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Hi @ranger75 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am sorry to hear that your wife is going through such a trying time. What a disappointment to go in for an appendectomy only to find that was not the issue at hand. While the members and moderators on Connect cannot help with a diagnosis, we can definitely offer insight from personal experiences and what other patients have mentioned.
One past member, @subhi stated that their daughter had an appendectomy that ended up to be negative for appendicitis and they were looking into a condition that can mimic the same symptoms. Here is a link on information regarding mesenteric lymphadenitis or mesenteric adenitis. It mostly effects teens, but it may be something to look into.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mesenteric-lymphadenitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353799
In addition, I would ask her physician to consider looking into other things that are mimickers of appendicitis such as Gastrointestinal diseases, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Infectious enterocolitis, diverticulitis etc.
https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/75380
I know you said her original testing presented as normal. Is she having any other symptoms besides pain?
Replies to "Hi @ranger75 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am sorry to hear that your wife..."
@amandaburnett : It is very important when patients present with abdominal pain to do a Carnett's test FIRST. If Carnett's test indicates abdominal WALL pain, none of those scans, tests, or surgeries are appropriate. This man's wife clearly had a slew of negative results! Suggest Carnett's before sending them on another wild goose chase.
Carnett's sign is simple a diagnostic tool used at Mayo Clinic. Learn more from Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, Dr. Amy Oxentenko. She talks about an article published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, detailing the complexities of chronic abdominal wall pain (CAWP) – a condition that seems elusive to any workup. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/gastroenterology-and-gi-surgery/newsfeed-post/chronic-abdominal-wall-pain/
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Hi Amanda, Thank you kindly for the helpful response. There is so much great information here for us to review. I think the most likely situation is that we are dealing with one of the noted mimickers. She does have one other relevant symptom - persistent diarrhea for about two months. We thought that was unrelated though because I had that same symptom immediately prior to her.