Re: adhesion pain and pulling...
From: Joanne Eslick (joanne@bombobeach.com)
Tue Feb 12 18:04:11 2002
Hi Lisa,
Welcome to the board, pain from adhesions is very unpleasant and yes,
none of us likes the prospect of having to live out our lives with pain.
Lisa, on this site there is a great source of information called the
adhesions quilt, this quilt holds the stories of many women and some men
around the world who experience the daily pain & frustration of
adhesions.
Please, if you have the time, read some of them, in particular there is
one I ask you to read, Karla Nygren has become a very dear friend to me
and right now she is fighting for her life.
Karla didn't want to live with the pain from adhesions either and she
allowed the same doctor to operate on her 28 times. During one of those
surgeries he decided that her pain would be relieved by removing her
bladder and letting her live with a urostomy for the rest of her life.
Please don't misunderstand me, I am not telling you this to be dramatic
or frighten you unecessarily, I am just trying to show you how serious
adhesions can be.
If you are interested, I have a website for Aussie adhesions sufferers,
but it is also for all my friends here on this board. There is a
section called "How to Cope" and you are welcome to take a look around
whenever you feel the need.
Before my last surgery Lisa, I also suffered with that pain you
describe, and yes it is extreme! I was using chinese herbal therapy to
ease it, and that made a huge difference. I had been prescribed a drug
called ditropan which did more or less the same thing, however I had an
extreme allergic reaction to it! (I was in a meeting, giving a
presentation & completely lost the plot! The look on my hubby's face was
priceless...we are also business partners...any way..he needed to take
over on that occassion and I stopped taking the meds!) Herbal therapy is
complicated, I was on the traditional therapy, we are lucky enough to
have a Chinese Herbalist were I live. His mother is still a practising
herbalist in China. It was roots & bark & seeds & I really don't WANT
to know what else! LOL BUT it worked even though it smelled and tasted
aweful!
Did you know that our bladder is like a balloon? As it fills with urine
it expands, and a healthy female bladder should hold around a litre of
fluid. Mine held less than a cup and that was after it had been
"stretched" during an exploritory procedure. Adhesions covering your
bladder ristrict it, and stopping it from expanding, and that is why you
are feeling the pain, it is being irritated from the outside by the
tethering and clamping effect of the adhesions. It was my urologist
that explained it to me. What we later discovered was that my ovaries
were drawn down by adhesions and stuck to my bladder, vagina bowel &
abdominal wall. So when my Gyno did an ultrasound check in his office
he discovered it, and then did an exploritory laparoscopy to confirm it.
I had my ovaries removed in April 2001.
It changed my pain, but didn't "cure it" at all, I am actually worse off
than before as I now am unable to sit on a chair for longer than an hour
or two without causing extreme pain. So while I guess while it helped
me in a particular area (which made me VERY happy, there was a price I
had to pay....)
Sorry my post is so long....I am a born chatterbox & can't help myself.
Lisa, ultimately you have to make the final decision on which way you go
from here, but at least when you make your decision, you will be making
a well informed & educated decision. If you have any questions, post
them here on the board, someone will be able to answer them for you, or
at least point you in the right direction.
Love & gentle warm hugs
Jo http://www.bombobeach.com
--
I am not a medical person, and all my messages are based
on personal experience. I am a fellow adhesions sufferer
reaching out to help others.
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