When I read the notes regarding the case of Shannon Williams, I began to analyze some of her symptoms, especially the mention of abdominal pain. My first thought was that it could be what women usually experience and suffer from time to time such as menstrual colic, or perhaps it could be intestinal gas or even a bad case of indigestion. But as I continued to analyze the other symptoms that Shannon presented, there was no doubt that it was appendicitis.
My conclusion relies on reading that one of the symptoms that characterize this type of disease is an inflammation in the lower right part of our body, as well as other symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and vomiting.
In addition, the laboratory results, which in this case would be the altered result of the hematocrit, which is nothing more than the value that shows the number of red blood cells in the blood and that in women, the normal level is 36.1%.
Another thing worth pointing out is that the normal volume and range of red blood cells is about 80fl to 100fl. In Shannon’s case, she has 105fl, allowing us to conclude that Shannon suffers from anemia, due to the result of the hematocrit test, which is a low level of 32%, and the normal is higher than 36.1%.
The indications that Shannon was anemic are, first, the hematocrit test result, which, being below normal, indicates a lack of iron and a lack of vitamin B12.
Other organs that can cause pain in the right lower quadrant include but are not limited to the intestines, liver, colon, and ovaries. Out of all of these, we tend to confuse in the determination of appendicitis disease, unless, we pay attention to the pain Shannon was experiencing, along with inflammation.
