Interesting point here, I am an RN. I have not done a lot of time in the operating room, many years ago I spent only a few weeks there, but during that time I did witness a few abdominal surgeries. I will never forget what I saw at that time. First of all an incision is made and then you are clamped wide open, talk about trauma, then everything is taken out and spread all over those sterile sheets, talk about drying out !!! after that the bowel is taken and every inch of it is manipulated between the fingers of the surgeons, just to check for abnormalities, talk about more trauma, and after the surgery is done , everything is scooped back up and piled into the abdominal cavity, then the patient is shaken, just to make everything settle in, now it didn't matter as to where everything fell, it was left there, no wonder we have the bowel attached to our liver and the stomach attached to the diaphragm, and no wonder we hurt so much, and to add insult to injury, the old blood did not matter, that was normal body fluid and it did not get cleaned up, or at least not very well. It was just left in there to create more problems. Even as an R N, I questioned this procedure, and I wondered if a human body could really with stand all of this without creating some major problems. At that time I was not educated about adhesions, they were not even mentioned in my training to become a nurse. I had no idea what the real consequences of this kind of treatment would be. Today I know first hand, it has cost me everything. It destroyed the best years of my life, doomed me to live in poverty because I am unable to work due to the severe pain. I was not able to enjoy my life with my children and my grand children. But there is good news.
Those surgeons that operate like that are not necessarily bad surgeons, that is how they are trained, they were led to believe that adhesions did not create problems, and they absolutely did not cause pain, NO WAY!!!!!! Over the past 10 years, I have had 14 operations, and the only thing that they all had in common was adhesions. After each and every surgery the doctors told me that they could not find any reason for the severe pain that I felt, they never told me that everything inside was cemented together. I was left totally frustrated, especially since the pain was so severe, but yet I was told that it was all in my head. Being a registered nurse you would have thought, that I would have know better, I even tried to convince myself that it was in my head. It was not until I had the last appointment with a psychiatrist about 18 months ago, that a light went on in my head. I was unable to lay down because of the severe pain, it hurt to breathe, etc. etc. I had, had an extremely bad night, and my appointment was with the psychiatrist the next day, when I went into his office I complained to him that the pain was intolerable, he very sympathically took my hands and held them while he explained to me, that the pain that I had was like a heartache, when someone hurts you, you get a heartache, but it is not really a physical pain...... he went on to explain that the this abdominal pain was there because, I had, had so much pain in my life, and he meant emotional pain, and now that I have no reason for all of this emotional pain, that I miss it, so I am creating this severe abdominal pain so I don't miss it. Now can you believe that!!!! Well I walked out of this fellows office that day, and I wasn't angry, I just laughed so much I could hardly get to my car ( Now visualize that, here I was walking off a psych unit at a big hospital, the elevators were packed, and I was laughing so hard, I almost had to be carried. Needless to say I had alot of people look at me in a strange way, I don't think that they would have been as suspicious if I had come of another unit at the hospital). That was the day, my life changed, for the better, it was like a light went on in my head, I knew that I wasn't crazy, and I sure as hell knew that I wasn't creating pain because I missed it either. I still did not know why I was in such terrible pain, but my mind was made up that I would find out. Off I went and bought a computer, not knowing how to use it, I didn't even know how to turn it on, within a few months , I figured it out, got connected to the internet, and one night when I couldn't tolerate the pain any longer, I couldn't decide whether I should fight this, or take the large bottle of sleeping pills that I had in my hand. I came to the computer, and typed in the word ADHESIONS, (I had strongly believed for awhile that my problems could be something like that), so I decided to try to get some information about it all. I was extremely surprised at the amount of information that came back at me. There was the article for David Wiseman, saying "YOU ARE NOT ALONE", I could not believe my eyes. I could not believe my eyes when I read it, and not only did I find that there were others like me, but it had his e-mail address on it. MY God, that was my lucky day!!!!! I immediately sent a letter off to Dr. David Wiseman, then I went downstairs to make a cup of hot chocolate, when I came back upstairs, my e-mail was flashing, my first thought was, OH, I must not have done it right, and it has come back to me. THAT WAS NOT THE CASE, NO WAY, IT WAS A RESPONSE FROM DR. DAVID WISEMAN, THAT IS RIGHT, YES IN THE AMOUNT OF TIME THAT IT TOOK ME TO MAKE A CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE, DR.WISEMAN, HAD RECEIVED MY E-MAIL AND RESPONDED. He told me that he would get me help, and he did, the very next day, I had a letter from Bev, and Bev turned out to be the angel that I have been looking for for a long time. Bev's first advise was to get all of my operative reports, which I did. I could not believe my eyes when I read them, each and everyone of them described the adhesions that I had. The last laparotomy that I had in 1995, the surgeon described in detail how the bowel was wrapped around the liver, he said that there were massive adhesions involving the stomach, liver, spleen, diaphragm. and every inch of the bowel, and then went on to say that no reason for the pain was found, and suggested a psychiatric referral. What an eye opener that was for me. At last I finally knew what was causing me so much pain and destroying my life.
