Diverticulitis (by sarah)
Mum came out of hospital about this evening and it turns out that though she may well have a 'grumbling' appendix the CT scan showed that she has Diverticulitis which is were pockets and pouches form in the gut where there is pressure on the system.
These get filled with erm.. 'stuff' you find in your intestines - ie half digested food and poo. It then becomes infected and inflamed. Interestingly it normally occurs in the sigmoid colon in Europeans but mum has it where Asians and Africians get it - were it is mistaken for appendicitis!
It says that it is cuased by a lack of fibre in the diet but mum drives us all potty with her insistance of eating Brassicas all the time (stinking the house out!) so I'm not really sure how she is going to increase fibre intake - dad already adds bran to her porrage - maybe he will finally get his way and get her to eat brown bread?
Anyway they are not going to opperate but will do if it comes back - they said that she also has the grumbling appendix but again they don't opperate for it grumbling and they wont touch the hernia either - mainly due to the risks of surgery and the anasthetic.
Still she is out - on yet another lot of antibiotics - I am starting to get worried that they will run out of ones they can give her - these are broad spectrum again - she must have bacteria resistant to alot of antibiotics in her system by this point which with super bugs infecting her surgery wounds and the cellulitis etc...
So fingers crossed its all ok anyway.