adhesions from colectomy
From: Joy (joyeliz19@gmail.com)
Wed Oct 11 22:09:10 2006
When I was 3 years old, I was diagnosed with a rare disease called
F.A.P. which causes hundreds to thousands of pre-cancerous polyps to
develop in the large intestine. I had a full colectomy with a J-pouch
and temporary ileostomy. After a few years, once my body adjusted to
its new set-up, I was able to live normally devoid of any real problems
for almost 10 years.
About a year ago, I started having abdominal pain and nausea, along with
problems with bowel movements. I thought it was intestinal and went
straight to my GI doctor. He had me do a CT scan, which showed nothing
but a small abnormal mass near my ovary. I was immediately sent to a
GYN who said laproscopic surgery to remove the cyst, or what was
probably a cyst, would be the best bet. But when the doctor got in
there, he had trouble navigating because, it turns out, I have adhesion
disease. He was unable to even see my ovary and saw what he thought was
the "cyst" and removed it. This did nothing to help me, though. So
finally, after many more tests and doctors and lalalala...I went back to
my GI doctor who said he now thought I had adhesion disease and this was
causing all my problems. I had surgery to remove adhesions a month
later and this, eventually, made me feel much better.
However, now, just a year later I am having problems again. I just went
to my GI doctor today and he said it is adhesions and I've done very
well to not have too many problems until now. With my condition he said
that this is to be expected and I can't have surgery every time it comes
up again. So right now I'm trying to wait it out.
I was wondering if anyone had these type of symptoms with their
adhesions. Obviously abdominal pain, problematic bowel movements...but
also lower back pain, nausea, trouble eating/not having much of an
apetite, getting full (or at least feeling that way) very fast, bladder
problems (doctors keep telling me i have a UTI, but I had bladder
problems last year along with my other symptoms, so I defnitely think
its related), partial intestinal obstructions, bloated stomach, being
overly tired a lot, etc. Some of it is probably just from the stress of
the pain. However, all of these symptoms seem to be connected, even
though my doctor has told me that my lower back pain & bladder problems
should have nothing to do with the rest of it - I find this very hard to
believe. I was told to keep eating to stimulate my bowel, chew my food
well, & stay very hydrated.
Has anyone found medicine to help? I know no medicine can fix the
problem, but anything to take away at least some pain or one of the many
symptoms? I sometimes take Zophran for nausea. Phinergan helps my
bowels to relax & open up when I have an obstruction, but it also makes
me sleep hard for 12 hours, so it's not conducive with school. My
doctor has just prescribed Levsin to me...we'll have to see how that
works. My comfort foods when I'm in pain are yogurt (especially yoplait
whips), lemon italian ice, and toast. :)
I'd really just love to get in contact with others who are experiencing
the same thing as me. I've only met one of person with adhesion
problems and that is my sister. None of my friends really understand it
- they all think I can take some medicine or go to the doctor and then
be better. I know I can't expect them to understand, it just makes it
kind of hard to deal with.
Thanks for reading! I know this is really long!
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