Thanks very much for your insight into the adhesion problem. I have been suffering for years since I was 15 with abd pain. Turned out to be chronic appendicitis. Lots of damage, then lots more when finally ruptured. I especially identified with your story about the psychiatrist. You made me laugh out loud! I was sent to one too, and he seemed to need therapy more than I did. He had a nervous twitch and kept clearing his throat. I think I was better off than he was. Anyway, I don't mean to knock therapy, I am currently seeing a counselor to help me manage the depression that goes along with this pain I am having. The hardest thing is to keep having faith in yourself when many doctors are saying it's all in your head. I even had some ask me how my marriage was. I always wondered what that had to do with a pain in my stomach.
Anyway, I am going to have surgery with Dr. Redan in November. Things are lookin' up.
So glad to hear you are doing much better now.
At Sat, 7 Oct 2000, Mary Pomroy wrote:
>
>Hi everyone,
>
>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.
>>