painful
>cramping. Your experience may be different, of course
>
>A brief thought about joint pains. I have had joint pains myself and
>had thought them a result of aging and oncoming arthritis. Again,
>Donna's Dr has told her that joint pain can be caused by food allergies.
>(I'm not saying that Crohn's disease doesn't also have this symptom. I
>am unfamiliar with Crohn's.) Blood work Donna has had done has revealed
>some disturbing possible allergies - so Donna is on a very strict diet
>now, with the slow re-introduction of some foods to see how she reacts.
>Too early to report any progress, but if it helps Donna, I'm going for
>the blood tests myself to see if I can get some relief. That will be
>later, because for now, Donna's relief is more important than mine, and
>the blood work is $300 - insurance won't cover it.
>
>Now a question - perhaps Dr Wiseman, Bev or Helen could answer this. I
>talked to a dear friend today at work who told me about her mother who
>had a hysterectomy about 20 years ago, went in for follow-up surgery a
>year later with adhesions - and never had a recurrance (she's now 76).
>How often does this happen? Are we (Donna and you other ladies) an
>unlucky few that gets nailed every time you have surgery for relief?
>Please include Linda D. in your prayers - complications to her
>conditions is leading to the removal of her colon next Tuesday. I am
>not very familiar with her history, so I don't know if adhesions figure
>in this or not, but please remember her - she's very frightened. Thanks.
>
>--
>Pete and Donna
>
Hi Pete and Donna: Joint pains can be caused by a lot of things. About 12 years ago I had an experience with joint pains that went on for years. I took every antiinflammatory you could name with no relief. I had all the rheumatology tests which were all negative. The only thing they could come up with is that I had had a virus,(I did have a severe virus before the joint pains started) which can become chronic, and this is where it had settled. I even self referred to a famous clinic in the Northeast who had no answer. They wouldn't even agree on the virus diagnosis. It eventually went away. The reason I mentioned the possibility of crohn's to Toni is because she has a strong family history of the disease, plus bowel troubles. Both her sister and her son have crohn's. There is no law that says you can't have more than one problem at a time which is why I don't think someone should blame all their pain on adhesions. The causes of other things like gi bleeding have to be ruled out too. I know of someone (a friend's mother) who had an operation for a hernia. One week later she had an ileus (her intestines stopped functioning) They went in again and she was covered with adhesions. They lysed them and she never had another problem with them again. Yes, it happens. My surgeon also told me that you wouldn't believe the messes they find when they go in for another problem (i.e. gall bladder removal) and yet the patient never complained of abdominal pain from the adhesions. I'm sure with experiences like this it's easy to form the opinion that adhesions don't cause pain! In *some* people they don't I guess.
Chris S