Please post where you are located, and hopefully one of the ladies here will see your message at the bottom of this post and be able to help you. I am new to this forum so I basically know nothing. Perhaps sending an e-mail to Dr. Wiseman would be helpful as well. Please don't give up - you WILL find a Dr. to help you, and in the meantime everyone on this forum will be here for you. Best wishes.
At Wed, 24 Oct 2001, Dolores Atwood wrote:
>
>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.
>>>
>--
>Please, I am desperate. After an auto accident that almost took my life, I lost
>my large intestine after 4 major surgeries. Now, I have a right lower abdominal
>hernia that has a lot of intestinal loops hung in it. Since that isn't enough,
>my small intestine has moved up where my splenic flexure was and adhered to
>my diaphragm. No one wants to touch me, yet, I am getting to the point I can
>not endure the pain. Is there any doctor who knows anything but "cutting
>adhesions just makes more". My time is running out. I don't have a colostomy
>as my sigmoid is connected to small intestine. It is almost like praying to
>die and yet that is not what I want. I sort of compare myself to a terminal
>cancer patient just waiting. Help Help Help. I am also an experienced nurse
>with 33 years of nursing experience and I an totally helpless in this
>Thanks, Dolores Atwood dtouch@bellsouth.net
>
-- csheedy