Rumbling Appendix

[PatchTwitch]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any experience of a rumbling appendix?

I have had symptoms such as: bloating, pain in the right of the abdomen, sickness, rigors, fever, on and off for 4 months now and two gp's have diagnosed suspected rumbling appendix. The first sent me to A&E to have it removed but the Dr there told me I didn't fit the criteria for emergency surgery (i.e normal blood count, fever on n off instead of worsening). I saw another gp a week later and he admitted me to the surgical team who prodded about and said I wasn't in enough pain to have it removed and one nurse said there is no such thing as a rumbling appendix and made me feel a little silly.

As I'm not a fan of hospitals I just gave up on getting anything done about it but things are not improving. I'm extremely run down, hardly leave the house and have regular bouts of vomiting/fever. We are planning on moving soon and had pencilled in early next year to ttc but I'm now wondering if this is ever going to go away.

I'm reluctant to see my gp to be sent back to the hospital to then be sent home again. Both gp's have said exploratory surgery is the next step even if the hospital doubt it is appendix related but if the hospital refuse, I don't see how this will ever be resolved.

Does anyone have any advice or experience of this?

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

I had a grumbling appendix for about 5 or 6 days years ago. Except I didn't have pain in my tummy at all! I felt like I had indigestion, in my chest, and my back, but went to work all week. Now I know that it was referred pain. But over the week it did get worse, to the point my lower tummy started to hurt and I thought I must have a bladder infection. I had weird things like getting from sitting to lying down in bed made me start to squeak, and I also had pain that woke me from sleep.

By day 5 I called in sick to work, had a headache and felt rubbish. Docs said grumbling appendix but no temperature so ok to go home. The next day I felt worse, and had started to not be able to stand completely upright. No appetite and felt fluish and generally not well. Thank God my mum recognised I was getting worse and took me back to GP, as even though I felt horrible I wasn't thinking it could be anything serious.

I couldn't even lie flat and as soon as Dr pressed my belly and the released it was agony, and he told me there and then it was appendicitis for sure. Resigned to this we headed off to A & E with a letter....

In the end I had surgery the next morning and afterwards they told me it had burst. I saw a picture and it was all pussy and stuck to my bowel! Not a pleasant experience at all. I was in hospital for 5 days and off work for 6 weeks. I felt pretty terrible, and felt like I'd been hit by a bus. I couldn't get out of bed, sit up, absolute agony. Slept bolt upright in bed for weeks with my fists jammed into the mattress to stop me slipping down the bed!

So there you go! 6 years later it still feels funny there and I think I have adhesion pain. I guess the only advice really is that you will feel unwell and you'll just know if something isn't quite right. I was lucky (emetophobia!) that I didn't have any nausea or vomiting, which was a saving grace for me. Maybe it's nothing appendix related at all? I have a lot of tummy pains that I've given up mentioning anymore- I had an ultrasound last year to check ovaries etc, and they said it all looked good, so I'm trusting that it's just one of those things.

Best of luck to you OP.

Hi Lexia,

Thanks so much for your reply. Gosh, what an awful time you had! 5 days is such a long time to spend in hospital, especially when it's completely unexpected. Thank goodness for your mum realising you needed to get to a hospital.

It is so worrying that you can be seen by a doctor and sent home only for it to dramatically worsen over the next few hours/days and then become an emergency. This has been my concern, the consultant at the hospital who sent me home advised me to rush straight back if things worsened and it would then be emergency surgery. It then leaves you in a difficult position as sometimes I think the pain is so bad something must have progressed but then it will pass hours later. I suppose it's just a case of relying on the fact that your body will tell you if it's an emergency, like you say you'll just know something isn't right.

I have talked myself out of it being appendix related numerous times and attempted a normal routine, exercise/eating lots/standing to shower, but I instantly have sharp pains around the appendix region and through to my back. It would be great if it was something else though that could be sorted quickly. My gp told me he knew of people who had a rumbling appendix for months and years (on/off), which was quite disheartening but hopefully won't be the case for me.

Thanks again for sharing your story with me, it definitely helps to know what to look out for. I'm glad you're all sorted now and hope the tummy pains eventually fade.

I had a virus called mesenteric en (something) which caused the gland to enflame around the appendix, mimicking appendicitis. It came and went over a year or two when I was 14. Very painful. It just went after that though I did wind up in hospital when it happened on a school trip and they nearly whipped it out.