Hello,
I am a 15 year old girl who has been dealing with stomach pain for 11 months now. In March I had created a hernia right above my belly button, and that wasn't discovered until July. I was told that the type of hernia that I had was not one that could strangulate, and if I took it easy, it would most likely heal itself. My family and I were not very worried about it. 3 months after it was diagnosed, I went to bed with excruciating pain all over my abdomen that lasted for about 40 minutes, then it died down into a dull pain where I was finally able to fall asleep. Later that night, I was woken up by that same pain, but only for a minute then I went back to sleep. Finally, once morning came, I was still going through the same pain. I had a small fever, and I was very nauseous and tired as well. The symptoms that I was having looked like they could have been a strangulated hernia, which seemed odd because my doctor said that the hernia I had would not be able to strangulate. We didn't want to take a chance, so we went back to my doctor for him to take a look at it. He felt around for my hernia, took note of my symptoms, and said that my hernia was basically healed and that he thought that I could have appendicitis. This came as a surprise. He said that if the pain got any worse within the next day or two, or if the pain didn't go away at all, then we should go into the ER. The pain got slightly worse and a lot more frequent within the next 2 days so we decided not to risk it and go into the ER. Long story short, they did an Ultrasound and diagnosed it as an ovarian cyst that they said would go away. I still had this pain and sickness 2 days later so my mom called the hospital to let them know that I have not improved. They took another look at the scan and told us that they misdiagnosed the ovarian cyst and said that everything was fine with my ovaries. They said that if I was still in pain within the next 2 days, then to come back in. So, the pain got worse and more frequent within the next 2 days. Naturally, we went back in. This time, they were certain it was my appendix. They even called down a surgeon to examine me, and he was certain it was my appendix. He said that they had to do the CT scan first, just in case. So they did the CT scan, and they couldn't find one thing wrong with my appendix. Altogether, they did blood tests, urine test, tests on my kidney, gull bladder, ovaries, even a chest x-ray because I had pain in my lower ribs. They did so many tests that I can't even remember them all. They thought that perhaps it could be IBS, but I didn't have all of the symptoms for it, so that was very unlikely. So they basically thought that it was all in my head. I was told that it would resolve itself in a few days. Well, its 3 months later now and its gotten so much worse. I have been doing so much research, and I can relate to every single testimony I have seen about people with chronic appendicitis in some way or another. I am 99% sure that I have it. The only 1% of doubt that I have is the fact that my appendix hasn't been taken out yet.
So, after giving my background, my real question is where I can find a surgeon to help me. I live in Michigan, so I would prefer to have a reference for someone nearby, but at this point I'll take anything. I hear that finding a surgeon to take out an appendix due to chronic appendicitis is very hard, seeing as most doctors do not believe that it exists. I am looking for references. If you have had chronic appendicitis treated, or if you know of someone who has, please let me know. I am very desperate and in need of help, because I do not know how much longer I can take the pain and the constant sickness.
Thank you very much,
Emily