Re: Hope

From: niko (nicko69@dingoblue.net.au)
Wed Mar 21 21:07:51 2001


Hiya Janet ;-))

Thankyou for posting your story ;-)) It really helps to share, as you have. I am hoping that you can be painfree for a long time ;-)) And I am interested in your progress !! You are such a good person and I am truly happy that you are starting to enjoy your life.

Lots of Love Trace xo

> ----- Original Message -----
From: Janet Karam To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS Sent: Thursday, 22 March 2001 4:04 Subject: Hope

Dear All,

I was inspired by one of our new IAS members, Missy to share my story with her this morning, and decided I would like to share it with you all too, and to any new member who finds this site in desperation as I did last December. If my story can give hope or help to even one person somewhere down the line, I will be glad enough for that...I woke up at 5 am with hunger pains so strong and rushed down to the kitchen for Cheerios(I can't tell you how happy this makes me!)

My twin sister Kathy flew in to meet me at the airport the night before last to stay with me for this week after my undergoing an extensive laparoscopic surgery last week that removed 4th stage endemetriosis, a diseased gall bladder and some adhesions(not really that extensive but very obstructive and painful).

Prior to my sister coming, my mom left my dad behind in Texas, and came to stay with me and my boyfriend for 3 weeks while I walked though the last couple weeks before my surgery, she then flew with me to PA with me for surgery, while I endured a horrible obstruction on my way out...my bladder not emptying at all, and throwing up green bile with every sip of water or ice cube I took in. I have come to need, love and cherish my family and life more than ever before, this has been the most precious gift of my illness.

The story of my illness begins with pre-cancerous polyps that began to cause pain and obstruction in my colon in August '98, and a diseased gall bladder causing pain. They say I was born with endemetriosis. I had symptoms for most of my life, living with what I thought was normal (or not so normal), just believing that I had quirks in my system like everyone else.

The polyps were finally detected via a colonoscopy in March of '99, I had surgery days later, with a 9 inch vertical midline incision that makes a quick curve around my navel, 18 inches of my ascending colon removed.

I had a surgeon begrudgingly perform an adhesiolysis 7 months after my surgery for adhesiolysis of adhesions, neither surgeon detected my obviously disease gall bladder, or 4th stage endemetriosis that completely covered my pelvic floor, meshing my bladder, uterus and rectum altogether, even though I indicated pain and dysfunction in these areas for months. (I was even sent for psychlogical testing before my second surgeon would perform my adhesiolysis to prove that my pain was valid).

I have spent most of the last 3 years debilitated by pain, medicines and disease...not able to eat solid food, enjoy life and activities, sunshine and rain. For many months I have laid inactive, while those around me have suffered the pain of helplessness of not being able to ease my pain.

I have never really had much excess weight, but because of my inability to eat solid food for so long, I lost too much weight and became excessively weak and undernourished.

I searched the internet many times without finding hope or answers, until finally I found the IAS site last December. I was completely desperate and knew I needed surgery. The only advice I got from the doctors in Denver was to take Metamucil, I was diagnosed over and over again with IBS, and doctors who did not believe my pain or complaints were anything more than chonic constipation and a hypersensitivity to gas.

I honed into the mention of an Adhesion Center in PA, with Dr.'s Reich and Redan, and immediately began contacting people who had been helped by these doctors and had the first hope in many moons.

I waited 3 long months to get in for surgery with these doctors, and boy was it worth the wait! I had surgery last Thursday March 15, I have been freed of so much pain, and am beginning to eat and enjoy life and my friends and family again. I feel a brightness for my future again,and am so excited that I will be able to carry out my dreams after all. I feel the youth and energy that I should feel at my age, and am so grateful I have been give back the hope for starting a family and looking into the eyes of a child of my own.

Oh, I do feel blessed, and the fight that you mentioned has stayed alive, however dimmed it may have gotten at times, because pain does take its toll on the spirit.

I feel very fortunate to have found these very skilled surgeons in PA who have given my life and myself back to me. I did have to ask for financial help from my family, as I have not been able to work for quite some time now, and they do require a pre-payment between 3-6 thousand dollars. My experience was worth more.

I didn't intend to write something so long, I hope I didn't bore you. This is the first time I have shared my story since my surgery, and I am eager to pass on my hope and experience to those who may benefit from it.

I would love to be your friend, you inspired me with your story to open up and share, I thank you for the opportunity to share.

Love,

Janet


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