THE FEW: CORE DISCUSSIONS ON RARE SURGICAL CASES ENCOUNTERED BY SURGICAL NURSES

PART TWO

To imagine that some of us always claim to wake up on the wrong side of the bed every morning, as though the entire universe were constantly warring against you, is to be persistently ungrateful for what you may call hell and suffering. But in reality, it may not.?

Walk with me as I share my experience.

Imagine your 6-year-old son being unable to eat for over 24 hours, with a body temperature of 38.7 and climbing, weak, in constant pain and obviously in distress. Not because of poverty, scarcity, poor economy or even famine, but because of a health condition that is both rare for his age and our surgical experience.

We called it a “SUB-HEPATIC RETRO-COLIC PERFORATED VERMIFORM APPENDIX”.

This is my story.

March 1st 2022, while at my duty post as the Perioperative nurse on call. It could have been taken for another beautiful day in the OR to be found doing what I love most, but was quickly welcomed with a consultation for an emergency LAPAROSCOPIC APPENDECTOMY. At this point, we all felt without any doubt that it was a procedure we weren't going to sweat over, or so we thought.

On making 3 keyhole incisions into the little boy's abdomen, we had a clear view of a well-filled pus and serosanguinous free-fluid coming from the suspected perforated appendix, with the aid of the camera and light source.

Our next move was to identify the appendix and with the use of a Maryland jaw laparoscopic sealer to remove it. That would have been the end. But it was only the beginning of what later became a 4-hour search for the appendiceal lesion.

Unable to navigate the abdomen laparoscopically, we converted the minimally invasive approach to an open laparotomy (we had to cut him open).

This was when it was discovered that there was an exception to this little boy's appendix which was due to a rotation abnormality of the primary intestine occurring during the 11th week of pregnancy, thus placing the caecum in the upper quadrant, just beneath the liver and behind the inflamed appendix behind the caecum.?

Note that anatomically the vermiform appendix is located at the junction between the end portion of the small intestine (Ileum) and the beginning of the large intestine (Caecum) at the right lower quadrant of the abdomen.

The appendix was safely removed and the procedure came to a successful and joyful close for everyone including the little boy's mother, who through worry must have added a few pounds.

The bottom line, have a grateful heart for every day you live and breathe without having to go through anything like what this patient experienced.?

In conclusion, prompt medical checkups and diagnosis cannot be overemphasized going forward, in the event of preventable and treatable medical conditions, otherwise, it might be too late to manage.

Thanks for learning from my experience.?

?Let's catch up in the next episode.