Predicting your own death.

[Jamy]

Wait...isn't your appendix on the right side?

Or is it the left...I guess I should look that up.....

[Liv]

I started through my general practitioner...

Yes, appendix is on the right, spleen on the left.... usually....

Since I'm not exhibiting extreme pain, I assume, this is the reason they don't believe it's the appendix.

My non-medical-school diagnosis still feels like a seeping appendix, though a hernia wouldn't be out the question either. Why I need to have a self-diagnosis when I'm paying people to figure it out is beyond me. However according the the fancy diagnosticians somewhere in the world who read the X-rays, nothing of that sort was noted.

I'd personally like to see the x-rays, however apparently, not even my doctor see's them. Apparently some x-ray company who gets paid to read them has them and doesn't release them. Apparently I have the McHealth-Care X-Ray plan.

I grow more and more cynical of the entire system, and I feel like when I get the bill for this 80/20 plan, and still have no diagnosis, I'm probably going to go over the ledge and start domestic terrorism acts out of sheer madness.

...trying to be patient though....

If I die in the mean-time, I'll be pissed.

[Jamy]

Since I'm not exhibiting extreme pain, I assume, this is the reason they don't believe it's the appendix.

My non-medical-school diagnosis still feels like a seeping appendix, though a hernia wouldn't be out the question either. Why I need to have a self-diagnosis when I'm paying people to figure it out is beyond me.

You can have an appendix that is only a little inflamed and hasn't reached critical mass yet. That happened to a friend of mine.

I have no idea why the doctors get paid so much...I guess to cover their med school student loan payments? But I've always felt that doctors and patients should work together and the doctors shouldn't treat the patients like they're silly little ninnies who can't understand the complex workings of their own body. Fact is, nobody is going to know your body better than you do and doctors should be mindful of that. We have an awesome family doctor who knows our whole family and listens to what we have to say about what we think is going on. If things don't improve, I'll be happy to PM our doctor's name to you.

[Liv]

I like my GP, she's an acquaintance, and genuinely is interested in helping me but in a "clinic" practice, as we, most Americans, receive care, isn't going to quickly cure anything unless it's obvious. The DDXing process is long and drawn out, and in my case we're approaching over 1 month of tests.

[Jamy]

Ah...well the trust is important. A month of feeling bad is a long time ...I can understand how wearying it must be.

[A Person]

If it were your appendix it's easy to diagnose. so it probably isn't. There are various hernias that can have those symptoms

Have you asked outright what she suspects or has ruled out? Many doctors assume their patients don't want too much information and won't volunteer it but will tell you if asked

[Liv]

She put forth some ideas on the original consultation, but later communication has been with the nursing staff who are trained in information avoidance.

[Liv]

You can have an appendix that is only a little inflamed and hasn't reached critical mass yet. That happened to a friend of mine.

Can you digress at all? Symptoms? How did she/he end up being diagnosed?

[A Person]

Look up chronic appendicitis- as distinct from acute appendicitis

Symptoms of chronic appendicitis can be found in any age group with the disease but generally it catches people ageing from 10-30 year. Chronic appendicitis is more likely to cause damage to the intestines as they may carry infection. In some worse cases, there are chances of getting the organ ruptured and if that happens, it requires immediate surgery removing the affected area followed by broad spectrum antibiotic drugs’ course for longer period. Symptoms of chronic appendicitis there include severe unbearable pain in lower abdomen at right side of the umbilicus along with high degree fever. There will be difficulty in walking and while examining the abdomen, appendix’s area (McBurney’s point) is intolerable while pressed by a surgeon as a part of medical examination.

Many times, mere symptoms of chronic appendicitis may not be useful diagnosing the disease. Physical examination should be correlated with other pathological factors. With the help of modern technology such as ultrasound and scanning, it is quite possible to detect the chronic appendicitis. Oftentimes, the blood sample of a person suffering from the chronic appendicitis is also taken and sent to laboratory for different blood investigations called hemogram and then the report is compared with symptoms of chronic appendicitis. Hemogram may be useful detecting the disease.

[Liv]

I have no severe pain, but there is pain in the LRQ, distinctly sharp at the navel, with a slight rebound tendency. It is bearable as long as I don't wear tight fitting clothes, but I certainly don't like it.

I had them give me a copy of the blood work, and my carbon dioxide is low (20L), (of course, I can't effing breath)... and the white blood count is at 10.2 which is high level normal.

Interestingly, and likely unrelated I have a quote "heart size at the upper limits of normal", ... a big heart... awe...

I also have a Reidel's lobe.... (had to Google that one.) and they made a "incidental note" of "spina bifida occulta in the L5"...

