does chronic appendicitis exist?

Here I go again looking for answers! at 16 was told I had IBS,wasnt too bad nothing I couldnt handle or tolerate..have some bad days constipated or the big D with cramps but didnt hit me like what im having now for last 7 months,usually had relief after bm, now its severe abdominal pain,belly button area, low left and right side pain,,sometimes radiates upper area and pelvic/rectal pain,stabbing pain,not crampy.Lost almost 60lbs,metal taste in mouth,heartburn,bloating,bad nausea,hair loss,appetite loss due to the pain (was on ensure but just now starting solid food..nothing agree's with me)bm's alternate,fever and night sweats,trapped gas (i havent been able to pass gas in months)alot of bowel noises and rumbling.After bm still continue to have urge to pass gas or stool but cant,Many trips to er,nothing can be found wrong,but this mimics appendicitis or  sometimes partial bowel obstruction,few times a month wake from sound sleep with "gassy diarrhea attacks" feel clammy/sweating/ feel like im gonna die.In April was in hospital for 3 days for this pain.Have had many procedures,tested for porphyria,celiac lactose intolerent,sprue,negative,mercury/toxin poison now.waiting on results.Many catscans,pap/pelvic exams,and ultrasounds,
Colonscopy-normal?,gi noted on biopsy some inflammation,said its ibs.
endoscopy-normal
hida scan-gallbadder is ok
laparscopy-no endometriosis
kidney ivp-no stones
I'm 28 and use to be active,I had to quit my job (cosmetologist) because most of time I cant even stand up,any ideas or similar experiences appreciated,ty (:

[Gilgongo]

I had chronic appendicitis for YEARS when I was a teenager (I'm 33 now). I would have these attacks of abdominal pain every once in a while. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me. I don't think I had most of the symptoms you described, but I had LOTS of abdominal pain. Anyway, they did exploratory surgery and took out my appendix and said it was "acute" (meaning, I think, ready to burst).

Years later, I mentioned to a doctor that I had had chronic appendicitis and they said "That doesn't exist!"

I later mentioned it to another and they said it did exist. All I know is that I had it. After my surgery, I didn't have another attack of the abdominal pain.

I hope this helps!

[Ms_Makita]

Alot of dr's debate if chronic exist,I believe it does,but having laparscopy in Aug to check for endometriosis,nothing showed up.Dr said he had good look and appendix said it looked fine.Since then symptoms and pain are worse,no infection from surgery.
    I've talked to few ppl who had chronic,dr said appendix look fine,only to find few  days,weeks,months later was getting ready to rupture.Scary eh ? Its alway lower right side,appendix area,sometimes radiates to left,never goes away or eases up,its really weird! and frustrating..7 months like this is taking its toll! I switched to new dr who is willing to get to bottom of this..whew! go for barium x-ray tomorrow,hopefully that will reveal something and get an answer for whatever this is.(:

[marsh29]

I have a similar problem,  i went for a run in august this year quite a tough run and immediately when i stopped i had a sharp pain in my lower right side.  When i got home the pain got worse i couldnt sleep and a doctor came to see me at 3am and gave me some immodium and told me to go to the doctor in the morning.
My gp in the morning said my appendix area was very tender but didnt think it was about to burst and told me it was a stomach infection which should clear up in a few days, which thankfully it did.
Now 2 months on i have started getting dull pains in my lower right side again, where my appendix is, and occasionally sharp pains which are eased when i have bowel movement.  i have been to doctor yesterday and i am having blood and stool tests done, he said basically rumbling appendix does not exsist.  I wish it was my appendix and personally to me it feels like it is, as i am really scared now that i may have something a whole lot scary like, bowel cancer or crohns disease!!
any help or wisdom about my symptoms greatly appreciated

[apple660]

are you diabetic and have you been checked for helicobacter.

[sporty1]

Have you been tested for Crohn's disease?  The reason I ask is that with irritable bowel syndrome there is NO inflammation and the fever, night sweats, right sided pain and waking up to go to the bathroom are not normal are classic Crohn's symptoms.

You have had a pretty extensive work-up and I'm not sure if you have had this test called a "small bowel follow through".  This is where you drink barium and it shows your small bowel.  The most common site for Crohn's pain to hit is the ileum, where the large and small intestine meet and many times the dr. can't get a colonoscopy to that spot.   There is also a camera pill that you can swallow that shows the small intestine.  Good luck and I hope you find an answer soon =)

[angellmarie]

I have to say that this forum was a lifesafer-literally. I want to explain my situation and I hope that this helps other people who are in desperate need of help.

