Frank's Happy Place

the 7 deadly sins of being a writer

Reminder that not everyone is going to ship what you ship.

this actually happened to me during my math final and i didn’t think anything of it and when i was later admitted to the hospital my math prof was asking me ‘you didn’t have to take the final! why didn’t you tell me it hurt?!?!’ and i told him i’ve had cramps worse.

This is actually an extremely common occurrence simply because in sex ed they don’t teach you how to tell the difference between menstrual cramps and other more serious pains. The way to tell the difference between cramps and appendicitis is that while menstrual cramps are generalized toward the middle of the stomach below the belly button, pain from a swollen or burst appendix will start in the middle of the stomach and relocate to only the lower right side, even lower than menstrual cramps, and is a very localized pain. It also comes on extremely suddenly and will worsen over time or when you make a sudden movement, like a cough or a sneeze.

Adding another diagnostic tool! This is something we use in the ER called the rebound test. Basically, appendicitis and cramps react differently to certain things. If you’re still not sure if you have cramps or appendicitis, take two fingers and press them into your abdomen where the pain is (try repeating this on the lower right quadrant of the abdomen just to be sure.)

THE REBOUND TEST IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

My appendicitis was also a similar intensity as my period, and I only suspected it might be something else because I am on continuous birth control (so I don’t, you know, experience the equivalent pain of an exploding organ every month). If I hadn’t been on the pills, I would have just taken a sick day the next day and tried to get through it, even though I was delirious and threw up for the first time in twenty years because of the pain. I had just had another surgery two weeks prior that messed with my birth control and so part of me thought it was just a symptom of that. I don’t know what would have happened if it had ruptured. I got a sense that the pain was in a slightly different spot and it would not respond at all to medication and that was the only reason I got my brother to take me to the hospital.

Not appendicitis but my older sis went to ER with severe cramps and the doctor told her it was just menstrual pain and to go home and take pain killers. (This was now a number of years ago.)

The “doesn't know what they're doing but everyone believes they do” squad