Appendicitis outbreak in Saskatchewan?
December 2, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Appendicitis is something we don’t seem to hear about much any more (Your appendix and you). It seemed that at one time, everyone was having either their tonsils or their appendix removed. Now, you don’t hear about it all that much.
We experienced it here about five years ago, when my teen-aged daughter developed it and had to have an emergency appendectomy. Luckily for her, it hadn’t burst, so she was able to go home after only one night in the hospital. But, appendicitis can be very serious. Besides being very painful, iIf the appendix bursts, it can cause peritonitis, an infection in the abdomen. People have died and still die from this if it’s not caught and treated in time.
Oddly enough, right now in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, there appears to be an outbreak of appendicitis. According to the Medbroadcast.com article, Small Sask. town wonders why it has 6 appendicitis cases since mid-October, the town of Avonlea has seen six cases in the past few weeks. What makes this more staggering is there are only 400 people in the town – and there has only been one case of appendicitis in the preceding five years.
~~
Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, appendicitis, appendix, appendectomy