Two months ago I started having horrible pains in my right side. I thought that I was just having problems with an ovarian cyst because I have had problems with them in the past. After about a week of really intense pain it started to get worse and I decided to go to the ER. When I got there they immediately started telling me that it was probably appendicitis but they needed to do some testing. They did a CT, full blood work,Ultrasound, urine work-up and gave me pain meds through an IV. The doc said that the ultrasound showed that I had a uterun fibroid but that it was very small and that it would not be causing that much pain. She gave me the option of staying a day or two for pain control. I left that night still in pain and frustrated because I didn't have any answers. After another two weeks of pain I went to my OBGYN who had done a surgery on a ovarian cyst before. She said that she would do a laproscopy even though she didnt think she would find anything. I said I wanted to wait and see if the pain went away. The pain got progressively worse. I have never felt so much pain in my life and I was completly unable to walk or work. I would be fine and then I would have a pain attack and it would literally send me down to the floor crying. Five days after my visit with the OBGYN I called her and begged for surgery. I had the laproscopy two days later. She took pics of the ovaries, appendix and the area around it. She said that everything looked good and she wasn't able to fit anything. I came out of surgery very upset after learning that nothing had been done to help me.

I then spend another two weeks in horrible pain and finally decided to find the answer myself. I spent hours upon hours searching the internet comparing my symptoms to those of others with similar symptoms and stories. I found this site and a few others that seemed to talk about almost the exact same thing I had been dealing with. I thought that I had chronic appendicitis and I decided that I needed to find a doctor that would not only listen to me but would do elective surgery on me. As most of you know chronic appendicitis is very hard to diagnose and to get doctors to agree with that diagnosis. I took about 25 pages of reports and info showing that other doctors had seen this same type of thing with others.

I went to my family doctor and I described my long situation, the info I had found on line and my family history. In 1985 my mother had almost the exact same situation and she ended up going to the mayo clinic where a doctor had said that he wanted to take the appendix out just to see if that was it. She was instantly better after having the appendix removed. I explained this to my family doctor and she said she had seen a couple cases similar to this and she referred me to a surgeon.

I went to the surgeon the next day. I brought all the test results from the ER, the pics from the larposcopy, the OBGYN's surgery notes and all the stuff I found online. I explained the whole situation while he listened and his answer was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my appendix. I asked him what he thought it was and he had absolutely no answers and no other tests for me to do in order to find an aswer. After explaining about my mothers situation (she was with me) he said that her doctor was a bad surgeon and should have had his license taken away because he had made a bad decision. I told him that if he wouldnt take my appendix out that I would find another doctor that would so it wasnt going to stop me, it would just cause me more pain and time. After arguing back and forth he finally threw his hands in the air and said that he would take my appendix out but he was completly against this and that it would not fix anything. His comment was, "if I am going to start taking out organs that are not having problems why dont I just go in and take our your gallbladder and anything else I see while I am in there." I then said, "why the hell dont you, maybe I will feel better then!"

I was scheduled for a laproscopy appendectomy three days later. He came to see me before surgery and kept repeating that this was a waste of time and money and that nothing was wrong with my appendix. After surgery he came out and spoke to my parents and said that the appendix was perfect and that this was NOT the problem at all. I would be in just as much pain as I was before and we had wasted his time.

A week later while recovering at home I noticed that I had NOT had the pain anymore and that besides healing from surgery I felt much better. I called the doctors office to get the results of the pathology report from my appendix. I was so happy to hear the results that I started to cry while on the phone. The report showed that part of the appendix was hemmoraging and was leaking pus and fluid into my abdominal cavity. The lymph nodes were very swollen and that it appeared that I had ACUTE APPENDICITIS probably a month or two ago but that it had somewhat resolved itself. The pain I was feeling was not only my appendix swelling but the fluid being leaked into my body. I almost fell out of my chair when the nurse told me that based on the report I was very lucky that I had the surgery when I did. She said that I would have ended up with it rupturing and having a serious infection which could be deadly. She said that if would have only been a few days or weeks until I would have really been in bad shape.

So, I find out that after the ER told me I was fine, the OBGYN had taken pics saying it was fine and the surgeon who took it out told me it was fine, IT WAS NOT FINE AND I HAD ACUTE APPENDICITIS FOR ALMOST TWO MONTHS!!!

I have a post-op appointment with the surgeon next week and I can not tell you how excited I am going to be to tell him to go to hell and that he needs to listen to his patients.

I wanted to share my story with you because it is so frustrating when you know that something is wrong and nobody will believe you. Through this ordeal I ended up in the ER four times and got the same answer every single time- your fine, go home. Please take your health in your own hands and fight for your rights. I am happy to say that it has all ended well, but there was no reason for me to go through two months of excruicating pain and suffering because nobody would listen to me.

If anybody needs any advice or would like any more info from me please feel free to write me. It is because of this exact site and a few others that I was able to diagnose myself and search out the right answer. I could have died because nobody listened to me, they just blew me off. I hope this helps other people. By the way I am a 26 year old female. I think that doctors also dont listen to the compaints of women as much or they automatically assume that its a "womans problem". I had two surgeries in two weeks because of all this ordeal. BUT finally I am feeling great.

