Is this too much of a coincidence?

[giavila]

Exactly 30 days ago dh had emergency surgery due to appendicitis. Since then, 2 more co-workers have had the exact same thing happen to them (all about 2 weeks apart). One of them has the office right next to dh and not sure where the other one has his office, but they are friends and occasionally go out to lunch together. If its not contagious then what else could it be? And I'm fine.. so everyone thinks its something at work. This is strange right?

[Laurel]

More info, please- what kind of work does your DH do? Do all the sick co-workers do the same type of work?

It does sound weird.

[Fairy]

Absolutely strange. That's really intriguing. Will be watching this thread.

[giavila]

Dh and the others are engineers.. the small company of about 35 employees designs satellites. Dh was not sick at all before this happened.. he just woke up one day with pain and that evening he was in the ER.

[TwinFoxes]

Appendicitis just isn't contagious. Are you thinking it was misdiagnosed? Is your DH better? I honestly think it's just one of those things. There's a reason the word "coincidence" exists.

[giavila]

No we don't really think its contagious.. and yes Dh is better so I don't believe he was misdiagnosed. We are just wondering if anything environmental could cause it? Bacteria? I dunno.. just wondering what everyone thought cause it seems so strange to all of us. Dh of course is gonna talk to his doctor, but wondering if anyone has ever heard of this happening.

[TwinFoxes]

I'm glad he's feeling better! :)

[elephantmeg]

eating habbits at work? Appendicitis is really a developed world disease one of the docs I work with says, possibly linked to more fat/protein in the diet.

[wellyes]

Is there any manufacturing done at the site he works at?

My husband is an engineer who works at a site with manufacturing as well (just little wigits) and despite the fact that all federal safety employment laws are kept up with, he had seen that the line workers do have health issues. When I visited with the baby, he would not let her crawl on the carpet in the office.

[Melaine]

When I first saw the thread, I thought you were suggesting that the other two co-workers were faking illness and just used the most recent one in their head as an excuse for time off work!!!

[sste]

If you walk into an er with appendicitis on your mind because a coworker had that and you start telling medical staff that your appendix area is hurting, they are going to jump to the conclusion its appendicitis. That is a non-vital organ and not removing it in the case of appendicitis is very serious. So, its entirely possible that the medical staff were influenced by the patient, that they misdiagnosed, that they decided in the case of uncertainty to remove the darn thing, that they are reimbursed well for a surgical procedure and it was a "grey" area case . . .

[happymom]

If you walk into an er with appendicitis on your mind because a coworker had that and you start telling medical staff that your appendix area is hurting, they are going to jump to the conclusion its appendicitis. That is a non-vital organ and not removing it in the case of appendicitis is very serious. So, its entirely possible that the medical staff were influenced by the patient, that they misdiagnosed, that they decided in the case of uncertainty to remove the darn thing, that they are reimbursed well for a surgical procedure and it was a "grey" area case . . .

I think this is a very interesting point.

[tmarie]

I was misdiagnosed with appendicitis--had the surgery--only to find out a month later that I had a stomach infection that required treatment with an antibiotic. Hope that is not the case for anyone there!

tmarie

[TwinFoxes]

If you walk into an er with appendicitis on your mind because a coworker had that and you start telling medical staff that your appendix area is hurting, they are going to jump to the conclusion its appendicitis. That is a non-vital organ and not removing it in the case of appendicitis is very serious. So, its entirely possible that the medical staff were influenced by the patient, that they misdiagnosed, that they decided in the case of uncertainty to remove the darn thing, that they are reimbursed well for a surgical procedure and it was a "grey" area case . . .

This sounds more likely to me than it being something environmental. There were a rash of cases after the anthrax attacks years ago of basically hysterical illnesses where people thought they had breathed poisonous gas, but it was nothing and they were fine.

[giavila]

If you walk into an er with appendicitis on your mind because a coworker had that and you start telling medical staff that your appendix area is hurting, they are going to jump to the conclusion its appendicitis. That is a non-vital organ and not removing it in the case of appendicitis is very serious. So, its entirely possible that the medical staff were influenced by the patient, that they misdiagnosed, that they decided in the case of uncertainty to remove the darn thing, that they are reimbursed well for a surgical procedure and it was a "grey" area case . . .

That is so very true... I was talking to Dh a little more about it this morning and he said that the second co-worker who had it had all the classic symptoms, but test were "inconclusive" so they did it as a "precaution". When they took it out it was not inflamed. Dh was the first one who had it and the blood work and CT scan both confirmed appendicitis and the surgeon said it was VERY inflamed. Not so sure about the other co-worker 'cause dh hasn't spoken to him yet.. he's not back at work. The rest of his co-workers are a bit concerned and have appendicitis on the brain... I wonder if there will be a 4th?!