I’ve been thinking about this for sometime, especially after my buddy Emilio and now Lisa Bently, had theirs blow up in races. And in the other thread there are all kinds of stories about others who had the same thing happen. It doesn’t seem to matter what age, health you are in, what you are doing, it could happen anywhere, anytime. Here’s my question, can you have elective surgery to take your appendix out if it is healthy?? And are there any adverse probems with losing your appendix? Does it have a function, it seems that everyone who has lost theirs do ok afterwards. I go on a lot of trips to very remote locations for races and surf trips, and it is a constant fear of mine to have this problem in some 3rd world country in the middle of no where… What’s the scoop/////
Monty,
You got me laughing here at my desk!!
I can just see it now - a mad rush of slowtwitchers jumping on the bandwagon for elective appendix surgery just so we don’t have it blow at some inopportune time.
I may need to buy stock in whatever they must sell or supply to do appendix surgery……maybe offer a P3C to the 1st several thousand or so…….remember, the rush is coming and once again we saw it here first.
The appendix is one of those things that vexes the staunch creationists… It apparently serves no function other than to become inflamed and threaten death to certain individuals (seems to be a left-over from some evolutionary process). The only adverse effect of having an elective surgery to have your appendix removed is to lighten your wallet significantly, as I doubt any insurance company in the world would cover it.
The only adverse effect of having an elective surgery to have your appendix removed is to lighten your wallet significantly
and let us not forget that another adverse effect of this kind of extensive surgery is death, which will definitely affect your racing calendar…
I guess I assumed a successful surgery and neglected to mention the ever-present RISK (not certain outcome) of ANY surgery that you might die on the operating table.
as I doubt any insurance company in the world would cover it.////
You know, now that you mention it, I have a little pain in my side right now( what side is that again??). And you know Doc, it’s getting worse by the minute. Better be safe than sorry, don’t want to have to sue you for missing a bad appendix.
Kind of looks like Lisa Bently has a bit of a bone to pick with her Doc on the Island there. I don’t know the whole story, but it sounds like he should have never let her leave the hospital without a proper test…
So how many people die of appendix surgery, healthy people that is? Do they keep stats on that sort of thing, and do you have to be totally under for this surgery.I bet lots more die from it being ruptured in some remote location… I’ve heard that they do it arthroscopicly now, and it’s like pulling a tooth or something…
not many, but it sure as hell ain’t close to zero…
Monty, moral of the story…surf and race where there are good docs nearby. You got another 50 years of tris before they pry your cold hands of the bike 
How many seconds would the weight loss be worth on the bike?
Monty,
I’ve heard of people having their appendix out proactively. Not sure if its an urban myth but polar explorers astronauts etc. who would not have a way of getting medical help in time.
Styrrell in
not many, but it sure as hell ain’t close to zero…
Not many, but a lot more die from having it explode. I am actually a bit concerned about this myself, having had occasional appendicitis attacks as a result of diet (orange juice for some reason). If your appendix bursts you are at a minimum in the hospital for several weeks…and people do die from it.
I don’t know how you define being close to zero, but the mortality rate is fairly
Here is data from Sweden over a 10 year period ending in 1996 and techniques and antibiotics have improved since then (less than .24%)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11303128&dopt=Abstract
Also: It is laparoscopically not arthroscopically which refers to scoping a joint (arthro).
The medical care in Hawaii, especially Kona, is notoriously bad. You don’t want to end up in the hospital there without consulting friends in the insurance litigation industry… or else you could end up with Dr. Death!
you should reserve judgment until you understand and know all the facts, which neither of us will ever do so lets speculate.
when i first heard about her ailment, i was sure she had appendicitis. the symptoms were classic. i don’t believe any doctor that lisa bentley would take herself to would be that incompetent. quite possible that there was either not full disclosure from the patient or she elected not to have a scan. this scenario is equally as conceivable as a botched diagnosis. the more likely truth is they told her there was a problem but that she would not die from it in the next 24 hours if she started a course of antibiotics and she could in fact race if the pain was tolerable. she then took that advice and, well, ran with it.
for the record the concept of doing a pro-active removal of your appendix is down right asinine, even with the success rates and recovery times associated with current laproscopic procedures. your money would be better spent buying insurance that would come get you via helicopter in remote regions of the world and whisk you to safety should you ever require an emergency medical procedure.
Monty, if you are so fucking smart why don’t you just get a knife and some sutures and take your appendix out yourself? From what I hear you’re thought of as “tough”. Make sure you wipe down with some alcohol sponges first and maybe run over the knife with a match a couple times before you cut. Oh and by the way the incidence of left sided or midline appendiceal locations is about 10-15% so be ready to open up the other side if need be.
How many seconds would the weight loss be worth on the bike?
What’s an appendix weigh? About a pound? That’s dead weight, just like the weight of your bike frame. Free speed.
I’ve heard if the appendix has blown, the operating table mortality rate is 10%.
The doc left me a nice 3" scar. Internal sutures that dissolve and just tape on the skin so no Frankenstein type scar. They did put me under.
Even though mine blew, I was only in the hospital for four days. I was off the morphene after the first night. I couldn’t take any more of the weirdness and freak dreams. They had me walk around the corridors, pulling my IV tree with me. I saw my one hottie nurse and showed her how well I was walking. Once I got past her, she asked me to stop and then proceeded to tie up my smock. Apparently I had done several laps of the hospital corridor with a full backside (pardon the conicidence) monty.
Where did you get this impression/information? According to a survey of paid claims based on 2003 from the National Practitioner Data Bank, of the locations where WTC IM events are held in the U.S. Hawaii ranks second to Wisconsin in the least number of claims per 1000 physicians.
U.S. total 22.9 claims per 1000 active physicians
Fla. 28.4
N.Y. 22.9
AZ 24.1
ID 13.3
HI 12.7
WI 7.9
In fact, 37 States rank worse than Hawaii for number of paid claims. If Hawaii is notoriously bad, I would hate to be in any of those other 37 states when I need emergency medical care
From a friend who works in insurance defense litigation. Kona is a tiny medical community, and those who work in their defense know which doctors to avoid!