What strategies do you use to help control your pain Karen?  Have you tried visualisation, meditation or relaxation exercises?  I use a whole range of things because just relying on pain relief medication is a very limiting way to deal with pain.  Do you have a pain councilor?  I do, and it is very helpful to have someone you can talk to about your pain, I was surprised also to find that other influences beside pain effect the way I cope with it too.  Things like family disputes, difficulties with marriage or relationships, problems at work, just the every day pressures of being a wife/husband/mother/father/sister/brother.....they all contribute to your body's ability to deal with & cope with pain.

I am really concerned for you Karen, it sounds like a very drastic approach to your pain problem, and I'm concerned that if you did decide to have the surgery, you will not get the pain free results you expect.  Adhesions will find something else to attach to.  I have a very good friend who I met here on the board, and she had more surgery again last week, because adhesions had attached to her liver again.  She had surgery earlier this year, and they found the adhesions had actually folded a part of her liver over on it's self!  So be aware that if they DO take out all those organs....adhesions CAN find something else to attach too.....

Please Karen, I urge you to seek a number of opinions, I had a hysterectomy, because I thought it would cure the pain I had lived with since I was 14, it didn't, the adhesions just attached themselves to my ovaries & attached them to my vagina, bladder, bowel & abdominal wall.  I had surgery to remove them in April, I have adhesions now that make sitting very painful for me after an hour or so, I then have to recline in bed for an hour or two after that to relieve the pressure & pain caused by sitting.  I cannot walk any great distances without the pulling pain caused by the adhesions getting tighter & tighter & stronger the further I walk.  I consider myself fortunate, I know that there are others here who have even more serious pain & health problems to deal with because of their adhesions.

I am glad that you have found us Karen, I know I said this in my last message to you.... we will support you with friendship, understanding & love..... use us to lean on, vent, scream, rant & rave....we are good listeners and we know how much pain can interfere with every day life.

There is someone I would like you to hear from, her Name is Karla, she recently updated her story on the quilt.  Karla will be able to tell you how horrible to live & the dangers of living the way that surgeon is proposing for you...... Karla is NOT well at all, infact she is in a dreadful position now, surgery is extremely dangerous for her, but without it, she will die.  PLEASE Karen, read her story.

Let us know how you are feeling, and where you are in thinking about this serious surgery option, please, think about it very carefully, it sounds VERY drastic to me...

love & gentle warm hugs

Jo