Re: Does this sound familiar to any of you? I have been seeking answers for 20 years...

From: Gwen (anonymous@medispecialty.com)
Fri Jul 26 07:50:48 2002


At Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Robert Anderson wrote: >
>I have suffered from a mysterious, intermittent, severe abdominal pain
>most of my life. It comes on suddenly, and feels like a stabbing,
>pulling, cramping pain and is very localized, almost like I can feel the
>length of nerve or intestine and it feels like someone is yanking on it.
>*Extremely* unpleasant - to the point where I laugh at all other forms
>of pain - even broken bones - as meaningless in comparison.
>
>The onset has little pattern to it, but often does occur after a long
>day of vigorous exercise like skiing or hiking. It seems to have
>absolutely nothing to do with my diet. It often hits me while I am
>taking a deep breath, or "stretching tall." The most common way to
>trigger it is during urination - it feels like the bladder is
>contracting and pulling at the nerve or length of intestine.
>
>When I was 16, I was diagnosed with umbilical hernia and I had surgery
>for it. The pain recurred afterwards but had changed in character
>significantly.
>
>I have seen many doctors over the years, and they are consistently
>stumped, and usually blow me off as "having gas," or occasionally I will
>be accused of drug-seeking. I do believe doctors to be completely
>worthless at this point with respect to my condition.

Hi Bob - my experience has some similarities. I have this pulling, tight feeling in the left lower part of my abdomen, sometimes stretching upward. I have had gyn surgery which left me with adhesions in this area. If I stretch upward, I have the tight pull on both sides of the abdomen. It is as if tight bands are being pulled. I can have a pinching feeling when I bend or sit. I recently found, when I leaned against a table, pushing into the unbilical area, I can feel the tight pulling feeling along the left side. I have also had laporoscopic surgery for gallbladder and I was cut in this area. I know I cannot do abdominal exercises. My doctor thinks this is adhesion related and worsens if the colon is irritable.

Some days everything feels tight and other days it feels more normal. It's discouraging but I have been helped by reading the comments of many other people with adhesions. Surgery has a lot of side effects. Good luck. You have a lot of company. Gwen

>
>Anyway, it seems as though this may be related to adhesions formed
>during the hernia surgery. I will probably not investigate surgery at
>this point, as the full-blown episodes have become far enough apart that
>I don't feel as crippled as I once did. But I would like to hear from
>others who have had similar symptoms, if you are out there. I have been
>searching for answers for 20 years and this feels like the closest I
>have come.
>
>Thanks for listening,
>Bob

--
Gwen

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