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What does your appendix do?
Your appendix is a small, closed tube about the size of your
finger which attaches into the beginning of your large intestine, where the small and large intestines meet. It's open at the end connecting into the large intestine and closed at the other end, so material can move into and out of the appendix, but has nowhere to go. If the open end of the appendix gets plugged for some reason - either because of swelling or because something from the large intestine gets stuck in the opening - then the appendix starts to swell because of the secretions from the lining. Said
swelling shuts off the blood supply and the appendix tissue
dies. At this point, it's time for the appendix to come out through an operation. If it's not removed, the appendix eventually bursts, something which is often fatal.
Why we have an appendix is a good question. It doesn't appear
to actually do anything other than get inflamed and burst. Indeed, people traveling to foreign countries or on expeditions will sometimes have it removed as a precaution. It could be that they're just there as some form of cosmic justification for surgeons, as if we needed another one.
Newborn babies have about 350 bones. They gradually merge and disappear until there are about 206 by age 5.
I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for.
~James H. Boren
