There are 10,000 babies born in the US every day, 2,500 of them by c-section. Somewhere between 50% and 100% of c-sections result in adhesions. There are literally tens of millions of women in the US with adhesions.
There are lots of things in medicine that quite simply no one understands. No one knows what causes alzheimers, or pre-eclampsia, or mad-cow disease. No one knows why adhesions cause pain in the subset of people that they cause pain in.
At Thu, 28 Mar 2002, clare wrote:
>
>Hi:
>
>Under this post is a post I sent a week ago, explaining what my surgeon
>did/saw at diagnostic laparoscopy. Well, I saw him this morning, and
>now I'm way more confused than I was before I saw him.
>
>He said that he lysed the one area of adhesions, removed what endo he
>could, and cut the ligaments as he believed these things may be the
>cause of my pain. When I asked him about the ascending colon adhesions,
>he said that in his experience, adhesions there do not cause pain, and
>that they were not very thick.
>
>He gave me a perscription for a bowel anti-spasmatic, is referring me to
>a gastro (in case it's IBS-again??) and he says that if that doesn't
>help he'll consider doing a pain mapping laparoscopy. He says that here
>in Canada he's never heard of anyone having much luck with any of the
>pain clinics, and that they don't want to take chronic pelvic pain
>patients anyway.
>
>I wonder if you can all see my head spinning around as I sit here?? Has
>anyone ever had adhesions in the ascending colon, and if so, were they a
>cause of pain?? Sally, what were you doing for pain management before
>you went on the oxy?? I appreciate any help at all. I'm really at my
>wits end, and I'm very frustrated and discouraged.
>
>At Wed, 20 Mar 2002, clare wrote:
>>
>>Hi All:
>>
>>I had a diagnostic laparoscopy on March 6, and I got the operative
>>report today (but the pathology isn't in yet).
>>It's very long, but in a nutshell this is what it says. There was some
>>endo on the left uterosacral ligament with hemorrhage and retraction
>>around it and another small spot of endo in the cul-de-sac just below
>>that ligament. The area below the ligament was cauterized. The
>>ligament was biopsied in the area of endo, and the area of endo under
>>the ligament was also biopsied. So far so good, but then my surgeon
>>writes "but I was unable to establish an adequate angle in the area and
>>could not grasp the peritoneum". I'm not sure what that means. The
>>uterosacral ligaments were then cut. The left one oozed and was
>>cauterized. The biopsy site also oozed slightly and was cauterized.
>>After irrigation no more bleeding was seen.
>>
>>There was an adhesion along most of the length of the right tube (I had
>>the ovary removed - different surgery), which was binding the tube down
>>to the underlying fossa. It was lyzed bluntly with a probe. He
>>observes "adhesions between the proximal ascending colon and the lateral
>>peritoneal side wall." Nothing was attempted here. He and I had an
>>agreement that he would not convert to a laparotomy under any
>>circumstances.
>>
>>Whew, that was a lot longer than I intended it to be! Okay, so I figure
>>that most of my pain comes from the colon adhesions, but if anyone can
>>explain to me exactly (or even remotely) what this means I'd appreciate
>>it. I got this info from my PC, and I don't see the surgeon until late
>>next week. After the diag lap I felt just sore for a few days, but the
>>tugging etc. was back one week to the day!
>>
>>For those of you who are new to this site, I'd like you to know that for
>>me, nothing has changed so far.
>>
>>Wishing you all painfree moments, hours and days...
>>
>>--
>>Clare
>>
>>--
>>csheedy
>>
>--
>csheedy
>
-- cathy :-)