Appendicitis is a huge pain. And we mean that quite literally. Your appendix, located in the right lower quadrant of your stomach, can get inflamed in a condition called ‘appendicitis’. This can lead to excruciating pain, and if your appendix bursts, it could result in life-threatening peritonitis—and nobody wants that. Some common causes of this disease include a sedentary lifestyle and eating a lot of oily, greasy junk food. Apart from that, there are no major risk factors. You should definitely consider a check-up with your physician if you experience the following signs and symptoms.
Pain from this disorder starts out around your belly button, but then localizes to your lower abdomen on the right. If you experience this pattern of pain, it could be a red flag for appendicitis. It does vary for children and pregnant women, however. It’s important to note that appendix pain will be exacerbated if your body is jarred, for example, in a bumpy car-ride, or even just from coughing or sneezing. It hurts the worst when someone presses down on your stomach and then suddenly removes the pressure—that’s called ‘rebound tenderness’ and it’s a classic tell-tale sign for this disease, used in clinics all over the world. The pain is known to be quite intense, as we mentioned earlier, to the extent that it will wake you up even in deep sleep, and quickly worsens.
Appendicitis can be tricky in that the symptoms could be confused for a severe stomach bug. The latter usually presents as stomach pain with a low-grade fever. Appendicitis comes hand in hand with a fever, as would any other major inflammatory condition, but in addition, the pain will be almost unbearable, as we already discussed.
Appendicitis is almost always accompanied by nausea and vomiting. If you come down with this consolation of symptoms, you want to meet your local doctor, fast. This marks the end of the major symptoms that are tell-tale and present in almost every case of appendicitis. What follows from here can vary from person to person, but if one or more of these symptoms arise, along with the primary symptoms we mentioned above, you should out Appendicitis near the top of your list.
The problems are at both ends of the digestive tract. Acute Appendicitis comes with a unique type of diarrhea. It’s slimy and slippery, because it’s loaded with mucus. Alternatively, it might also present with constipation, and the feeling of being gassy and bloated. Now we understand that if you eat a ton of chickpeas, on top of half a pizza and some soft drinks, you’re going to feel a bit bloated when you hit the pillow, but if you wake up with the same sensation, especially when accompanied with the other symptoms, appendicitis should be on your radar.
We’re going to end by giving you a few more thoughts on what could be going wrong if you come down with the following symptoms. Our bottom line is that you can’t be sure about appendicitis until you head over to a trained professional and he diagnoses you after some specific tests. The symptoms you experience could actually cover a range of illnesses. For example, Crohn’s Disease, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, and even an Ectopic Pregnancy could all result in similar symptoms to Appendicitis, the location is what differentiates it, but in any case, if you’re experiencing severe signs and symptoms, head over to your local health-care center ASAP.