Seriously??? Wow... that's effing cool. I think...

Seriously, I'm going to start asking for all my medical paperwork... there's tons of stuff they don't tell you.

Unfortunately none of this answers the question of how to fix me.

[A Person]

and my carbon dioxide is low (20L),

I'm assuming that's the minute volume 20L/min, if so that is high, it should be around 5-8.

and the white blood count is at 10.2 which is high level normal.

That's the upper limit of normal

I have a quote "heart size at the upper limits of normal", ... a big heart... awe...

Cardiovascular disease triggers heart growth, but then so does being big

I had similar symptoms which turned out to be a blood clot in the lung. Needed an MRI to conclusively diagnose it. They thought it might be pneumonia at first. That's consistent with your breathing problems, pain and white cell count but not the swelling.

It could be pleurisy, but again that's easily diagnosed.

Nothing conclusive, so you;ll just have to wait

[Liv]

The 20 L has a reference range beside it as NORMAL: 21-33 nmol/L

White blood cell: 3.8-10.8 Thousand/UL

I'm 6 feet tall, so not sure if height plays into heart size, but here's to hoping.

[Jamy]

You can have an appendix that is only a little inflamed and hasn't reached critical mass yet. That happened to a friend of mine.

Can you digress at all? Symptoms? How did she/he end up being diagnosed?

He went to the doctor several times for these pains and they DID test him for appendicitis, but I guess it wasn't infected enough at that time, to trigger any alarms (I don't know all the details of the tests they ran), plus he'd start feeling better all on his own, so he kind of got used to having these "spells" where he'd have these pains and eventually quit going to the doctor about them because they didn't know what it was and he knew they'd pass anyway.

But then, one night, the pains didn't just go away and they got worse and worse until he finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided to go back to the doctor again for one more try. He said it hurt so bad he could hardly breathe and every bump in the road was excruciating. He got to the ER in so much pain he could hardly walk and then, suddenly, just like that, it just stopped. Not a speck of pain. Luckily, someone in the ER recognized that for what it was....an appendix that had ruptured. They raced him to the ER and sure enough, the appendix had ruptured. He told me that they told him that he'd have died from that if he hadn't already been in the ER waiting room when it happened. He ended up having to get a drain tube put in and spend extra time in the hospital.

Up til then, I hadn't known that there was any such thing as chronic appendicitis. I'd always thought when they started hurting, it was always bad and obvious and the doctors knew exactly what they were and removed them.

AP is right though...a hernia can cause similar symptoms and cause a bulge or swelling, but I'd think a doctor would be able to tell that pretty easily.

[Liv]

Well right now I'm waiting on the pulmonary test results. Each test takes like two weeks for them to get back.

God forbid, if I actually was dying....

I'm so sick of spending money on tests, and not being able to breath, I almost wish something would burst just so I could get this fixed.

Hell, at this point I'd much rather hear it IS the appendix than my heart, liver, or kidney....

Please let it be some random, non-necessary organ....

Mortality sucks.

[Liv]

Well this will keep me in good spirits:
http://whatstheharm.net/

[Jamy]

Well this will keep me in good spirits:
http://whatstheharm.net/

Oh boy.,...I just read a few of those and I'm already hooked. LOL

[Jamy]

Haha! This guy looks like Violet Beauregard from taking too much colloidial silver!

[Liv]

Papa Smurf... yeah he's cool.

[Jamy]

So how are you doing now, Liv? Any progress?

[Liv]

Ahhhh.... Still no word, except that insurance has decided to try a deny the claim.

I doubt I'll find out... and I'm now likely in debt for 40,000 of diagnostic work, with no insurance to continue to investigate.

I'm rather depressed about the who situation... trying to maintain, some relative composure....

My best bet if the Insurance company does uck me over, is to try and manage the infection the best I can and hope whatever the eff is wrong calcifies at some point.

Stupid American effing healthcare.

[Jamy]

That is obscene. I am really sorry to hear this...I was kinda hoping to hear that they'd figured it out. $40,000 is a ridiculous amount to spend and still not know. I mean, it's a ridiculous amount anyway, but to spend that much and still not know...ugh. When will you find out if you have been accepted for that overseas study in Brussels?

[Liv]

I believe some decisions will be made by mid-March, but I'm on an odd ISEP program, which may be a bit different.

Keeping the faith...

At this point, I say eff the fact I can't breath... when I get word I'm going to start training...

[Jamy]

Good grief....be careful.

[Liv]

Got a bill today, stating they're not covering anything....

I do not understand how this is even legal...

They're now requesting the medical documentation...

Lovely...

[Jamy]

Keep sending the claim in and ignoring their denial. I hate insurance companies with a passion.