Appendix

When I had my appendix out in September of 2000, I asked Clint if that meant that I would die sooner than if it had been left in. Clint replied, “If it was left in, you’d be dead already.” Oh yeah! Yay!

Today, there’s a news article that talks about how they may have found the purpose of the appendix.

“The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most are good and help digest food.

But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix’s job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.”

It does mention that the appendix is still not needed in today’s modern society. But I remember all the health issues I had leading up to appendicitis. The year 2000 was a crazy year for me – I had recurring tonsillitis, yeast infections, urinary tract infections… I had never had any of those issues prior to that year. Even the day I went to the hospital for my appendix, I had felt the oncoming symptoms of tonsillitis earlier in the day. Then suddenly my stomach hurt and my throat felt better.

They took my appendix out and I have never gotten tonsillitis or a urinary tract infection again since then. So I kept thinking my appendix was inflamed and causing all the other symptoms until it finally got to the point where it was actually the appendix that hurt. Or maybe all those germs were coursing through my body for some reason and they ended up in my appendix and they took the appendix out and all those bad germs with it. Either way, I was grateful for my appendix doing whatever job it was doing up until the point of failure. And thanks to modern society, I am still alive today, even if I may die earlier than I would have if I had a healthy appendix.

Anyway, back to the point, the article made me think about the yeast infections… I had never had one prior to the year 2000, but I have had them since getting my appendix out. I occasionally get them when I have to take antibiotics and the antibiotics end up killing good bacteria that I need. I also had a different but related reaction when I was taking antibiotics for my sinus surgery. So what if I had a healthy appendix still, would the good bacteria have been killed? Or would the appendix have replenished it as it was dying off?

tgaw Says:

October 9, 2007 at 4:37 pm

I had a different (completely uneducated!) theory about your health woes of 2000. I think your body was so busy fighting an underlying appendix infection that it couldn’t ward off the tonsillitis, the urinary tract infections and the yeast infections. Your immune system was spread too thin. But once you got that pesky appendix out— your body had its full resources again to deploy throughout the body as needed.

Again, I have no medical background. It’s just my personal theory. 🙂

parthena Says:

October 10, 2007 at 2:40 pm

Wow, interesting!! To think that it could actually store healthy bacteria… I also didn’t know that lots of your health problems of ’00 got much better once you got your appendix removed.

I guess you could always start taking those healthy pro-biotics supplements that they carry at places like Whole Foods, if you’re concerned about not getting enough of the good bacteria?

On a semi-related note, about 6 years ago I had recurring issues with my tonsils–they kept swelling up, to the point where my voice was actually altered and I could barely eat anything for weeks at a time. The doctor’s kept telling me to take them out, but I didn’t–I’m glad I didn’t, because the problem hasn’t come back since and I didn’t have to go into surgery. 🙂 I do think doctors are a little trigger-happy with removing people’s tonsils, but it makes sense why people would get their appendices removed (because it can be life-threatening!)

gaugeyagee Says:

October 10, 2007 at 4:28 pm

@parthena: Quite the opposite thing happened with me. I had an oversized tonsil for YEARS that I had been trying to get removed, and no Dr. would do it! I knew it was a problem, as I kept getting sore throats and had other symptoms.

After I met Nicole, I told her about it and she gave me the name of the Dr. she went to who correctly diagnosed it and had it removed! I booked an appointment with him, he determined that it needed to come out, and after the surgery they dissected it and determined that he was correct: it was chronically infected.

I’d been trying for literally YEARS to get that thing taken out and no Dr. would recommend it.

October 11, 2007 at 6:00 am

Gaugeyagee: that’s so strange that we’ve had such different experiences! Most doctors I went to back then were pretty adamant about removing tonsils, even if they didn’t give you chronic discomfort…they almost seemed to view the tonsils as completely unecessary and figured, “Why not remove them?” I think at the time it was just a weird issue with my immune system, though, and when I started eating better then most of the problems went away.