Why you need to listen to your grumbling appendix, even after years of putting up with it
- If you have endured bouts of abdominal pain over the years, you may suffer from what some doctors call chronic appendicitis
- Because of a lack of classic symptoms, medical opinion is divided on whether it exists, and how it should be treated
The pain first hit when I was a teenager: an unrelenting grinding in my lower abdomen, as if my internal gears were gummed up. A fleeting thought crossed my mind – could it be my appendix? – but I dismissed it, since I felt fine the next day.
Throughout my young adulthood, the grinding pain recurred every few weeks or so. When it hit, I’d clench my jaw and curl up in the fetal position, but within a few hours, the attack would pass. I wasn’t concerned enough to have a doctor check me out since things receded quickly.
But then in my early 30s, I had what seemed like just another bout of this pain, but this time, it didn’t go away. I headed to the hospital, where I learned that my appendix was about to rupture.
The appendectomy performed on me revealed the likely origins of the mysterious pain that had plagued me for more than half my life. Appendicitis, it turns out, isn’t always acute. Some people can limp along for years with appendix-related pain from some sort of inflammation or obstruction – a condition known as chronic appendicitis.
Debate has long raged among physicians about whether the condition dubbed “grumbling appendix” is real.
