Hello everyone. I'm 31 yrs. old, and have had a total hysterectomy,
due to problems with endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and mostly adhesions
& the horrible pain associated with them. Approximately 2 years after
my hystorectomy, I went to my dr. for severe abdominal pain. I told
him I was sure I had adhesions, but doctors don't like to have patients
tell them what is wrong. I was admitted to the hospital, and a surgeon
consulted with me. He was concerned it could be my appendix, so he did
an apendectomy. He said the appendix was fine, but I had severe
adhesions (duh!!!). Less than 2 years after this, I went to my family
dr. again, with the same problems. She agreed I needed another
laparoscopy. I saw 3 surgeons who refused to do surgery on me. Oh
yeah, I forgot to say before my hyst., I had approx. 10 laparoscopys.
Anyway, I tried expaining to the doctors that even though the adhesions
would most likely come back, I would at least get 6 months of relief
from pain, which was worth it to me. They all said no. My family dr.
admitted me to hospital. The surgeon who removed my appendix came & saw
me, and remembered me from previous surgery. He wanted a pain
specialist to try a nerve block before we did anything else. We tried
this, and it didn't work. I had read about Seprafilm - the adhesion
barrier, and convinced him I wanted to try it, that I had nothing at all
to lose. He finally agreed. He was very surprised by how severe my
adhesions were again, and understood why I was in so much pain. He said
he put 2 layers (???) of the film on me after removing the adhesions.
This past surgery was December 2001, and I'm already in pain again. I've
been told that no one will do surgery on me again, unless I have a bowel
obstruction. I don't know where to go now. I realize that surgery only
helps the problem for a while, but isn't that better than waiting until
the adhesions get so bad that I would have a bowel obstruction??? I
mean, isn't that serious in itself??? Any comments, and or suggestions
would be greatly apprecaited. I don't mind seeing a pain specialist,
but that still doesn't stop the adhesions, which will continue to get
worse & worse if they are ignored!
Thanks for letting me rant & rave. Have a great day.