Sorry if my wording sounds weird. I am completely sleep deprived and miserable right now. I cannot think.

I have a reoccurring fear of getting appendicitis, due to a pain I sometimes get in my right side. I used to take fenugreek capsules every day because I heard they prevent appendicitis, but have stopped taking them because I was afraid they were causing heavy periods. There has been several times that I’ve thought I have appendicitis. One time last year my primary care doc even sent me to the ER for an ultrasound because I had her convinced it was appendicitis too. I hadn’t planned on actually going (I was too scared) but she called my mom behind my back and told her to take me right away. The ultrasound ruled out appendicitis, but the whole experience left me traumatized and even more worried about my appendix.

None of these occurences have been as bad as this time, however. I have had no appetite since Sunday, and usually I’m a bottomless pit. Monday night as soon as I ate dinner, my whole abdomen started to really hurt and I had some indigestion. Of course, I immediately started to worry about appendicitis. The pain was all over, but occasionally I would get a stabbing pain under my belly button. I couldn’t finish dinner. The pain stayed all evening and was still there when I went to bed. It took me a while to fall asleep because of it, but once I did, I felt completey better. I woke up a couple times during the night and felt completely fine. In the morning when I woke up, I briefly felt pain in my right side, and felt like something was coming up my throat for a minute, but that was it. The only symptom I had until afternoon was loss of appetite.

Then at 3:30 PM, I had a snack and a coconut water. This immediately upset my stomch and made me nauseous. I had some pain in my right side, like a side stitch feeling. I got really worried and gave myself the “rebound tenderness” test for appendicitis. Upon pressing on my McBurney’s point, I felt no rebound pain or tendernes, but that was when the tingling discomfort in my lower right abdomen started that has been there ever since. I feel it more when I take a deep breath, which is a sign of appendicitis. I felt better by dinner. the tingly right side feeling was still there, but I ate just fine and my appetite was back.

Last night, however, I didn’t sleep well. The right side discomfort was there and I felt nauseous. I had nauseous salivating. This morning, I felt better and ate breakfast, and ever since then, I am screwed. My stomach is upset. I‘m nauseous and have diarrhea and still the nauseous salivating. I feel like puking. There is tingly discomfort and pressure in my right side and it’s getting worse. I can‘t even take pepto bismol cause it will interact with the propranolol (a beta blocker) I take. (Anyone know anything other than pepto that I can take for nausea, upset stomach, diarrhea, etc, that doesn’t interact with propranolol? Please?)

I’m so scared that it’s appendicitis that I’m near tears. Appendicitis is one of my worst fears ever. Part of the reason why I am so scared of getting it is because I have a MASSIVE phobia of needles, hospitals, and medical procedures. This phobia is so severe that if something were seriously wrong with me and I were to die without medical attention, I would, in all seriousnes, rather be left home to die than go to the hospital.  If it’s appendicitis, I‘d have to go to to hospital and get surgery and stay there for days with needles stuck in me. This is unthinkable to me. I would rather die. But then my only other option is to die of a burst appendix, and of course I DON’T want that either. 😭 😭 

Does this sound like appendicitis or could it be something else? Again, sorry if my wording sounds weird and doesn’t make sense. I barely slept last night and I feel terrible.