>----- Original Message -----
From: Jill <marchumb@email.msn.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS <adhesions@forum.obgyn.net>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 7:12 AM
Subject: Re: Adhesion-Related Disease ( ARD )...Important information!!!
> Wow Bev and Helen-
>
> You certainly summed up my life right now.
>
> I guess my question to you all is - if we cannot afford to go to an
adhesion
> specialist, what is our next best plan of action? I know surgery isn't
the
> answer, but what other options do those of us who can't afford surgery
> have??
>
> Is a pain clinic the next step??
>
> Many Thanks-
>
> Jill
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: adhesions@obgyn.net [mailto:adhesions@obgyn.net]On Behalf Of Helen
> Dynda
> Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2000 1:19 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS
> Subject: Adhesion-Related Disease ( ARD )...Important information!!!
>
> Bev has recently given the following excellent advice: "Become your own
> BEST doctor!!!" Learn as much as you can about your adhesion-related
> disease (ARD)! You will discover that the more knowledge you have about
> ARD the less you will fear it; and BEST OF ALL, you will begin to learn
> how to make better choices as to what your next step will be. This
> knowledge about adhesions will eventually give you peace of mind; and
> you will find that the time, which you spent learning about adhesions
> and adhesion related concerns, will be worth its weight in gold. You
> will be empowered once you know what the causes adhesions and/or
> endometrial implants (scar tissue) are...and what you need to do. More
> importantly, you will begin to understand that what you do about your
> adhesion problems will make all the difference in the world to you!!
>
> The most important fact you will learn is: Surgery after surgery IS NOT
> the answer!!! Each surgery will cause even more adhesions to form; and
> as a result you will begin to experience even more pain. Then at some
> point your doctor may tell you: "Adhesions don't cause pain; you need
> to have a mental health evaluation."..."There is nothing more I can do
> for you...you are going to have to learn to live with it."..."You need
> to get into pain management."..."I will not do another surgery for you
> unless you have an emergency bowel obstruction."
>
> Or maybe your doctor will say; "This is not within my specialty. You
> will need to see a gastroenterologist (or whatever other
> specialty)...which starts a pattern of you being juggled from one
> medical specialty to another...without answers and without
> success...which creates a real state of confusion for you. Eventually,
> after seeing sooooo many doctors, you don't know what to do! Because by
> now you have lost faith and trust in the medical profession. It is at
> this point that you finally start thinking, "Maybe it is all in my head.
> Maybe I do need to get a mental health evaluation."
>
> At some point, before you have reached the actual stage where you are
> questioning your own saniety, you will notice that you are having family
> and relationship problems. People, who have been friends for many
> years, eventually are no longer in your life. So many times you have
> been told that all of your tests were normal or negative!! If you think
> you are confused by this, it is quite possible that these people are
> confused as well or they may no longer believe you either...that you are
> really suffering severe chronic pain.
>
> And if they don't believe you, how is your immediate family going to
> believe you? You start to recognize that your relationships within your
> immediate family has changed. Your spouse is drawn into doing tasks,
> which you are unable to do; and as a result you no longer feel a
> special intimate bond with your spouse. Your children? You eventually
> find them doing for you, what you as their mother should be doing for
> them!! As a result of not getting the right kind of help for the
> adhesions, which are causing your chronic pain, your life has become
> very dysfunctional. BUT you can either become consumed by this
> dysfunctionality or you can make a decision to do something about it.
> You do have a choice here!!
>
> What choice do you have? Instead of wasting money and precious time by
> having "surgery after surgery" with whatever surgeon happens to be
> handy, you will learn that the most important step you can take is to
> seek the *best adhesions specialist* you can find!!!!
>
> Not every surgeon wants to do surgery for a patient, who has
> adhesions!!! Not every surgeon has patience, which is soooo necessary!!
> Not every surgeon has the skill and experience needed for adhesiolysis
> procedures WHY? Because adhesion surgeries are very difficult and
> risky surgeries for the patient. Adhesion surgeries require great skill
> on the part of the adhesion specialist; and probably most important of
> all, adhesion surgeries require unlimited patience on the part of the
> surgeon. I have actually viewed a video of a 10 hour adhesion surgery,
> which which Dr. Harry Reich did for Deb in April 1999. In viewing her
> video, it was absolutely impossible for me to see her individual
> organs!! Her abdominal/pelvic cavity looked like someone had sprayed
> Crazy Glue over ALL of her organs!!! One year later Deb is
> adhesion-free and pain-free!!
