Appendix

Hi all. I'm very interested in a topic that I seem to ruminate about and try to find research on. How many of you with UC have had your appendix removed, before or after diagnosis? How has it effected your condition. (Appendectomy is said to improve UC)

Post Edited (Buttercups) : 1/24/2023 10:18:56 AM (GMT-8)

Hello! I had an emergency appendectomy last January. My UC (really ulcerative proctitis), which had stayed mild for eleven years, had started to flare mildly before the appendectomy, probably from a combination of stress and possibly a vaccine booster.

There was no operating room space to be had, so they held me over on heavy-duty IV antibiotics for 24 hours (multiple bags of Flagyl, etc.). I can't believe I didn't start on probiotics right away, but no one advised it and I didn't have my full wits about me for a while. By the time I realized what was going on with my decimated microbiome, I was slipping into my worst flare yet, which necessitated meds for the first time ever (!). I learned I have a paradoxical reaction to Salofalk, had a flex sigmoidoscopy (they couldn't get me in for a full colonoscopy), learned that the disease had spread as far as the flex sig could go and was now "moderate" instead of mild, and started biologics.

SO: having the appendix out hasn't had any good outcomes for me, but I think my situation is seriously complicated by the IV antibiotics (I don't even KNOW what all they gave me, but it was a lot). If it had been a simple appendectomy right away, you don't even usually need to have antibiotics if it hasn't burst, and I think it would be a totally different story.

Had my appendix removed about 1986. Very sudden attack. Don’t remember if anything led to it. I was young and healthy then. Didn’t get UC until 2015.