Appendicitis – Symptoms

Transcript

The most common symptom is abdominal pain. And we’ll talk about that in a little more detail in a few minutes, but first I want to take some time to talk about the other symptoms that you have in addition to belly pain, when you might have an appendicitis, one of the most common symptoms is a loss of appetite. Really don’t feel like eating, or they might go for a long time without eating and don’t feel hungry. A lot of people will feel nausea. Some people will vomit. A lot of people describe bloating or abdominal distension, and some people even have diarrhea. One of the more concerning secondary symptoms of appendicitis, especially if it’s gone on for a little while and hasn’t been looked at or diagnosed is a fever. If you have a fever, it’s very important to seek medical attention right away. Those are the secondary symptoms.

The main symptom that everyone talks about and knows about is the abdominal pain. And for appendicitis, there is a pretty particular classic case of what it feels like to have an appendicitis. Usually the pain will start in the mid abdomen around your belly button. It will be kind of vague and annoying. And then as the disease progresses, the character of the pain also changes. So the pain will become a little bit sharper. It’ll tend to localize a little more and it’ll actually start to migrate. So it’ll move from your belly button down into your right lower quadrant, which is basically right above your right beltline. And if that pain becomes sharp, migrates and becomes very focal and you can put your finger on it, that is a very good sign that you may have acute appendicitis.