>
> What surgeon wants to spend 10 hours doing a surgery for the complex
> situations that adhesions cause??? What insurance company wants to
> reimburse a surgeon for a procedure, which can take as many as 10 hours
> to complete??? What hospital wants to provide time in the operating
> room for such a long surgical procedure...especially when we know that
> some doctors don't even acknowledge that adhesions do cause pain??? How
> many surgeons will agree to do surgery for a bowel obstruction...unless
> it becomes an emergency situation??? It has been my experience that
> doctors expect their adhesions patients to have an emergency bowel
> obstruction before they will do surgery!!!
>
> I previously said that you have a choice! That choice is yours alone to
> make!! You are the one who is suffering!! I encourage you to seek
> help from a surgeon, who specializes in helping people who have severe
> adhesion problems!! An adhesion specialist has had advanced training in
> laparoscopic microsurgical techniques. He has logged thousands of hours
> in doing laparoscopic surgical procedures!! Their experience has taught
> them what techniques and skills are required by them in order to give
> their patients the best possible chance to become as free from adhesions
> as possible. It is true, however, that NO surgeon can guarantee that
> their patient will become completely adhesion-free!! But with an
> adhesion specialist doing your surgery, you have the BEST POSSIBLE
> CHANCE to get your life back !!!
>
> Some of these adhesion specialists will suggest a second look
> laparoscopy for a patient whose adhesions have been particularly
> severe...as was true in Mary Pomroy's (Canada) case. This procedure is
> done generally within 10 days of the surgery itself. This procedure is
> an additional way that adhesion specialists are able to help their
> adhesion patients.
>
> This may seem like an expensive step to take; but when you add up all
> the unsuccessful surgeries, which you already have had, you will find
> the adhesion specialist to be a real bargain!! Think of all the pain
> you have had to live with over the years as a result of all of the
> failed surgeries you have gone through!! Think about how ARD is
> affecting your relationships: your spouse's life, your children's
> lives, and most importantly your own life!!
>
> I am aware of several surgeons who qualify as adhesion specialists;
> because they have been having success with the adhesion surgeries, which
> they have done. Their location? California, western Pennsylvania,
> Tennessee, New Jersey, Scranton, PA, and Duisburg, Germany. For more
> information about them, you have my permission to write to me at:
> olddad66@runestone.net . There may be other adhesion specialists
> throughout the USA; but I have not heard about them yet.
>
> Incidentally, as a result of having lived with the chronic pain of
> adhesions for more than 30 years, what I have written is actually from
> my own erperience!! I am planning to seek help from one of these
> adhesion specialists; but I have not made a definite decision yet as to
> whom it will be room for such a long surgical procedure...
> especially when we know that some doctors don't even acknowledge that
> adhesions do cause pain??? How many surgeons will agree to do surgery
> for a bowel obstruction...unless it becomes an emergency situation???
> It has been my experience that doctors expect their adhesions patients
> to have an emergency bowel obstruction before they will do surgery!!!
>
> I previously said that you have a choice! That choice is yours alone to
> make!! You are the one who is suffering!! I encourage you to seek
> help from a surgeon, who specializes in helping people who have severe
> adhesion problems!! An adhesion specialist has had advanced training in
> laparoscopic microsurgical techniques. He has logged thousands of hours
> in doing laparoscopic surgical procedures!! Their experience has taught
> them what techniques and skills are required by them in order to give
> their patients the best possible chance to become as free from adhesions
> as possible. It is true, however, that NO surgeon can guarantee that
> their patient will become completely adhesion-free!! But with an
> adhesion specialist doing your surgery, you have the BEST POSSIBLE
> CHANCE to get your life back !!!
>
> Some of these adhesion specialists will suggest a second look
> laparoscopy for a patient whose adhesions have been particularly
> severe...as was true in Mary Pomroy's (Canada) case. This procedure is
> done generally within 10 days of the surgery itself. This procedure is
> an additional way that adhesion specialists are able to help their
> adhesion patients.
>
> This may seem like an expensive step to take; but when you add up all
> the unsuccessful surgeries, which you already have had, you will find
> the adhesion specialist to be a real bargain!! Think of all the pain
> you have had to live with over the years as a result of all of the
> failed surgeries you have gone through!! Think about how ARD is
> affecting your relationships: your spouse's life, your children's
> lives, and most importantly your own life!!
>
> I am aware of several surgeons who qualify as adhesion specialists;
> because they have been having success with the adhesion surgeries, which
> they have done. Their location? California, western Pennsylvania,
> Tennessee, New Jersey, Scranton, PA, and Duisburg, Germany. For more
> information about them, you have my permission to write to me at:
> olddad66@runestone.net . There may be other adhesion specialists
> throughout the USA; but I have not heard about them yet.
>
> Incidentally, as a result of having lived with the chronic pain of
> adhesions for more than 30 years, what I have written is actually from
> my own erperience!! I am planning to seek help from one of these
> adhesion specialists; but I have not made a definite decision yet as to
> whom it will be.
>