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That's great to hear. However, keep in mind that appendicitis is still an extremely serious condition that will kill you if left untreated. The fact that you ca
by algorias 8y ago
That's great to hear. However, keep in mind that appendicitis is still an extremely serious condition that will kill you if left untreated. The fact that you can avoid surgery in some cases doesn't mean that surgery is not an adequate treatment.
It's amazing how medicine has advanced: We can now cure illnesses with very minimal amount of invasiveness required in most cases. Even before this news, open surgery was already mostly supplanted by laparoscopy, which involves only a few tiny cuts.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoIn this case, would they keep you in hospital for a while to see if the antibiotics work, while being on standby to do emergency surgery?
- fredsanford 8y agoAppendicitis will kill you! And the surgery in most cases will save you. :) At least in my case. I technically died from a ruptured appendix and spent 9 days in ICU. The doctors delayed surgery to see if the antibiotics would work. This was ~10 or so years ago.
- da02 8y agoCan you give more details of "technically died"? Any after-life experience?
- wl 8y agoThat's not a phrase a physician would typically use. Laypeople sometimes use it to describe respiratory and/or cardiac arrest.
- da02 8y agoThanks. I have no medical training, so that helps. So the brain can still function for a while during cardiac arrest?
- delecti 8y agoYes. In fact you can be "dead" for rather a while and still get better under very specific circumstances, typically involving hypothermia.
- kendallpark 8y agoI think the saying is, “Nobody is dead until warm and dead.” Example: https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/03/union_county_boy_who_fell_into.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/03/union_co... Another example: http://time.com/3897897/how-an-italian-boy-survived-42-minutes-underwater/ http://time.com/3897897/how-an-italian-boy-survived-42-minut...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- SEJeff 8y agoTechnically died likely means cardiopulmonary arrest aka a heartrate of zero. Medical personnel refer to this as "a code" or "code blue" I drowned as a kid in a friend's pool when I was 7 or 8. I was "technically dead" as well. No afterlife experience, but as I was thrashing underwater, my entire body felt like you feel when your leg goes to sleep, and before I went "to sleep" I got really calm and everything was peaceful. The only thing I could feel other than whole body numbness was a strong warmth. I took one last look up at the sun sparkling on the ripples of water above and closed my eyes. A few minutes later, I awoke puking water and choking with my best friend shrieking hysterically as her mother frantically performed CPR on me. For some reason, my parents never ever let me swim in her pool again or go to her house unsupervised.
- diminoten 8y agoYou're crazy lucky, CPR isn't supposed to bring you back from anything or flush water out of your lungs, it's supposed to keep your blood flowing to your brain until paramedics can get to you.
- SEJeff 8y agoLucky indeed! I was terrified of water until I was about 12 and only then learned to swim.
- fredsanford 8y agoThe doctor told me that there was no heartbeat and no breathing for approximately 3 minutes. Since I'm still here... :) I called it technically dead. As for afterlife... I don't remember anything from surgery until I woke up 9 days later in the ICU.
- da02 8y agoAny permanent damage? Or did you make a full recovery?
- ryanmcbride 8y agoNot a doctor but supposedly a brain can be without oxygen for about 6 minutes without permanent damage.
- fredsanford 8y agoI had/have a few issues now. My kidneys were damaged and there have been slight memory issues. Both eased over time. The weirdest thing was, I started craving BBQ ribs. I was indifferent to them before.
- redial 8y agoGlad you are feeling better...but after reading your comment I too am craving bbq ribs. I was indifferent to them before.
- owenversteeg 8y agoAfter his comment I was curious, but still indifferent to bbq ribs. After yours, I too am craving bbq ribs. Some sort of ripple effect?
- mmirate 8y agoI read all three of these comments and I still dislike bbq ribs.
- cimmanom 8y agoThey delayed surgery before or after the rupture? Was it already ruptured when you arrived?
- fredsanford 8y agoBefore :) -- They were looking for the antibiotics to possibly save me from the surgery, which was my request when I was told what the treatment approaches could be. The thinking there is likely part of what saved my life. They put a thing in the huge vein in my neck at the point I opted to attempt to avoid surgery that was used to directly deliver the antibiotics to the brain.
- agumonkey 8y agodo we know how non 'modern' cultures deal with that ? different diet/lifestyle makes the condition rare if not more ?