[avaissema]

So he was perhaps slightly leaking then, I gather. Still sounds more serious than a basic removal. I've never heard of this "waiting to see if there is an abcess" (I had a tube that allowed fluid to leak from my ab for a couple weeks or so, and a nurse came to the house regularly to attend it) and did not know it was different for children and adults.

In adults, and basic removal, the scar is very small because it is a simple removal of the organ. If the organ has burst prior to the surgery (rare in adults), however, the scar is large because the ab cavity must be "vacuumed" (as I understood, not just washed). It's not that my doc was sloppy with the incision, it's that he had to do alot of vacuuming.

I guess a leak requires only a little vacuuming, which can be done with scopic tools and a minor incision.


I don't like the fever. I'd want x-rays to make sure the docs didn't leave something in there, I suppose I'm a bit paranoid.


My surgery was 1989, at a geriatric hospital with a general physician (the closest thing with an operating table from the school). I was transported by school security vehicle because there was not time for an ambulance (my appendix was ruptured as I sat in the clinic awaiting a white-blood cell test). In the hour or so it took them to prep the OR, I experienced some pretty amazing pain (not that the hours of prelude to the rupture was fun either, but it was endurable). They say I was about 20 minutes from dead when they put the mask on me at the OR.