Re: bowel obstructions

From: Lee Williams (leenbill@yahoo.com)
Fri Feb 22 09:19:40 2002

I was so relieved to read your letters! Most of the letters in this talk about chronic pelvic pain, and I was beginning to wonder if what I have was not adhesion pain after all. But these two letters sound just like me! I've had four abdominal surgeries, two for small bowel obstructions, and two gyencologic. Just like Gloria said, this is not a constant daily pain, but I live in terror, anticipating the next episode. A couple of coping measures I have found (though they don't always work) - You CAN avoid the NG tube if you insist. They can't make you accept treatment you don't want. When I do end up in the emergency room, I ask for pain meds (it's usually morphine or demerol), and they do an i.v. with the pain meds and phenergan for the nausea. Nine times out of ten, just relaxing from the pain relief will decompress the kinks and allow the obstruction to resolve itself. I haven't had to have the NG tube, now, in nearly four years, though I've been in the ER probably at least 2-3 times a year, and have had two hospital admissions in that four-year period (this has been going on for almost 13 years total). Also, though this is by no means foolproof, just out of experience I've gotten much better at catching the warning signs, at which point I immediately stop taking anything p.o. and lie down to rest, and about 50% of the time it will ease off in a few hours. So, for every ER visit, I have had at least as many near-misses that I've managed to treat at home.

During my last bout, my doctor gave me samples of a new form of Levsin, though I can't remember the exact name. Something-lev. It's a tiny pill that dissolves on the tongue, and it relaxes intestinal spasms incredibly well. I've had the impending pains probably every 3-4 days since my last hospitalization a month ago, and the pains went away after taking these. I don't know if I've just been lucky, if it is coincidence, or if they are really helping. But it always feels so good not to escalate into agonizing pain.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here! My husband found this site while I was in the hospital last month. My doctors can't even agree on a diagnosis! One says it might be adhesions, one says it's small bowel obstructions, one says it's irritable bowel syndrome. It's gotten so I don't know who to believe anymore! All I know is I've been x-rayed, CAT scanned, endoscoped, upper GI'd, barium swallowed - you name it, they've done it - and everything is "normal". HA!!!!!

Is there anyone else in addition to Gloria and Alan who live normal lives in between there horrible bouts of pain, hospitalization, etc? I'd love to hear from you!

Lee

--- Alan <Eureka17@bigpond.com> wrote: > At Mon, 27 Sep 1999, Gloria wrote:
> >
> >I have been reading the forum and it is somehow
> comforting to know there
> >are so many other people out there that are
> experiencing what I do. It
> >makes me feel not so "whiny"....sometimes I think I
> must drive my family
> >wild with all my ailments. I just got out of the
> hospital this morning
> >after spending the last three days there being
> treated for a bowel
> >obstruction. I left it till I was vomiting before
> I would go into
> >emergency because I am so tired of the whole
> process. It seems I have
> >to explain everything in detail each time I go in,
> and even then they
> >tend to treat me like a druggie who is just looking
> for a "fix". This
> >time I left it too long and ended up with the NG
> tube, the vomiting --
> >everything. Thank God it resolved. This is the
> umpteenth time I have
> >been treated for a bowel obstruction. I have had
> one corrective surgery
> >for it.
> >
> >I am so depressed right now, as the doctors here
> all say there is
> >NOTHING I can do about it. It is adhesion caused
> and there is nothing I
> >can do to avoid it and it is only a matter of time
> before it strikes
> >again. I can't even face the idea of having
> another episode, another NG
> >tube, the pain. I feel so very helpless right now.
> I look into my
> >future and I don't like what I see. Please, anyone
> else who suffers
> >from bowel adhesions with chronic obstruction, if
> you have any advice
> >for me -- anything that I should be doing, or
> should be asking the
> >doctors to do...please let me know. I don't think
> I can face up to many
> >more of these episodes.
> >
> >--
> >Gloria
> >
>
> --
> Gloria
> I was reading your note and thought I would just let
> you know that I suffer from the same, adhesion sml
> bowel obstruction.
> The only thing I think I can help you with is the
> advise I got from my GP is that to advoid a high
> fiber diet.
> I feel for you as I go throught the very same thing
> and when I turn up at the emergancy Dept I get the
> very same reaction as if I only turned up for a
> fix like some junkie of the streets.I sat down and
> wrote a message to the director of emergancy
> medicine at the hospital explaining how I felt every
> time I turned up since then
> I have had about 6 visits and the treatment I
> recieve when I go down there
> is far better.
> All the best
> Alan
>
> http://www.adhesions.org/forums/listcmds.htm

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