I have not been on the board for months since I have been working on individual e-mail referrals from Dr Wiseman and making a consorted attempt to help each of you. But I recieved word that some blithering idiot, knife-crazy surgeon is suggesting a complete pelvic "gutting" to relieve the symptoms and cause of adhesions and I have to throw my two cents in.
THIS IS CRAP in a cradle! I agree with Bev when she says that this is no less inhuman than the disembowling of humans in the middle ages. As a nurse and an adhesions sufferer for 20 yrs, let me tell you that this surgery was once called "Pelvic Exenteration" and it is indeed like gutting a halloween pumpkin. You are a person with pelvic or abdominal adhesions. Probably between 20 and 45 yrs of age. You have had more than two operations and your adhesions and subsequent pain have returned. So, the frustrated surgeon says, why not remove all viable, healthy organs from your pelvic cavity, including your bladder, bowel, intestine, uterus, ovaries and tubes and replace them with colostomy bags, ureterostomy tubes and drainage bag (bladder replacement) and, if he or she decides to remove the majority of your stomach, a gastrostomy tube for feeding purposes so that you can look forward to three meals a day for the next 30 yrs of a high protein liquid diet that is running into a feeding tube in your belly. Neat-o! Just think....no more steak and potatoes! Let's not discuss the probability of stomal infections (bacterial or yeast infections that grow around the openings where your colostomy and ileostomy bags hang)or the probability of having blocked tubes that will require frequent visits to the ER for irrigating (unless of course they train you to irrigate your own tubes) You think your sex life is ho hum now? Hopefully, you have a loving, accepting mate who will not mind romantic evenings playing dodge-em with the various plastic bags filled with your bodily wastes hanging underneath those swell little Victoria's Secret frocks.. You think adhesions are painful? Wait until your colostomy blocks off. Hate leaving the party early because your belly is cramping from adhesional pain? Just imagine having to leave because your colostomy bag is filled with gas or your urinary drainage bag is leaking.
COME ON FOLKS! If this is "modern medicine" then please give me a rational explanation of how healthy young people are to function in a better state once we've been gutted like a Jack-O-Lantern than we did while suffering with long term ARD!! I was offered an Exenteration 7 years ago as a final option to my suffering with advanced pelvic adhesive disease. I laughed in the doctor's face and cried for weeks afterwards, just imagining my life without my guts!
There are new treatments being tested and perfected every day and we are so close to a "cure". Let's not allow some Jack the Ripper surgeon to carve us like a Thanksgiving turkey simply because we're tired to hurting.
Hang in there, my loves. I am begging you to seek second or third of fourth opinions before you allow anyome to slice and dice you. Not only is it barberic but it is irreversible. Once done, It is forever.
Hugs to you, and feel free to write me if you like: gingin99@home.com ginny halpern