This might be a stupid question, but I'm having a very sharp pain in my side and I wondered about appendicitis. Wouldn't I know if I was having an appendicitis attack? Well, maybe I wouldn't since I don't know much about the human body (I about failed Biology twice) so I don't know anything about this stuff. Please help?
Sharp pain in your side could be many things - especially if you are a female. Typical appendicitis symptoms consist of a sudden-onset epigastric or periumbilical pain followed by brief nausea and vomiting and, after a few hours, shifting of pain to the right lower quadrant. Direct tenderness and rebound tenderness in the right lower quadrant, localized pain on cough, low-grade fever. If you have these symtoms then please get to the hospital right away.
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
the other answer is pretty accurate, but appendicitis usually isn't sudden onset: it starts with vague illness, loss of appetite, nausea, gradually develops into pain which starts in the middle and then over several hours localized in the right lower abdomen. A sharp pain in the side with no other symptoms isn't too likely to be appendicitis: however, appendicitis can behave much differently from "typical" and any pain that persists needs evaluation.
Posts: 1505 | Location: Puget Sound, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Thank you! I haven't experienced anything other than the pain in my side, so I think it may be a muscle strain. I dismissed the possibility originally because I couldn't think of anything strenuous I had done to hurt the muscle.