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Diagnosis

The day after my surgery, the mass of doctors came around again, and I was told that my appendix was probably not to blame for my belly pain. However, I won't know for sure until I go back in 6 weeks for the follow-up and the pathology results. They told me that I had mesenteric adenitis (I had to get the head doctor to write this down), which is when an infection causes the lymph nodes at the edge of the lining of the gut to swell. Nothing can be done about it, except wait it out. It's usually caused by a viral infection, so anti-biotics aren't any use.

When I googled it later on, I discovered that it's usually found in children and young teens. A bit embarrassing, as I am a very long way off being a teenager.

However, today it's almost 2 weeks since this started, and I'm still in some considerable pain (especially tonight). I looked it up again, and it can last from a couple of days to "some weeks", which is not what I want at all. I want it to go away - NOW - and not come back.

Unhelpfully, I haven't yet found any information on how to avoid this happening again, and everything I have found has been very vague, just talking about viral infections, and "wait and see" approaches to treatment.

But I no longer have an appendix to worry about, so when I have future belly pain, we can rule that one out straight away.

In the meantime, I have some new scars - and my belly button will never be the same again!!

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