Vermiform Appendix

This weekend my mom had severe pains in her abdomen, went to the emergency room and told them that she had appendicitis. They checked her out and her self-diagnosis was correct. They scheduled her for surgery immediately, and after it was out the doctor said that it was extremely close to perforating, and there was a lot to clean up. This led to a slightly longer recovery time than most laparascopic appendectomy patients, but she is ok and back home.

Here's an interesting little tidbit about the appendix from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiform_appendix):

"The appendix is thought to have descended from an organ in our distant herbivorous ancestors called the cecum (or caecum). The cecum is maintained in modern herbivores, where it houses the bacteria that digest cellulose, a chemically tough carbohydrate that these animals could not otherwise utilize. The human appendix contains no significant number of these bacteria, and cellulose is indigestible to us. It seems likely that the appedix lost this function before our ancestors became recognizably human."