Interval appendectomy side effects?

September 16, 2020 10:23 AM

There's nothing quite like having your appendix rupture in the midst of a pandemic! Mine ruptured mid-June, and the docs decided to put me on copious amounts of antibiotics, keep me in the hospital for 3 days to get the infection down, and then remove it at the very end of July. And here I am, mid September, still having various side effects. You're not my doctor, but have any of you had an interval appendectomy? If so, what was your recovery like? More under the fold....

I have a followup appointment with the surgeon tomorrow, and am trying to get a handle on how concerned I should be, and what questions I should ask of him. Because of the pandemic, every single appointment I've had with him except for the surgery itself has been via tele-medicine, which doesn't allow for the same in-depth examination as in-person. I'm still having pain on both my right side and left side, which seem to be digestion-related. ANY amount of alcohol seems to inflame things, so I've cut that out already. In a prior followup appointment, the surgeon recommended that I get a colonoscopy to see what's going on in there (I'm 39, if that matters). He's also quoted me recovery times that seem more in line with an appendix that was removed right away, rather than having a sack of poison be inside me for 7 weeks before getting removed. Are his expectations of a full recovery of 2 weeks (now long passed) just completely wrong or should I be concerned? I don't 'want' to get a colonoscopy if I don't have to, but at the same time, if I DO need one, I'd like to get it this year, since I've already met my insurance deductible. My pain/discomfort does seem to be lessening in both frequency and intensity, but it's a very slow process. So, any stories about that time YOUR appendix ruptured and then wasn't removed til weeks later? Any specific questions I should ask the surgeon when I have yet another tele-medicine appointment with him tomorrow?

posted by csox to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Best answer: I don’t have specific appendectomy information, but I do have surgery experience. In all cases, the surgeon massively underestimated how long recovery would be. They had no real understanding of how human beings deal with surgery and recovery in the actual world. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t get your specific situation checked out, but for me it took many weeks to get back to about 80% of health/feeling normal, and then months for the remaining 20%

Sending you all the best for feeling better soon
posted by JJZByBffqU at 10:45 AM on September 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

My close friend (healthy, then in her 40s) had this happen; the surgeon also made a minor botch so that she needed a second surgery for a hernia a few months later. But yeah, a ruptured appendix is a major suck, and she was out of work for four months.
posted by Melismata at 11:07 AM on September 16, 2020

I had an appendectomy a month ago, not an interval one though, just an appendectomy. COVID had been and (almost) gone in the hospital that I was at and I had plenty of time with the doctors for questions. In terms of my recovery from the keyhole they were very clear that they didn't expect it to take long. I was signed off for two weeks and they said I shouldn't even notice it by the end of that two weeks. That's pretty much how it played out. Have had no trouble inside, just some aching from the wounds. They told me to contact my GP if I experienced pain in the way you have described. I'm about the same age as you.

I'm really sorry you're going through this!
posted by einekleine at 11:18 AM on September 16, 2020

I had an appendectomy on the 1st of June. Went into the ER one night, they took it out the next day. It hurt like hell as the meds wore off. Had about two weeks of variable levels of misery, but things mostly tapered off by the 22nd. The incision sites (it was laproscopic) were tender until mid July.
posted by notsnot at 12:51 PM on September 16, 2020

When I had my appendectomy in 2005, I had symptoms starting in September, was also treated with antibiotics for a few months and felt mostly ok, when on Christmas Eve that year it was too painful to bear and I went to the ER and got it out that day. I was released Christmas Day with some pain meds that made me nauseated so I didn't take them. I was up and out and about on Boxing Day, but moving very slowly and trying not to laugh or make sudden movements. By New Years it was painful, but painful like I'd pulled a muscle super hard, so again I was moving slowly and tenderly (I managed to have very very cautious sex with my partner that night). I would say within two weeks I was at like 85% but the dissolving stitches were super annoying for weeks after that.
posted by greta simone at 4:09 PM on September 16, 2020

Best answer: i had a similar appendix situation to this. my recover was super easy - was ready to go back to (my mostly-sitting office job) work after a week. i had a lot of digestive issues that my surgeon eventually thought was due to the heavy-duty antibiotics wiping out all my good gut flora. i saw a gastroenterologist, did a FODMAP diet for awhile to reduce my intake of inflammatory foods and took probiotics and my gut eventually evened out.
posted by kerning at 4:35 PM on September 16, 2020

Have they checked for an abscess? Mine ruptured, did antibiotics and 5 days in the hospital. Sent home with more antibiotics. Pain came back five days later and a new ct scan showed an abscess. They drained the abscess and the next day the only pain I experienced was from the inscission.

Appendix didn't come out until 3 months later, that was also a very easy surgery. Pain should not be ignored. Good luck!
posted by Arctostaphylos at 5:50 PM on September 16, 2020

I also think you should ask about abscesses and think that a CT scan or ultrasounds might be more informative than a colonoscopy at this point. ( I am a retired nurse, but not your retired nurse, obvsly.)
posted by SLC Mom at 6:49 PM on September 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I don't think I have an abscess, but will ask...I definitely had one when it ruptured in June, that they drained. I had a fever at that time, but haven't had one since, and they didn't mention seeing it again at the time of surgery. The surgeon did say it was about to rupture again when they finally got it out, and didn't seem to appreciate me saying "I Knooowww", but I was still coming out from anesthesia, and figured the amount of pain I had from rupture to removal had to be due to something. The pain I'm having now is not nearly that severe, but the persistence is what's concerning to me. I've been taking probiotics since the surgery, which I hope are helping. Bodies are weird. Thanks for sharing your stories!
posted by csox at 7:22 AM on September 17, 2020

I've had more internal surgery than I'd care to remember, including an open (but not interval) appendectomy. Most recent op was in June, I am definitely not 100%. It takes a good amount of time to recover from trauma.

As you may be becoming keenly aware, there's a direct relationship between stress in the mind and stress in the digestion. It's a dialectic feedback loop. If you need reassurance hat you're not having a particular complication it may not be crazy to get checked out by your primary care physician or a gastroenterologist. Urgent care clinics are also a thing if you need to see somebody today to try to understand a symptom.

Personal experience, it was probably at least six months before the appendix site didn't give somewhat regular notice. Even years later it will give me little 'hey remember ME?' reminders from time to time.
posted by StarkRoads at 8:29 AM on September 17, 2020