Sorry! No New Insights on Hospital Sex or Pubic Lice for Awhile

This is Alexis' PseudoAunt Jillian. Some of you may have known that Alexis was in the hospital with pneumonia. Her fever eventually went down enough for her to be released (paroled is how she expressed it). What you may not have known, and what I certainly didn't know, is that appendicitis can be a relating factor, or even a cause, of pneumonia.

After she came home to my house from the hospital, as her parents are handling an emergency family matter that truly is an emergency, we have to keep reminding her, or they would be with her right now , she got up in the night and was behaving strangely even for Alexis. (Sorry, kid. I couldn't resist.) We checked her temperature and found it to be 105.4 Her PseudoUncle Scott was working at the hospital, but we were able to reach him. He told us to put her on the floor of a cold shower for a few minutes, then to get her out and dry her. By that time, he said, he would be home to take her back to the hospital.

A few blood tests and scans later it was discovered that her appendix had ruptured. She went into emergency surgery and came through it fine. She still has a drain at her wound site because there was a great deal of poisonous matter that released itself into her systerm when her appendex burst. The doctors cleaned things out as well as they could, but now, with the aid of antibiotics and a drain in her abdomne, her body must do the rest of the work of ridding her body of those nasty toxins and mending itself.

I can say this because no lawsuits will be filed in relation to this case, but Alexis complained repeatedly to the doctor assigned to her care that her tummy was hurting. Eaach time she was told that her problem was constipation; she needed more fiber in her diet, the doctor said, or perhaps the nurses could give her an enema. This was ironic in that all the antibiotics being given to her had actually caused her to have diarrhea, so whatever was causing her tummyache obviously wasn't constipation. The doctor had instructed the nurses not to take seriously any of Alexis' complaints of abdominal pain. Alexis had been branded a whiner, so she eventully stopped complainining about her tummy. Then the appendix ruptured. The doctor in charge of her case has egg all over her face and is no lnger in charge of Alexis' case.

Doctors who do not listen to patients are in the wrong profession. My husband, who is in his first year of medicl residency, told me that one night last week, 3 pediatric patients came into the emergency room with suspected appendicitis. In each case the symptoms were actually caused by constipation. He said that such will be the case more often than not, but the doctor has to forget the statistics and treat each case as though it was the first of its kind ever seen. The one time a doctor doesn't properly heed the symptoms may be the time it actually is appendicitis.

Alexis has greatly apppreciated messages from those who have sent them through various forums. Please continue to send cheerful messages. She's unhappy right now and we're not exactly sure what the problem is, but a few more "Get Well" wishes may snap her out of whatever it is that's making her unhappy.

Thanks!


Alexis' PseudoAunt Jillian!