It would take me a week to tell you about the battles that Bev and I had, trying to get me help. Bev had just had surgery with DR. Reich, and he was the only surgeon that she knew of that could help. I live in Canada, and of course my insurance would not send me to the US for treatment. We desperately fought with the government, we searched, and searched, there was one brick wall after another. Bev never left my side, she contacted me daily by e-mail, encouraging me to hang in. There were times when I thought that I couldn't take one more day, but Bev would keep me going, she would not allow me to give up. Bev is like a canon ball, she doesn't let any thing stand in her way when she wants to get things done. We had exhausted all of the resources in Canada, and my hopes of getting to the United States were shattered as well, because of my financial situation, I didn't have the money to go to there on my own, we did not know what to do next. However it didn't take long to find out!!!!!!!!!! There was another lady on here, her name was Joanne Butman, she had been able to find a surgeon in Germany, and had let us know that the cost was manageable, before I had time to blink, Bev had me in touch with Dr. Korell in Germany, and before I knew it I was on my way. It was just in time too. I was having such a struggle to breathe by now, that I really didn't think that I could live much longer. I flew from Canada to Wisconsin and met Bev, my angel. Off to Germany we went together.
I was extremely fascinated with Dr. Korell, he knows adhesions inside out. I was shocked to realize how well that he understood my situation. Can you imagine the excitement that I felt, I had been to many, many doctors, and the only one that believed me that I had severe pain was my family doctor. Here was doctor Korell confirming why I was suffering so. When Dr. Korell operated he found that there were dense adhesions involving my entire abdominal cavity, my colon was embedded into the diaphragm, my stomach was so densely attached to the diaphragm, that it took Dr. Korell almost an hour to separate them. When I woke up from the surgery, I thought that I was in heaven, I was laying on my back and it didn't hurt, and I was breathing!!!!!!!!!! I was told a couple of days after that I kept calling out " EVERYBODY COME AND LOOK AT ME, I AM LAYING ON MY BACK AND IT DOESN'T HURT, COME AND SEE ME" I guess I had the entire recovery room in tears. I don't remember any of that of course, but I do remember the feeling of what it felt like. Bev was by my side through all of this.
For any of you who are considering surgery with any surgeon, please think twice. Please ask lots of questions. Dr. Korell told us, that in order to prevent adhesion, that trauma to the peritoneum and the entire cavity must be minimized, he does this by using small instruments, and handling everything gently. He told us that keeping everything moist is extremely important, and he does, he constantly keeps ringers lactate in there. He says that you must do a thorough clean up of any debris that is there, he flushes over and over again. He also believes that all of the abdominal contents must be in their proper places. Unless you are going to see Drs Reich and Redan, these are the questions that you must ask. The above mention doctors know and understand this, and they are trying to undo the damage done by many careless surgeons. They can not take on the entire world. I think that we have to begin to educate the surgeons, let them know that hauling all 33 feet of our intestine out and spreading it all over is not acceptable. We need to make them aware that there is a better way to handle out internal organs, if surgery becomes necessary. If we don't do it , there will be thousands of others in the same situation as we are in. You know the old saying "AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE" That is my goal, to let surgeons know, what happens when ....... and hopefully in doing so I can at least prevent a few from suffering the same fate that I did.
Mary in Canada
I hope that I haven't bored you too much and I hope that a lot of you will read my story. I write this only for the purpose of trying to help. There is so much more that I could tell you.
>----- Original Message -----
From: DRiekeRosehill@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS <adhesions@forum.obgyn.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 12:08 AM
Subject: Re: Are adhesions "one of the best hidden secrets of modern
medicine"...?
> If I may respond, 4 c-sects, appy Endo Hyst stranrulated Hernis,
> obstructions, adhesions all adhesed together, stuck,Interesting point my
mom
> was in for birth of second child and was appalled at how they threw
basically
> the bowel aside to get baby and my bowels layed on my bellie 15 minutes
> exposed, infection came after that one.
>