wmartin@brl-smoke.ARPA (Will Martin ) (03/20/86)
I've been wondering just how common appedicitis really is. We have all heard of it, and I have the impression that the removal of the appendix is one of the most common surgical procedures, but I don't have a good feel for just how likely it is for someone to actually get appendicitis. Is it so common that I should think of it every time I have some discomfort or pain in my right side? Or is it really a rather rare condition, and only one in a thousand right-side pains are a result of that cause? If it is one-in-ten, or even one-in-a-hundred, I would pay a lot more attention to a pain in that area than I would if the odds were one-in-a-thousand, or one-in-a-million. I don't know anyone who has had appendicitis (unless someone I know slightly had it once, and never had occasion to mention the fact in my hearing). So I have no "handle" or "feel" on how rare or common a condition it is. Also, is it something that was once much more common than it is today? Or has it persisted at about the same frequency per unit of population over the years? Will
weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) (03/22/86)
In article <1933@brl-smoke.ARPA> wmartin@brl-smoke.ARPA (Will Martin ) writes: >Is it so common that I should think of it every time I have some >discomfort or pain in my right side? > >I don't know anyone who has had appendicitis (unless someone I know >slightly had it once, and never had occasion to mention the fact in my >hearing). So I have no "handle" or "feel" on how rare or common a >condition it is. I had appendicitis when I was about 13. I woke up with it, and oh, did it ever hurt. I knew exactly what it was too, even though no one I knew, not even on a TV med show, had ever had it. Within an hour I was at the doctors, who then called the hospital to prepare for me. Don't worry about every little ache you get as to whether it's appendicitis. The odds don't matter either. If it strikes, you'll KNOW. And even if you don't, it will be so awful a pain you will seek help anyway. (Of course, the little aches could be something else.) ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720