Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Most common isnt common enough to find info

Acute appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in pregnancy.

1 in 766 pregnant women experience an Acute Appendicitis.  If during the first and second trimester 33% lost their babies, 14% went through premature labor and of these Leaving only 53% had no negative results at all.  If an appendix ruptures 1 in 3 women die and 2 of 3 babies.  To me thats not good enough odds. 

When this happened to me I didn't even know this was possible.  I didnt know the signs and didn't question anything when I was misdiagnosed.  So here are the signs:

  • Sudden pain that begins on the right side of the lower abdomen
  • Sudden pain that begins around your navel and often shifts to your lower right abdomen
  • Pain that worsens if you cough, walk or make other jarring movements
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Loss of appetite
  • Low-grade fever that may worsen as the illness progresses
  • Constipation or diarrhea
  • Abdominal bloating
Often times this can all be misdiagnosed as the flu or food poisoning due to doctors wanting to hold off on testing on pregnant women. 

When it happened to me doctors waited almost 24 hours to diagnose me.  They did blood tests but not xrays due to the risks.  They sent me home with Ambien so that I could sleep it off.  When I came back the second time, in even more pain, they finally did tests and determined my appendix had already ruptured.  In fact, it had ruptured before I had gone to the hospital the first time. 

I am not writing this to scare anyone but, I am writing it because I wish I had known more when it happened to me.  Even after it happened I researched and it was still difficult to find a lot of material on it.  I still have never met another woman that has gone through this same type of loss.  I did see that it was the most common surgery in pregnant women and it seems odd that if that's true why arent more women educated about it? Why do doctors not mention it at all? why do they wait so long to do tests if they know the risks of prolonging diagnosis?  Is it because they dont want to scare us? I'm not really sure.  But, I do know that personally I would rather be educated and know the dangers than be kept in the dark. 

1 comment:

  1. My heart goes out to you. Thank you for sharing this; I too never heard of this happening to a pregnant woman before. But I think it is important information. And if it helps one person, then that's so important.

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