Richard,
I am currently scheduling my ninth surgery. I have had some hope with my
doctor and maybe you could contact him. His name is Dr. Camran Nezhat, in
Palo Alto, CA and he also has two brothers who do this surgery in Atlanta,
GA. I had my seventh surgery two years ago (my first with a laparascope) and
I traveled from Florida because I was told here that he is the best. He
invented the videolaparascopy where you get a video of your surgery and that
helps a lot with other doctors because they can see the adhesions from the
inside and how severe a problem it is. My adhesions wrap around the bowel
and cause bowel obstructions and I cannot eat and it becomes a must for
surgery to survive otherwise I don't know if I would do it. Finding doctors
willing to go into the bowel area and remove adhesions is VERY hard because
of the chance of puncture. My case was severe with adhesoins that had
actually lifted my stomach, twisted it and turned it upsdie down and attached
it that way to the abdominal wall and thcick bands kinking and constricting
the bowel and sticking them all together and attaching to the abdominal wall.
Anyway, he did use the Interceed barrier and the kindness this doctor showed
me I cannot explain. He told me he could help me and he did. Unfortunately,
two years later I had the same symptoms and went back for another surgery.
He told me and I could see from the video for myself that there were 40% less
adhesions this time! A ray of hope. He explained that it may take one or
two more surgeries to get them to a point where I can live with them (at
least that is the goal). He worked with me and my insurance and was so
gentle with me. You can information about Dr. Nezhat simply by searching on
the web for Camran Nezhat, MD, and he has written books on this surgery, has
doctors from around the world come to observe his technique and has his own
operating room at Stanford University where he is a professor. My heart goes
out to your wife, I know her pain. My prayers are with you both and please
let me know how things go. Ginni Ficarra