A visit to hospital

She was unwell on the first day. On the second day she had enough abdominal pain to stay home from school. The next day the pain was worse so her mother took her to the doctor who thought she might have appendicitis and sent her to hospital. Ultrasound suggested a normal appendix but enlarged lymph nodes.Blood tests were inconclusive.
After my morning clinic I went to the ultrasound department and look at her films with the ultrasonographer. Because she is young and slim the films were very clear. Then I sat and waited with her and my wife in the casualty waiting room until I was late for afternoon clinic. She said she didn't believe she had appendicitis.




Later, the pain became more severe with increasing tenderness over the appendix. She was admitted to the children's ward and given intravenous antibiotics.





 Her mother rang me and asked me to call the surgeon who was still operating in the city. I told him that my wife was concerned since her father had a ruptured appendix at a similar age. He said he would come and remove her appendix.
Theatre was arranged. The surgeon performed a laparoscopy which revealed a normal appendix and enlarged lymph nodes in the nearby mesentery of the bowel - viral mesenteric adenitis.

An enlarged inflamed node can be clearly seen in the mid left of the photograph beneath the instrument holding up the bowel. The appendix was still removed.





When she woke up in the recovery room she said she knew she didn't have appendicitis and apologised to the surgeon for wasting his time and asked if she could have a hamburger. By the time she returned to her bed in the ward she was texting all her friends, then she fell asleep with the phone in her hand.