>----- Original Message -----
From: "cathy:-" <anonymous@medispecialty.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS"
<adhesions@mail.medispecialty.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 11:15 PM
Subject: ok, everyone, I need the benefit of your 20-20 hindsight
> I introduced myself a couple of weeks ago, but I'll recap...
>
> About 7 months ago I started having on-and-off sharp stabbing pains on
> my right side in exactly the same place and very much the same feeling
> as I get each month when I ovulate. But it is not nearly so intense --
> my ovulation pain is 12 hours at about a 5 or 6, whereas this is more
> like 0, 1, 2, and an occasional spike to 3. At the same time I started
> having an intense (like 6 or 7) pain at orgasm, which fortunately only
> lasts like 10 seconds or so. (When I read of you ladies who need an
> oxycondon to even consider sex I'm not sure whether I should be
> incredibly thankful that I don't have anything like that degree of pain
> -- or really bummed that no matter how you look at it, it is now
> confirmed that EVERYBODY is getting better sex than me! <wicked grin>)
>
> About 6 weeks ago I visited my family practice doc, who listened to my
> description of symptoms and immediately guessed "adhesions." I knew
> something about adhesions because I have a book where the author talks
> about her surgical spiral where each new surgery for adhesions only made
> the adhesions worse. The FP said that she would refer me to a
> gynocologist, and that if they decided it was adhesions then they would
> probably go in and cut them. I immediately questioned that, "Don't they
> just come back worse if you cut them? She said, "Uh, no, I don't think
> so." (But then she is not a surgeon. The important part is that she
> obviously believes that adhesions=pain, which I know is a good sign.)
>
> So she referred me to a gyne, who kept giving me "the look" -- as in "if
> you only have this little bit of pain why are you in here complaining?"
> This is in the middle of "ovarian cancer awareness month" where the
> article I read in the paper made this big deal about not brushing off
> vague abdominal symptoms, because with OC it's frequently true that
> there are vague "not right" things, but the first really significant
> symptom is often death. I kept feeling like she was saying that I
> didn't "deserve" her time because I wasn't in enough pain.
>
> The first doc had ordered a pelvic ultrasound which I had a couple of
> weeks after the appointment with the gyne. So far neither doc has
> called me with any results. I did get a bill from the hospital for
> DOING the ultrasound, but no bill from the radiologists for reading the
> films. I posted to the Q&A board at obgyn.net because of 2 things about
> the ultrasound -- one is that it took like 10 minutes, and two was that
> the tech worked only from the left side of my bladder, which is a good
> 8-10 inches away from the pain on the right side. The doc on obgyn.net
> told me that first of all it sounded like I needed a transvaginal
> ultrasound, not an abdominal one, but that anyway a "real" pelvic
> ultrasound requires moving the wand on both sides and the middle of the
> abdomen.
>
> So I'm trying to figure out what to do next...
>
> Do I call my family practice doc and find out what the ultrasound said?
>
> Do I call the radiologists and ask for a copy of the report? (At least
> that way I'll know that there IS a report!)
>
> Do I try for a referral to a different gyne? My FP clearly believes that
> diagnosing and operating on adhesions are outside her expertise --
> although she DOES believe in them.
>
> I live in rural western IL. There is only one gyne who even does
> surgery at my local hospital -- I went to a nearby slightly larger town
> to see the gyne. I know how many of you have had your inside (and
> lives!) totally mucked up by ignoramouses making a bad situation worse
> and worse... Should I just blow these people off completely? I've been
> told that a diagnostic laporoscopy is "minimally invasive" surgery like
> any schmuck can do it and do no harm. But there are those of you who
> clearly have formed new adhesions from diagnostic laporoscopies. I have
> this idea of calling Drs Reich & Redan's office and going to Scranton
> for a lap. But I feel silly calling in the "A Team" when I don't even
> know for sure whether I HAVE adhesions! Which brings me back to my
> central problem... I'm really not in a huge amount of pain, and it's
> not interfering with my life. Except that part about how a "successful"
> sexual interlude includes getting "kicked in the nuts" which really
> tends to put a chill on the old libido! So far I've only had one
> abdominal surgery, my (unnecessary) c-section 7-1/2 years ago. Does a
> diagnostic lap, even if done by a really good surgeon, mean a big risk
> that the adhesions and pain will get worse? I mean that seems like a
> pretty big price to pay to satisfy idle curiosity... What happens if I
> just blow all these people off and wait until the pain becomes
> debilitating and then seek treatment?
>
> So, anyway, for those of you who've made it to the end of another of my
> long rambling discourses... Once a lot of you were in roughly the same
> situation I am now. Knowing what you know now, what do you think I
> should do? Think of me as you "doing it all over again." So I guess my
> question is "if you knew then what you know now, what would you have
> done?"
>
> --
> cathy :-)
>