Cause of Appendicitis

When I talked to the doctor about the cause of Kylee's appendix bursting, he said that when they took it out, it looked pretty bad. He said that they couldn't tell for sure when it had burst, but it most likely had been a while. I wasn't sure if that meant hours or days. I keep trying to remember if Kylee had complained about her stomach hurting before that night when she cried all night. It seems like she had maybe said her tummy hurt a couple times several days before, so I'd helped her eat something or sit on the potty. But, she hadn't really complained much. I don't really remember for sure.

The doctor explained that the appendix had a piece of stool which had stuck in the opening between the appendix and the large intestine. This is the most common cause of an appendicitis. It had mostly turned to stone. He said this usually takes quite some time to do. Because of this, the path between the small and large intestines was eventually blocked causing the walls of the appendix to corrode and break down, eventually rupturing.

Depending on the position of the appendix, usually when it starts to swell, you would have pain that starts around the belly button and then it would move to the right side because it would start to press on the lining of your stomach and be painful. But, if the appendix is located further back, it may not hurt as bad. The doctor said that because of this, it is really hard to diagnose an appendicits in a small child.

Also, once the appendix explodes, the pain goes away for a while until the poison released into the abodomin caused infection. I'm wondering if her appendix had burst sometime the night before it started to hurt really bad. Maybe, I don't know.

I asked if constipation would have caused this and he said "not necessarily, its hard to tell". Kylee has had trouble with constipation since she was born, so who knows.

Also, everyone always says that the appendix doesn't do anything anyway, so its not a big deal to remove. The doctors here said this as well. Klay said he read somewhere that here in the US where we have all our vacinations and preventions of disease, the appendix doesn't do much. But, in other countries where they don't have that, it does help with something. I have no idea what, but it was interesting.