Sorry I'm so late but I am WAY behind here...I will answer the best I can. I'm snipping your note down to the questions - hope you don't mind. :o)
At Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Robert Anderson wrote:
>
>My two questions:
>
>1) Is your pain more or less constant, or does it come on acutely and
>then go away after a period of time?
Robert: All days I have some adhesion pain. Some days it's mainly when
I move, and other days it's pretty bad (hurts to breathe). I've learned
to catch the pain coming...I can see the signs and feel it building, and
I know to eat much less, drink a lot more water, don't focus on it, and
concentrate on relaxing. Yeah, it's acute sometimes, but if I follow my
little self prescription it really does help, although to be honest, I
still panic sometimes.
>
>2) Have you had any relief with the smooth muscle relaxing drugs like
>Levsin or Levsinex? If the adhesions are causing spasms of the
>intestine, this might be a way to manage the disease. At one time I
>used to take Levsinex when I felt "funny" feelings in my abdomen - which
>I usualldy did before the pain came on fullblown - and it did seem to
>work.
>
Robert: I tried buscopan, but I am sensitive to a lot of meds...I was too stoned to drive a car or work, and I only felt a minute (if any) difference in pain - I think because I was so tired from the drug. This was at the beginning dosage, so I gave up. I can't say I've ever had "funny" feelings - not sure what you mean?
>Ok, I have three questions: :)
>
>3) Does the location of the pain, in your abdomen, the "center of your
>being," cause you much more emotional distress, than say, if you had a
>diseased limb? To me, there is something much more emotionally
>disturbing about having pain in my abdomen than anywhere else on my
>body. Hard to describe but I suspect some of you know what I am talking
>about.
>
Robert: I have arthritis and when it is bad I find that it is more distressing. I think the reason for this is because the adhesion pain is always with me, even though it does get worse at times. The arthritis is affected by weather, and sometimes I can go weeks with just soreness in the mornings and full use of my joints the rest of the day. I know now that every day I will have adhesion pain. I have also found that there are things I can do so that the pain doesn't usually get too out of control.
>Get well soon to all who need it...
>
>Oh, and one more quick point: Doctors ignore men with these "mysterious"
>abdominal problems too! They are not just ignoring you because you are a
>woman, it's at least as much that they don't understand the pain, so
>they think you must be inventing it.
Robert: Well that's a comforting thought - to know that they are ignoring us all because they don't know what else to do!! I do, however, believe that Drs tend to think women are generally more hysterical than men, though. :o)
Best wishes, Clare
>Thanks,
>Bob