Educating yourself about ARD will enable you to.....

From: Helen Dynda (olddad66@runestone.net)
Thu Sep 5 15:28:23 2002


I have been doing research on adhesions ever since a diagnostic laparoscopy (in 1997) proved - for the very first time in 27 years - that massive adhesions had been the REAL cause of the very severe pain I had been "forced to live with".. Adhesions had attached my omentum to my abdominal wall - as if these surfaces had been glued or bonded together!! I began to feel the return of unrelenting pain on the 10th day after surgery (1997),

I had never heard about adhesions! I had not been told that adhesions are one of the risks of surgery! So in October of 1997 I began to search the Internet for anything and everything I could find that mentioned the word, adhesions. Actually, there wasn't much information about adhesions on the Internet at that time.

In the process of my search, I accidentally came upon SYNECHION -- Dr. Wiseman's website at ( http://members.aol.com/synechion/ ). It was at SYNECHION that I first learned that there were barriers for the purpose of preventing the return of adhesions - following a surgery. It was then that I requested a copy of my 1997 Operative Report; because I wanted to see if my surgeon had applied an adhesion barrier at the end of my surgery. When I read my Operative Report, I did not see one word that would indicate that my surgeon had applied an adhesion barrier!!

I was very disappointed to learn that my surgeon had not used Seprafilm or Interceed at the conclusion of my surgery. It took me some time to assimilate this information; and it was then that I realized adhesion barriers would not have helped me anyway - unless my surgery had been a laparotomy!! The FDA had approved Seprafilm and Interceed....BUT for open-abdominal procedures (laparotomy) only!!

Considering I had suffered from undiagnosed chronic pain for 27 years before I was correctly diagnosed on August 1, 1997...it was at that time I KNEW I had to learn as much as I possibly could about anything and everything to do with adhesions!!

The more you read about adhesion related disorder, the more you will be able to understand what you are dealing with - and you will be able to communicate more effectively with your doctor. The only way you will ever be able to achieve this, is by accepting the responsibility to do your own research. No one else can do this for you!!

In Friendship, Helen


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