with my 12 year old in the summer.

Diagnosed appendicitis, but constantly delayed due to other emergencies.

My son was terrified and hungry as they had kept him starved for two days.

I was afraid of it rupturing so I complained and got PALS involved and suddenly they found space for him in the theatre.

They will keep delaying as there is always another emergency, but a ruptured appendix is worse to treat so I would speak to PALS asap and I'm sure he'll move up the list.

Good luck x

P

He will be ok. He's in the right place, they're monitoring him, he'll get his surgery. If it ruptures, they'll be on it quickly and make sure he's ok.

I've had it as an adult, had very similar treatment to your DH in that a&e sent me home, had to go back in, I was left on a ward for days and then eventually rushed in for emergency surgery. All was ok, please try not to worry

I had emergency surgery 3 years ago in similar situation. I had done my best to ignore it (genuinely never felt pain like it but hate bothering dr/hospital), eventually called 111 who gave me 30 mins to book into hospital or they would send an ambulance. First nurse I saw was very dismissive and rude, I collapsed whilst returning to my husbands car. Was admitted and put on morphine. They took bloods and a CT scan, Had surgery the following day (this was during the Easter Bank holiday), they then struggled to bring my infection markers under control so I was in for another 3 days. I recovered well, scarring is minimal.

Your DH is in the best place, I hope they get to him today, the weekends are often chaos in hospitals.

I had appendicitis whilst pregnant with DD during Covid. It took two visits, the second which I took into my own hands and called a colleague. Within 4 hours of being admitted the second time I had surgery. They were initially going to treat with IV antibiotics but it had started to rupture.

Your DH is in the right place. Hopefully he will have surgery today. I really feel for him, it is an awful pain. Much much worse than labour. Hope he is feeling better soon

During Covid appendicitis was treated with antibiotics instead of surgery in many hospitals. They reverted to surgery because they found many cases had recurrence after several months. But because it can be treated with antibiotics in the short term, it’s not as high priority for surgery lists.

Try and forget any fictionalised information you’ve seen or read about appendicitis. Right now he is being treated and his pain in being managed.

The positive is, if it ruptures then he is in exactly the right place. Also, he then leapfrogs up the list. Thats how it works. They will do a clean out and give antibiotics and he’ll be fine. I always see it as a positive if you are not being rushed into theatre, it’s when you are you need to worry.