It is thought that viral, bacteria or protosoal infections are often the cause of inflamed appendix. It is also known that appendix plays a role in the immune system .
I wonder if people with chronic infections (such as TBD ) have higher incidents of appendicitis ( I had mine removed in the teens)
Posted by AliG (Member # 9734) on :
Apendectomy at age 12. Posted by Elaine G (Member # 20735) on :
I was 12 when I had mine removed. I was really healthy until I was 52.
Posted by Cold Feet (Member # 9882) on :
Colt, I had an emergency appie in 2000. I almost croaked and it took me a full six months to recover. This, after years of annoying lumbar pain. I believe the same pathogens are the culprit...
As some of you have read, the appendix is thought to be a "living pocket" of probiotics -- which literally injects biofilms rich in probiotic flora to reinnoculate the GI tract. Those of us that have donated our appie organ should be mindful of this deficit...
[ 11-29-2009, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Cold Feet ]
Posted by angrob75 (Member # 16942) on :
Had mine removed in 2000. I am 40 now. This is about the same time i was starting to have all kinds of weird symptoms and not knowing what was going on.
Did not find out about lyme until May 08.
Posted by Ocean (Member # 3496) on :
I had mine out in 2000, I was 21 y/o...got sick with Lyme when I was almost 18.
Posted by Nancy2 (Member # 95) on :
Had mine out in December, 2007. Was on Lyme and co infection meds at the time.
Nancy
Posted by Tracy9 (Member # 7521) on :
Got mine removed about four years after I was initially infected. Turned out to be a false alarm though, my appendix was actually fine.
Posted by coltman (Member # 21272) on :
Would be interesting to see statistics among chronically ill people (lyme ,cfs etc) . There is data that total about 7% people have had appendectomies.
I do think I contracted lyme around 14 - and then I had appendectomy about 3 years later. I dont see any correlation symptom wise, but wonder if it could have triggered it .
Not enough data to support any correlation though :/
Posted by Lymeorsomething (Member # 16359) on :
I still have mine (knock on fake wood). As Cold Feet says, recent research suggests that it functions in part as a good bacteria den.
A Bacterial Safe House: A New Role for the Appendix http://tinyurl.com/yc4pn4n Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
I had mine out about a couple of years before I had symptoms severe enough to seek medical attention.
I honestly don't know if it could have been related, but in hindsight, I sure did have a lot of surgeries and feel pretty unlucky with everything they were saying needed to be removed.
Cathy
Posted by pepperspeck (Member # 18837) on :
Mine ruptured in 1998. I was so sick with lyme stuff (undiagnosed at the time though) that I did not even realize that my appendix was going. I was in the hospital for almost a month. Funny thing is, after all the iv antibiotics to treat the sepsis, I did ok for a couple of years before being reinfected.
Posted by BHealthyNow (Member # 22537) on :
My appendix ruptured when I was 20, and I was on IV antibiotics for a week followed by a month of orals (Cipro and Flagyl). I believe mine was because I ate popcorn all the time in college.
Posted by Cold Feet (Member # 9882) on :
Colt and others...
Do you have any specific ideas as to how the infection and inflammation process might start, then progress? I've been thinking about this for some time, but I can't imagine how this could happen.
E.g., starting from within the GI tract? Or outside the appendix?
Mine ruptured on Oct. 20 this year and I thought I had a real bad case of H1N1 by the time I got to doc on Oct. 27.
The docs and nurses at the hospital were astonished (as was I) and said that my immune system was functioning as it should because it walled off the remains as an abscess. The organ had blasted itself to pieces, therefore, wasn't really anything left worth actual surgery, other than draining the abscess, which was done under local. The surgeon said that he suspected that it had been infected for some time and that all the abx taken for Lyme had been holding the rupture back... Also, likely that it couldn't clear all the toxins / build-up from the years of Lyme tx. Short version, it should have been removed long ago.
What I can tell you is although I'm not fully recovered yet, virtually ALL my GI sx's, pre to post-Lyme (in remission 2 yrs) are either vastly improved or completely gone! I am amazed! For the first time in my life, I can eat anything I want without upset and I love it!
While it might be true that the appendix is an organ with "good" bacteria, when that organ gets infected / bacteria goes bad, it will bring down your health, no matter what your current state. I've never been so glad to get rid of a part of my anatomy in my life! Posted by carly (Member # 14810) on :
I had my abscessed appendix removed at age 20.
Not sure when I contracted lyme. It may have been ten years later, but it may have been several years before.
Can't tell which is the chiken and which is the egg, but I have felt for some time that there's a relationship between my lack of an appendix and how sick I have been.
Posted by tickedoffjan (Member # 15944) on :
Mine ruptured in 2001. I too, actually got a bit better with the lyme after being treated with IV abx for over two weeks.
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
i've had lyme at least 25 yrs and had appndix out 3 yrs ago-doc said it was wierd looking...different than most he took out
and i've benn going downhill since then
Posted by pab (Member # 904) on :
My son was about 15 when he had his appendix taken out. I haven't had mine taken out.
My dad and 2 sisters had their appendix out and they are not sick.
Posted by Truthfinder (Member # 8512) on :
My appendix was taken out when I was fairly young - in about 1970. There wasn't anything wrong with it - I had to have abdominal surgery for something else and it was `routine procedure' back then to take the appendix out during any abdominal surgery.
I'll never know if the docs did me a favor or just the opposite. Posted by Shosty (Member # 12232) on :
My daughter's appendix was taken out and they also said it was strange looking, not like a normal one at all, but the pathology testing did not show anything.
Her surgery was mainly for endometriosis, but there was some thought that the appendix' inflammation was causing some GI symptoms.
I think there was a pathogen affecting her appendix, for which the lab does not test after surgery, and still wonder what pathogen it might be, since she has a number of health problems.
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