Re: Mom's third small bowel obstruction after hysterectomy

From: Jackie (jlroberts17@cogeco.ca)
Wed Sep 25 04:35:15 2002


September 25, 2002 Hi John:

Well John I am a 43 year old that had a hysterectomy in February of 2001, May 1st, 2001 I was rushed to the hospital and the tube was inserted because of a bowel obstruction due to the scar tissue, (my symptons at that time were that everything had shut down, not able to have any bodily functions and extreme pain) I knew when I couldn't stand straight something was terribly wrong, however, they drained me with the tube for a couple of days and went in for surgery. Shortly after that July I was back in again they said I could go home and wait it out or stay in the hospital and hope that it will pass, apparently this does happen some of the time, this one did for me. In the mean time I went back into the hospital August 14, however I didn't think that it was that bad again (because all of my bodily functions were working) but no such luck they performed surgery 2 days later saying I had a hole in my smaller bowel. Now my family noticed that within 2 days of that surgery my stomach swelled like I was 9 months pregnant and a lot of pain (I seem to have blocked out all memory of any of this) so when my family insisted something else was wrong they finally found, so they said, that my bowel had adhered to the lining of my wall? They did surgery again, then I was apparently complaining of a sore back, (I still have no recollection of any of this) then I had pneumonia. I was put on life support and my family was told it didn't look too good for me, all this because of scar tissue shutting down my bowels. John, I really feel for your Mother because of her age, my surgeon has informed me that my chances of this happening again anytime soon is 80% (it used to be 50/50) and said that I couldn't handle another surgery anytime soon, so of course I am trying to deal with the fear that this could happen at any time. Don't forget everything was still working normal for me, the only reason I suspected this time was that I had put 5lbs on in one day I weighed 110lbs. then the pain started. I have heard of a place in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada called the Rudd Clinic that deals with a lot of these problems maybe you could contact them. So I am back home now and doing ok, but as I said to keep everything going I am on laxatives and anti-depressants to deal with this. I hope that you could respond to me to let me know what the Doctors are telling you or your Mother her chances of this reaccuring, because you are right, if I am not strong enough to go thru this, I am certain that your Mother must be a real trooper to be going thru this. I am still looking for answers for a permanent solution (I have lost 4 jobs due to this problem. I am also curious to know are they removing any of her bowels with her surgeries?

Please respond when you receive this. Thanks for your time and patience in reading my response.

At Tue, 7 Sep 1999, John wrote: >
>My 73 year old mother went back to the hospital this weekend with the
>same unpleasant symptoms of small bowel obstruction (SBO) ... bloating,
>vomiting and intestinal pain. She had a hysterectomy (due to uterine
>cancer) about five years ago and the first SBO occurred about a year
>ago. They put a tube
>down her nose to draw off the fluids and hope that the obstruction would
>clear itself. When it didn't, and xrays confirmed it was getting worse,
>she went in for surgery. The surgeon opened her up, saw the adhesion,
>snipped it and closed her in a quick operation that nevertheless was
>hard on mom. The second SBO occured this spring , but this time the
>surgeon did a thorough job of clearing out any adhesions or potential
>adhesions that he saw. Unfortunately, four months later, the xrays show
>another blockage and, if it doesn't improve with the nose tube (NG
>tube), there may be another surgery. These surgeries have been hard on
>my mom, and she worries that she hasn't built up her strength enough
>after the last surgery to handle another one.
>
>It sounds like each surgery is irritating her intestines enough to set
>the stage for the next adhesion. Is there any way to break out of this
>vicious circle? I've read that adhesion can sometimes be caused by a
>reaction to the talc on the outside of surgical gloves. I've read about
>adhesions being more common when the peritoneum isn't sutured (not sure
>what this means). And I've read about the new barriers such as
>suprafilm (but don't know if these are available in Canada). I've also
>been reading about diet and wonder if mom should be on a low-fibre,
>low-residue diet (which if I understand it, means no fruits, vegatables
>or whole grains).
>
>Any advice would be appreciated.
>
>--
>John
>

--
Jackie

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