Re: Update on my Excruciating Rectal Pain
From: Debbie (Tigger6040@aol.com)
Fri Jan 23 20:47:00 2004
Hi Jayne
I felt compelled to reply to your post as our stories are incredibly
similar.
I've had a horribly painful sigmoidoscopy, one that could not be
completed due to the level of pain I was experiencing. It sounds like
this is what happened to you with your colonoscopy. I was horrified and
disgusted when I read how your doctor treated you. Have you considered
reporting him?
Anyway...my adhesions are due to endometriosis. I have had trouble with
bowel adhesions for as long as I've known about my endo which is about
17 years.
I have suffered with rectal pain, pain with bowel movements, lower left
quadrant pain, chronic constipation etc., etc. A couple of years ago I
went through a bout of constipation that went on for 17 days. Eventually
when I was unable to have a bm on my own and started having a lot of
accompanying nausea and vomiting my doctor ordered me to go to the
emergency room. There I was given a high powered enema that finally got
things moving but of course that was only treating the symptoms, not the
problem.
I underwent extensive bowel studies to try and figure out what the
problem was. I was diagnosed with redundant bowel just as you have
been. I had marked redundancy and tortuosity at the sigmoid colon as
well as portions of the descending colon. Redundant bowel is indeed
extra bowel and many times it forms extra loops which can be constricted
by adhesions if they are present. In my case the extra loops were in
the shape of a pretzel and folded backwards on themselves. Eventually I
had a double bowel resection surgery. There was one portion of bowel
removed at the sigmoid colon, to remove the redundant loops of bowel,
and the second portion was removed on the small bowel, at the terminal
ileum, due to full thickness endometriosis.
Redundant bowel can be present without symptoms however if one has
redundant bowel and IS experiencing symptoms they can be quite serious
requiring intervention.
It's really important to keep your stool soft and moving as much as
possible. Becoming constipated only exacerbates the problem. If you
are taking any sort of narcotic pain medication it can make matters
worse since most of the narcotics cause constipation by slowing down
bowel motility.
I wish you all the best in getting the care you deserve. It sounds to
me like you may want to consider a different doctor though. The guy
that did your colonoscopy sounds like a real jerk. I've gotten a lot of
help by finding an experienced colorectal surgeon. I don't know if this
would be the same in your situation but it may be worth keeping in mind.
Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to talk further about this.
Best Wishes,
Debbie
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