Hi Helen: There are no rules with adhesions. Some people have them and they don't give them any trouble at all. My surgeon (not gyn) told me that sometimes they do procedures on people and find out they have terrible adhesions and the person never complained. (He also said that they cause some people a lot of pain so he wasn't trying to say that adhesions don't cause pain) Then there are those people who have adhesions, have them lysed, and live happily ever after. Those kind of people don't hang around support forums. They do exist because I know one. I had the adhesions around my sigmoid colon for probably 20 years before they gave me any trouble (and at this point it is debatable if they have given me trouble) and the one that tied my small bowel off for probably 12 years (TAH in 1986. I can't believe this adhesion was not responsible for pain. Yet I had no symptoms of any kind of bowel obstruction before the morning I woke up in pain. ) I don't think adhesions *necessarily* get worse over time. They might in some people. I had a laparoscopy in Mar 1998 when the gyn lysed the small bowel adhesion. I had another lap 6 months later at which time the small bowel adhesion had NOT reoccurred. No barrier at all was used the first time. At this point I have no idea what is wrong with me. Now there is some question whether or not adhesions have even been my problem all along, but as I said, I can't believe that small bowel adhesion was not causing pain. When the problems started 2 years ago every single doctor I saw asked me about my back. I had no back pain,never had back pain, just abdominal pain. Now I have back pain plus the abdominal pain. Is it from the adhesions or is it a new problem on top of the adhesions or the same problem (maybe never an adhesion problem) that is just presenting itself in a different way now? Who knows. I am taking 600 mg ibuprofen every 8 hours and it is working okay, although the pain is not 100% gone. I was discouraged at first but antiinflammatories take a while to kick in. I don't want to take this for the rest of my life without knowing why! Have you check out other forums. I was looking at a neurosurgery forum (now that I have this possible back problem) and it is made up of people just like us, only they are having neurological problems. Doesn't anyone in the world feel good? The same run arounds, misdiagnosis, no diagnosis. It's very discouraging.
Chris S.