Re: Adhesions following subtotal colectomy

From: Jennie Fox (ozfox@smartchat.net.au)
Sat Jun 16 21:37:09 2001


At Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Amy wrote: >
>My daughter, who has Crohns Disease, recently underwent surgery for a
>small bowel obstruction caused by adhesions from a subtotal colectomy
>performed a few weeks ago. What was to be an hour long surgery turned
>into 9 hours, as the surgeon discovered her entire small bowel was
>covered with adhesions. His description was that it was as if someone
>had "welded" her small bowel all together. She now has a tube (shunt)
>running through her entire small bowel (which is now 2 feet shorter due
>to previous surgery and this one) which will allow the bowel to stay
>open as the adhesions inevitably form again. My question is, even if
>her bowel does not obstruct again is she going to be living with
>constant pain? Certainly she was in pain before they even discovered an
>obstruction, as the x-rays and Upper GI's did not show obstruction
>immediately, and she was in excrutiating pain for over a week before
>diagnosed. I'm trying to do all the research I can on adhesions etc.
>and I am not encouraged :( Has anyone ever heard of adhesions forming to
>this extent? Surgeon said he had seen cases "as bad" as my daughter's,
>but none worse.. not encouraging, either.

--
Dear Amy,
I am writing to you regarding the shunt your daughter had put into her entire small bowel. I am 32 years of age and have also had a subtotal colectomy which resulted in peritonitis and another 6 laparotomies as well as a total hysterectomy.
My colectomy was done 8 years ago and I now suffer from chronic bowel obstructions as a result of adhesions. I was most excited to learn from your daughter's experience that it was possible to have a shunt put in to the small bowel to stop you from obstructing.
I live in Sydney, Australia and am wondering if you could please email me with your Doctors name and contact details so that I could possibly have the same procedure done on me.
I obstruct at least twice or more each week and know that everytime the Doctors do another laparotomy on me to divide some adhesions I come out with another lot which makes it a real catch 22 !!!
Thank you so much for telling of your daughter's story on the adhesion website. I have never been able to find or meet anyone else with a similar history and such problems with adhesions.
I can empathize so much with your daughter with the pain of the adhesions and I just hope that the shunt has been a success for her and somehow reduced her level of pain caused by the obstructions.
Many thanks and I really look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,

Jennie Fox


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