[casualgal]

Long story short.. I too had cronic (chronic) pain for over 5 years, had all the tests in the world all normal and negitive. Finally had exploratory surgery and my apendix ruptured on the table for the 7th time. The Dr. discovered that over the past 5 years it had ruptured but healed itself to my stomach. He couldn't explain why it just did. I was never more thankful all my pain was gone. Good luck and never take " theres nothing wrong" til the pain is gone.
vickie

[linex]

I had the same problem in the past three years, starting with uncomfortable feeling in the upper abdomen, then nausea, vomiting, and the pain going down in right lower abdomen and around navel. Symptoms are resolving in maybe 48h. I had those attacks almost every 3-4 months in past three years, but with time they got very mild so usually when i get to the doctors they thought it's maybe ovulation, or some ovary cysts, urinary infections, kidney stones etc. I've done bunch of tests (CBC, urine, ultrasound, MRI) which showed nothing, everything was fine, but i still had pain, and starting to believe maybe I'm hypochondriac. Anyway month ago i had the attack, with severe pain, never felt like that before, with vomiting, high temperature, in the end my appendix got perforated and i went for an urgent surgery. Fortunately everything went fine, perforation was blocked by surrounding intestines so it didn't make any complication, i feel good now. Anyway everyone who has the same symptoms i am recommending you to take a seriously the problem, make some tests, at least CT scan, because consequences may be very serious.

[Beth4122]

Your story is SO similar to mine.  A few months ago, my husband and I were camping deep in the woods in a pop up camper, two dogs, two kayaks, two bikes.  I spent the weekend walking the dogs, biking, kayaking almost 24/7.  The night before we were to leave, I woke up with excruciating pain on the right side.  Thought I had just pulled a muscle and decided to suck it up until we got home in the morning.  A five hour trip after my husband had to pack everything up and drive 2 hours.  I was curled up in the front seat with a pillow.  I could hardly walk for a week and was in major pain, but never thought to go to a doctor.  Took some aspirin and pain went away.
A couple of months later similar symptoms reappeared again.  I had a gyn appointment and mentioned to my doctor who thought I had just pulled a muscle, too.  Took aspirin and pain went away.
But even people at work told me later that I always seemed tired, not quite right.  A month after the second episode, I was at work and had a strange feeling on the right side.  Not quite pain, but didn't feel right.  I went home, and within an hour was doubled over in excruciating pain.  Long story short, ended up in ER with acute appendicitis.  Had a laporoscopy and woke up in ICU - the appendix had been leaking and was ready to rupture.
As a final note - I explained all my symptoms to the doctors and colleagues at work (I work in a health oriented environment) and ALL of them said that the previous incidents were unrelated.  I don't believe them and am sure that I experienced chronic appendicitis.  I am 8 weeks after surgery, and have no pain and lots more energy.  Interesting thing the doctor told me was that he had a hard time finding the appendix.  It was shorter and stubbier than expected; about half of the normal length.

[pjwing297]

i have had pain in my stomach for almost 5 years now and every one call me crazy they think i am making all is pain up and when i go to the er they think iam there for drugs  they are wrong i have chronic appendicitis and ibs but what hurts most is the side where the appdix is

[dex9915]

It seems to me that doctors think they sell all know all. I am 39 years old. I have had painful intercouse for over a decade. Five different doctors in the past 12 years told me that only a hysterdectomy. I also had the severe pain in the right side along with a dull burning pain. I was told it was endometrosis, overian cysts, and just in my head. One doc said he could cut the nerves going to the area. So feel nothing instead of pain. No thanks.I finally had a hys, ovaries and all at the age of 35.  

Yesterday, I saw my gp. I had not told her of the painful intercourse. At this point in my life, I thought I had to live with it.I went in for the abdomin (abdomen) pain. I explained my symptoms. Then, I told her of the painful sex. She just looked at me. She said she thought I have chronic appendicis. I just looked at her. Apparently, she had a similar experience herself years ago.

I about cried. I am blessed to have found her. All these years of pain, surgery, and frustration could be over. She said now the problem is finding a surgen to take out my appendix. I am concerned he is going to think we are both crazy. He'll wonder how I could be dx without running every new test in the book. I've had them all before. all coming back normal.

I have had the colonoscpy, barium test, CT, laproscopy explorotory before. The only thing I was told I had was IBS. I am very fortunate to have the husband I've got. I probably would have been divorced long ago. I was lucky to have my daughter.

My point is don't give up. Don't settle for answers you are not comfortable with. Don't stop with 1 dr's dx. Don't let them tell you, It's all in your head. I was at my end when I had my hys. I had a lot of depression. I didn't feel like a complete woman. It's taken it's toll, but I finally see light at the end of a very long tunnel.

[troubadour]

Yes, chronic appendicitis does exist, I had it. Essentially I had unexplained abdominal pain and a few acute episodes over the years which somehow resolved by themselves. In the last months, though, I was having RLQ pain right after eating and randomly several times a day. The partially blocked appendix was found after upper GI X-ray with small bowel follow-through, and was confirmed by Doppler ultrasound two months later. The chronic appendicitis was confirmed at surgery (appendix was long, scarred, filled with fecal matter, and had adhesions).
The story is long, see more details here, towards end of thread:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Gastroenterology/roundworms-Ascaris--elevated-monocytes--eosinophils--abdominal-pelvic-pain/show/1369187?personal_page_id=903718#post_6249026

and pictures here:
http://www.medhelp.org/photo_collections/list/13948?personal_page_id=903718

and here:
http://www.medhelp.org/photo_collections/list/15453

Good luck, best of health to everybody.