Appendicitis - not painful enough!

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The question that occured to me was that I had read somewhere that aspies can have a different response to pain. Does anyone else have any 'lack of expected pain' stories?

Here's mine! I recently had Appendicitis, However the diagnosis wasn't so simple. The first I noticed that I wasn't well was when I started having sweats and rigours (involuntary shaking) and generally felt unwell.

At Accident and Emergency they pressed my belly to check for Appendicitis and although there was a small ache in the location of my appendix it wasn't unduly painful or uncomfortable at all. For me the sweats and rigours which were occuring more frequently were more distressing.

They did a whole load of test on me because they now couldn't be sure it was Appendicitis - they said it should hurt like hell and especially if pressure was applied then released suddenly. anyway after all the test they could see my appendix was leaking poison into my bloodstream. The gave me antibiotics and removed my appendix.

The question that occured to me afterwards was that I had read somewhere that aspies can have a different response to pain. Does anyone else have any lack of expected pain stories? I do generally have a different response than most to touch - either an overreaction or undereaction.

some people are just tougher than other people, more stoic and less aware of aches/pains. I can tell you that at least this aspie [moi] is exquisitely sensitive to any kind of discomfort.

Had appendicitis as a kid. According to doctors it should have been a clear, "sharp" pain, you can compare to a fresh wound. For me it was more and underlying, "bumping" sturdy pain. The spot was right, where you normally have the aches, if it is appendicitis, but the symptoms were not as well, and I also didnt have fever, as I should have according to the doctors. (They checked that at well.) Doctors didnt know what to do, because if they sent me home, and it would get acute at home, there was a great risk and then they would get blamed for sending me home. On the other side, if they did an operation, and then there was no appendicitis, they wouldnt get the money refunded from insurance, and the hospital would blame then. In the end they agreed with my parents, to "take a look" and if it was appendicitis, they would remove it and insurance would pay for it, and if it was no appendicitis, they would remove it as well, and the insurance would be told for it being an appendicitis and pay as well. (The removal would have been, because if it was not infected, and then I would have two years later appendicitis, insurance would ask, how a person can have that part removed two times.) But it was appendicitis anyway.

Same goes for bones hurt. So according to doctors, hurting bones, should be one of the most terribles aches you can have. I broke three fingers in sport education, went on with that for a week, even played a bit basketball with it, and after a week, after the joints were not that thick anymore, you could see that the joints were not correct. And the stuff with "if you have a broken bone, you can recognize on you being unable to move that limp" is nonsense. The muscles and the other tissues are still working, so you can move that limb for some parts. So my hand was thick and swollen, so it was normal that I couldnt fully move it, and that it hurted, but for some degree they were still moveable. Joints still look a bit weird and I can jump one of the "bands" now around the joint, but luckily they didnt need to be broken again.

So as far as I can tell, surfaces injuries seem to hurt me similar, but undergoing injuries dont feel the way they should.

No, the doctors wanted to be sure, so they were the ones that seeked for an result, that they could take care for me. But if they do an operation and then they dont find anything, then the hospital will have to argue with the health insurance, why that operation was done and if they cant explain it propper, why they had done it, they had struggles and then the insurance maybe wouldnt have payed, so the hospital would have been forced to pay it, and if that happens more often to a doctor, that he does an operation, and the hospital dont get payed, then the hospital might seek for other doctors. The doctor meant he only could be sure, by looking (which meant OP) or by waiting until the aches either ends or it gets critical. And he didnt want it to be critical, so he explained my parents, that the best way to take a look without struggles, was to tell the insurance that there was an infected Appendix, anyway if it was or not. But it was anyway, so no prob. ^^

You can compare it with my dentist: I had those additional teeth some people have, and they were pushing at my other teeth and so forcing them to move badly and additional they had no space in my mouth anyway and couldnt come out completly, because of that you cant brush them propper and because of that, they would have gone bad anyway sooner or later, because I cant brush the part of a teeth that is under the flesh. So sooner or later they would have gone bad, hurted me and needed to be removed, which insurance had to pay. But until then, they would have pushed my other teeths and forced them to move badly. But removing those teeth as long as they dont cause pain, was "for optical reasons" until then, and so insurance wouldnt have payed. So dentist-doctor simply said: "Yeah...it would be lucky for you, if they would hurt you at the next visit, because then they needed to be removed, and couldnt do further damage to the other teeth. And sooner or later they WILL hurt you anyway and needed to be removed, so the sooner they hurt you and I can remove them, the better." and gave me some even for me obvious signs.

So its not the doctors, that are the dicks, its the insurances. Doctors try to help you as best as they can, and I dont really feel like a cheater, because they had payed the tooth removal anyway some years later, so if they have to pay it anyway, then its better done before ruining my other teeth. So doctor dont push you to cheat on purpose on insurances, but simply tell you how to have as less struggles with insurances, for stuff that is anyway necessary.

There is chronic appendicitis and acute appendicitis. Chronic (my oldest son had this) can cause vague abdominal pain, vomiting, chills, and the pain can be from mild to severe. It can go on for hours or it can stop after a few minutes. The patient may or may not show rebound pain. On imaging exam the appendix can be mildly, severely, or borderline inflamed. For borderline inflammation they usually treat the pain and sometimes give antibiotics and it's up to the pt to decide whether or not to have surgery. Mild inflammation means that they usually treat the pain and send you home. It does usually progress to the acute stage where you have to have surgery.

Mine was acute and started with a loss of appetite and nausea. It progressed to abdominal pain that came in waves. My mother was convinced it was gas and told me to suck it up and walk it off. I made my husband take me to the ER where they immediately took out my appendix. It hurt. Bad.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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A young man in my hospital's demesne died of septicemia a few months ago due to a burst appendix; he had come into the ED a week before with a history of abdominal pain for a month, but was sent home 'because no one could take appendicitis for a month.' Oddly, this discussion makes me feel a little bit better - maybe he wasn't suffering quite as horrifically as I had previously presumed, for that month, putting off coming in because his family had no insurance.

In the past, heart attacks have been missed in women because they don't show as much pain as men experiencing the same thing. Doctors are getting better at recognizing that heart attacks don't always present the same way, but it looks like 'pain' isn't a good diagnostic for anything, maybe.

I had appendicitis 7 years ago. In the morning around 8 I started having a constant pain in my abdomen, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. My mother didn't want to go to the emergency room with me so I laid in bed in pain until 4 in the afternoon and she gave in. I had to wait a long time (I was in the waiting room 3 hours before even getting in a room in the back) but around 1 AM they did surgery and took it out. Then they booted me out of the hospital around noon less than 12 hours later. I didn't feel ready to go but I didn't have insurance.

I've always been worried about getting appendicitis because \I don't feel pain very well or because when I'm sick I can't express it very well.

one surgery in my lifetime is more than I ever wanted. I dread the mere thought of any more.

^^^
that sounds horrifying!

In my last surgery [ORIF lt. olecranon process] I had to be out. I needed all the medications I could get to keep me calm.