Approaching 30 Years Without Appendix

Members of my no appendix club include Mary Ann Van Osdell, Bridget Van Osdell Peterson, Lauren Boley, Heather Enright, Joe Burrow, John Miller Edwards, Colton Burpo, Doug Williams, Dale Brown, Gina Gojean (silver medal gymnast), Andy Rooney, Walter Cronkite, Gregory Peck at 80; Tim McGraw, Tim Allen, Jenna Bush, Mrs. Raisa Gorbacev, rights activist Bayard Rustin, Dan Quayle (sent him card), Eileen Fulton from As The World Turns, Mel Gibson, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Costner, Liv Ullman, Rob Kardashian, San Francisco Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia, Dianne Fossey in Gorillas, Bruce Willis, Denver Broncos tailback Montee Ball, Ted Turner, Daniel Moynihan, Ellen Goodman, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, Lindsey Lohan, Johnny Van Zant, Sean Hannity’s godson, Zac Efron, Pat Green (emergency), Ty Pennington, Julianne Hough, Victoria Arlen, Jim Gaffigan, Derek Hough, Portia de Rossi, author Tucker Max, Pope John Paul II (inflamed), Mrs. Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Anderson Cooper, Ashley Judd, Suze Orman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Jordin Sparks, son of Gov. John Bel Edwards, Elton John, Pierre Cartier, Bob Saget, Curtis Stone, Glenn Beck, Jessica Alba, Bret Michaels, Nate Berkus, Patty Duke (possible cause of intestinal rupture), Justine Bateman, Andy Rooney, Pat Cash (tennis), Joe Manganiello; Brigham Young and Harry Houdini died from theirs, Rep. Charlie Melancon of La. had one in 2005 while in Idaho, Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she watched President Obama's State of the Union address from a hospital waiting room after receiving word that her younger son needed emergency surgery when his appendix was within a few hours of bursting, R&B singer R. Kelly while in Miami for the Super Bowl was taken to a hospital emergency room for a burst appendix and was operated on the same day, Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres who less than two weeks after needing an emergency appendectomy had his gall bladder removed, Ben Miles, LSU catcher Ty Ross as emergency, Giants’ outfield Andres Torres whose surgeon reiterated how close a call it was with the surgery because it was ready to burst. In fact the doctor likened it to Lethal Weapon. Apparently the surgeon removed the appendix and barely had enough time to throw it when it exploded in mid-air. Or that could have been Jesse Joyce who also probably said: I have spent the subsequent days in recovery as I have holes in my abdomen now where I used to have an appendix. I have spent that time pondering the benefits of being appendixless.

Three people died at Woodstock, one from a ruptured appendix.

“I think we’ll have all our pitchers have appendectomies,” Texas manager Buck Showalter said after watching Ricardo Rodriguez, who missed six weeks because of an appendectomy, throw a three-hit shutout against Cleveland in 2004.
LBJ showed his appendix scar and Anthony Hopkins got his break as an understudy when Sir Laurence Olivier fell ill with appendicitis.
The only man to die on the Lewis and Clark journey of two years was Charles Floyd, who took ill at the end of July 1804. He felt bad for two weeks and then felt a little better. Clark described Floyd's death as one "with a great deal of composure." It was a RUPTURED APPENDIX. The brief "recovery" Floyd described may have represented the temporary relief afforded by the bursting of the organ, which would have been followed by a fatal peritonitis. That is exactly what happened to me, I called it abscessing over itself, except I had surgery and removal of gangrene before it became fatal.

(I read they cost $200 in 1947. Whatever it costs is priceless.)

Added in 2022: You know Andrea Bocelli is blind, but did you know that his mother refused to abort her pregnancy when advised to do so by her doctor? She had had a case of appendicitis while pregnant and the doctors believed that the treatment would cause the baby to be born with a disability. She refused to follow the recommendation and the baby boy was born with congenital glaucoma. At the age of 10, he became completely blind when a soccer ball hit him in the head. This blind son was gifted with a love of music and a powerful voice, a voice which was in danger of never being heard.

When he was 22, Saget suffered a burst appendix that ended up being gangrenous. I add him to the club. And Kelly Clarkson dropped and broke down in tears from the pain. It’s a 10, but I was misdiagnosed. Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain did not travel with the team for the Missouri game last year after having an emergency appendectomy.

I heard one of my classmate’s husband’s had his appendix out and not only that, it had a tumor on it.

Dr. William Grant in Davenport, Iowa, did the first on Jan. 4, 1885. My scars remind me of how God pulled me out of a possible brush with death and how prayers are answered.

Just read where someone's fave word was appendectomy--the removal of an app from an electronic device.

Wish I remember where this was from. Here is a list of things I can do that you appendixed readers cannot now that I no longer have one: - walk through an appendix detector without incident - digest plants and grasses without having to swallow small rocks to aid in the process - smuggle condoms full of heroin across the border in the now vacant cavity where my appendix was - grant wishes - see clearly... I don’t understand the connection either - beep every hour, on the hour - the doctor lost his watch during the operation - refer to everyone who is rude to me who has not had an appendectemy as “AppenDICKS” - threaten my other organs into always functioning properly... they saw what happened to the appendix... - date several cute hospital surgical interns, as they saw me unconscious on a table wearing a backless paper gown.

"One Writer's Beginnings," was a book review I went to about Eudora Welty. Welty's mother's father died of a RUPTURED APPENDIX when she was 15. Eudora's grandmother had to stay home to take care of the other children, but her mother took her 38-year-father, who waited a while to seek attention, in a buggy from West Virginia to Baltimore. She was 15. They had to get a boat to cross a river and then walked to Johns Hopkins. The father passed and she was told to tell her family. Doctors did not realize she had come that far alone.

People ask to describe the pain--stinging, cramping, burning, stretching, gnawing? THROBBING AND NON-STOP.

Just read about a lady thinking she had it and it was a uterine sarcoma.