Hello Rosalie, Though I have my doubt that words alone will impact your decision to follow through with your up coming surgery of the 17th, July, it is still important to try to impress upon what lies ahead of you is your not informed of all the potential consequences as they exist for you right now. You still have time to do your homework and at the very least,go into surgery in the furture, as infomed as one can be when dealing with Adhesion Related Disorder!
Simply becuase a surgeon is a thoracic or vascular specialist does not make them skilled in performing an adhesiolysis,( seperation of organs attached by adhesions.) The good news for you is that this surgery appears to be your second surgery, unless your adhesions were from a non invasive medical condition such as endometriosis or external trauma such as a seat belt injury or external blow to your abdoman/pelvis. I ask you ro re-read the comment from Lillian, as she is correct in that there is no diagnostic medical tests existsing today that can diagnose adhesions. The very first question for you to ask yourself, then your medical provider is: How have the adhesions been diagnosed? Possible your prior surgery was for endo and adhesions were visualized at that time, thus the assumtion that adhesions in fact are causing your present symtpoms. And, any diagnostic tetsting you have had recently, would rule out any other source of abnormal pathology as the cause of your presenting symtpoms, thus the assumtion that adhesions are currently present.
Second question: If the adhesions were not resolved in a prior aurgery, if they were present at that time, how will they be cpmrimised in this surgery to offer you relief from your symptoms?
Though many sufferring with ARD, do elect surgery as a way to improve thier symtpoms, most find it id only a temporary fix and only resulted in them sufferring worse and increased symtpoms as a result of the surgery. What can YOU do to protect yourself from this happenning! Become informed! Unless you understand your disorder, and how adhesions form, what they attach to and how those attachments create your symtpoms, then move on to what can be done within the medical community to either diagnose adhesions, ( which is by a laporoscopic prodecure with NO other surgery performed at that time, thus allowing the surgeons to discuss what they found and what they might offer you in a resolution of what they found during the diagnostic, which is a look see only procedure!) Unfortunately, most surgeons take the liberty to simply start cutting the adhesions, not being skilled in that, which most are NOT skilled in , and you wake with the potential for living one horrible and painfull lifestyle that cannot be reversed!
I am going to ask you right here, on the IAS message board, to cancell that surgery, to allow your self time to be informed and educated about ARD prior to allowing any surgery, to give yourself the chance to be spared the living hell most on here now, in the past are living, if you can call it that!and Unfortunately there are those who are at this time having adhesiolysis proceedures without ever having found this site and will be sufferring the most horrific symptoms forever, with NO turning around and starting over as an educated , informed ARD consumer! YOU do have time to educate yourself, to learn from these people, from me in private emails, and anyone else who offerrs that to you, to accumulate what you need to become an informed consumer of ARD and to know what questions to ask any potential surgeon, and to know what those answers should be..if you are to secure the highest quality adhesiolysis available to you, and to give yourself the best chance there is to secure whatever percent of improvments your going to secure through an adhesiolysis, this is your chance!
At this time I will not wish you luck on the 17th, I will not say I will pray for you on the 17th, I shall not even in the most remote way say you have a snowballs chance in Hades to secure imrovement in your sufferring on the 17th! What I will say is that YOU DO have the chance to save yourself from a living hell! I beg you to stop now and give yourself time to become educated as that will be te only way you CAN save yourself from a life of hell! My ARD family..PLEASE rally around this young innocent lady as you did when you learned of the "pumpkin " procedure in the UK! Remember that? Togeter, you all used this message board to save her from the hell of having an unskiled procedure, and you gave her the chance to become aware of her disorder and what todo as well as what NOT to allow to happen to her! You all literally saved her life, as life with ARD is barely what we can call a life! We all know what I am saying, we all walked where this young lady is tredding, my GOD, use this board in the way it can be used..to spare others what we walked and lived becuase no one was there to teach us, walk through this with us and above all, not to allow them to be alone anymore in all this! If she elects not to take our hand, and listen to our words, we can and have no choice but to respect her decisions..then and only then do we pray for her to be spared what she doesn't know can happen to her. I now beg all of you, Karla, Robin, Joe, Nancy..Chrissy, Karen..and on and on..all of you who post here to reach out to this young lady with your words. strong, penetrating words or your struggles, why your sufferring today like you are, what you would do over if given that chance..we all know the routine, we all know what she doesn't know...please, your words, suggestions information can be taken to by her to her surgeons, let THEM see that this ARD sufferer does NOT walk alone and that she now has a strong and loud support team..let THEM know we are watching out for her now..and from all corners of the world..WE are watching them and advocating for her!
To you, Rosalie, my prayer WILL be that you take heed and are led by our Lord to your Angels here on this board..as when he opens a door for you, it will be up to you to walk through it in blind faith and trust...if you have never done that before, my dear..do it now! You can always re-schedule that surgery, you cannot take back a life riuned by it...which avenue will you choose today?
I beg you,Rosalie, please, please give us a chance, give yourself a chance..and I implore my ARD family to walk with you today and everyday now! She must not walk alone once she posted on here, but she must get more then a friendly pat on her back and sent on her way into that surgery so unaware of what we ARE aware of! We wouldn't do that to a kitten as it is walking into a pit bull cage..now would we? Rosalie can turn us all down, a nice "No Thank-you. my surgeons said they know they can help me"...that is her choice, but we, we here are free to say it like it is, do not ask yourself why should we, ask yourself why not? Why WOULDNT we speak out? We simply can and that is what this board is about,at least in part..or will we read this post and in the back of our minds be thinking that one day, Rosalie will simply return and forever, join in the all to firmilar cry for help day after day after day...as she became one of us becuase we choose not to speak up? Not me, my friends, not me at all! Rosalie, hold off for now..and walk with us for a bit, you have three days in which you can change your life..one way or the other! Do not fear us or our words, do not be intimidated by surgerons to have the surgery yet, not until you are totally informed, and you can be..if you allow it!
I can say no more..I am only one, but WE can become an army if we want to be. Many don't know me, and may ask who am I to challenge the rest who post regularly on here, I do not challenge you on this, I implore you to do this for her! Questions oabout me? Ask me in a personal email to me, but do not let that infringe on this issue as we have no time to start to deal with trivial issues, any other issues can wait..Rosalie's life and future cannot wait!..WE also have 3 days to impact her life with material she can study, and/or take to an appointment with these surgeons, and that is IF this young lady even allows us that opportunity! "She is not heavy, she is our sister!"
May God once again be with us all!
Faithfully yours, Beverly Doucette
-- Beverly Doucette