Lower Right Abdominal Pain

[chris02]

Hello everyone. This question is not regarding me, but a close friend. I'll start off by saying this person is a 17 year old female. Here's the deal, she was complaining of intense pain in the lower right area of her abdomen. I took her to the hospital, and they suggested that she had appendicitis. At the time when she was first experiencing the pains, she wanted to eat, but when she tried to she lost her appetite. I told her to check her temperature, and it was 100.4. At the hospital, they took a blood test and urine sample. She didn't tell me too much about that, besides the fact that her white blood cell count was high. They hooked her up to the IV bag and kept her overnight.

The next morning they gave her an ultrasound, and took her off the IV. She said it was very painful as they were pressing hard on the area during the ultrasound. They confirmed that her appendix was inflamed, however they said it wasn't that bad. They told her that they would look over it and see if surgery was needed. They were going to do a CT scan, but due to her age (17), they suggested that a CT scan could be harmful because of the radiation, so they didn't perform one. Do they not have lower settings? During that day, the pain wasn't that bad anymore, and rated it a 1 out of 10. She had no problem walking around the hospital. They told her that she could eat no solids and drink apple juice or water (I'm assuming because they might have to perform surgery the next morning). Her appetite returned, and she wanted to eat everything. They kept her another night.

The next day (today), they determined that they would not perform surgery. Upon being released from the hospital, the area felt tender. Later in the day, the tenderness had subsided. Throughout the day, she did not feel the pain at all anymore. She has still, however, felt slightly nauseated since the pain started 2 nights ago, and has been taking Gravol ever since (as suggested by the hospital). I strongly feel the hospital has made a mistake sending her home. She no longer has a temperature, has no problem eating normally, and the pain is gone, but I still feel that she needs to have this surgery. Can the inflammation go away? What can be done to help make things better? I honestly appreciate any response that can be provided. Thank you so much for your time.