I knew about appendicitis and Houdini and was taught to recognize the symptoms during EMT training. But everyone I saw during my career suffering from appendicitis was always complaining of extreme pain. In my case it didn't hurt that bad; I had even been going to work. The doctors told me that for some reason I just had a much higher tolerance for pain. They had to cut me from hip to hip to clean out my entire abdominal cavity but I didn't need any pain meds the morning after the surgery. I wasn't trying to be tough; it just didn't hurt very much. The originally told me that I would need to stay in the hospital for a week, but since my wife is a nurse they let me go after two days.
But thankfully you finally got it taken care of and having a nurse for a wife, helped you a lot too.