Unexpected Plans For The Weekend

We had an unexpected adventure this past weekend – a trip to the hospital.  We left the house, Saturday morning, at 3am, headed for the emergency room.  It didn’t take too long for them to diagnose that my Kathy had appendicitis.

So, Saturday, around 1:15pm, Dr. Perez-Soto performed the procedure and removed Kathy’s inflamed appendix.  All went well and I brought Kathy home late yesterday afternoon.  We were thankful for Dr. Perez-Soto; she was absolutely wonderful!

We are very grateful for those who were praying for Kathy this weekend.  I think sometimes we underestimate just how effectual prayer can be for each other.

Kathy and I are also thankful for all the advances in medicine, especially since untreated appendicitis can be fatal.  We are also grateful for all those who cared for her during her short stay in the hospital.  We are also very happy that she got to come so quickly.

So Just What Does The Appendix Do?

For a long, long time, many thought that the appendix didn’t really do anything.  I always thought that was absurd.  The reason I felt that way is because I believe God designed the human body.  So for Him to include something that does nothing, and then, if it gets bad, it can be fatal, well, that just doesn’t make sense to me.

I found some interesting information from Duke University that came out in 2007.  I have put it in this post for those who are curious about the appendix.  I found it very interesting.  Perhaps you will too.

From the Medical News web site:

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.

Researchers in the United States say the appendix produces and protects good germs for the gut by “rebooting” the digestive system.

The team of immunologists at Duke University Medical Center says the human digestive system contains massive amounts of bacteria most of which are good and help the digestion of food.

However the researchers say sometimes the bacteria die off or are purged from the intestines as in diseases such as cholera or dysentery.

According to the researchers, the appendix’s job is to “reboot” the digestive system when that happens with the bacteria safely harbored in the appendix.

Many doctors believe the appendix is a vestigial organ with no function and is no more than a blind ended tube connected to the cecum, from which it develops embryologically.
The cecum is a pouch-like structure of the colon and the appendix is near the junction of the small intestine and the large intestine and has abundant infection-fighting lymphoid cells, which suggests it plays a role in the immune system.

The most common diseases of the appendix (in humans) are appendicitis and carcinoid tumors. Appendix cancer accounts for about 1 in 200 of all gastrointestinal malignancies.

Appendicitis is a condition where the appendix becomes inflamed and in almost all cases it is removed either by laparotomy or laparoscopy; left untreated, the appendix will rupture, leading to peritonitis, then shock, and, if continued untreated, death.

The appendix is routinely removed without any notable ill effects or side effects and the scientists stress that even though the appendix seems to have a function, people should still have them removed when they are inflamed because since leaving it untreated could be fatal.

Dr. Bill Parker, a professor of surgery and one of the scientists responsible for establishing its status as a useful organ, says the function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria that populates the human digestive system and where it is located just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine, helps support that theory.

The study appears in the online edition of the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

God sure did a very wonderful and remarkable job in putting together the human body!

Have you had you appendix removed? Do you have a comment?  If you do, please type it in below, we’d love to hear from you.

Mike Verdicchio