Re: Adhesions and Endometriosis
From: Amanda (amandabcr@aol.com)
Mon Aug 11 13:26:22 2003
At Tue, 5 Aug 2003, Jeni wrote:
>
>Almost five years ago I had surgery to remove my appendix and ever since
>they I have had so many stomach/pelvic area problems. I am in constant
>pain...my pelvic area always hurts, and when I get my period it's about
>100 times worse. This is kind of gross, but it's one of my main
>symptoms, it is extremly painful when I have a bowel movement...I get
>sharp pains sent throughout my stomach and sometimes it is so painful
>that I can't even go. I was diagnosed with Chrone's disease and was put
>on 16 pills a day because my doctor was 99% sure I had it, but a
>colonoscopy proved that I didn't. I have had multiple Upper GI's and
>Lower GI's and two more colonoscopies and yet they never find anything
>wrong. I've even been told that it's all in my head and I should see a
>doctor about that...needless to say that the doctor who told me that
>isn't my doctor anymore! My problems will come and go, somedays I'll be
>fine and somedays I'll just want to rip things out of my body because I
>feel like that will be less painful than what I'm going through. This
>past year I found a new doctor and did another colonoscopy to find that
>nothing was wrong, but he suggested that I see my gynocologist...so I
>went there and explained my problems and he said that it sounds like
>endometriosis but he didn't want to do surgery just yet, he said we
>could wait...but I'm a college student and only would only be under my
>parents insurance for another year so I didn't want to wait so he
>decided to do it. I had the surgery and they found that I did not have
>endometriosis, but I had adhesions instead wrapped around my bowel,
>ovaries, and large intestine...for about two months after the surgery it
>was great, the pain I had felt for years was gone...but now it's six
>months later and for the past three to four months I've been
>experiencing the pain again...it wasn't so bad at first, but now it's
>just as bad, if not worse, than it used to be. Can adhesions grow back
>that fast? And all of my symptoms are idendical to those of
>endometriosis, so is there a chance I have that even though my last
>surgery said no? I'm so sick of being in pain and I was just hoping that
>someone would maybe be able to relate to my situation and give me some
>advice...thanks!
Hi-Yes adhesions can grow back that fast. They usually form within a
week of surgery. & if you do have endo (which is one of the top causes
of adhesions besides surgery & infection) it causes more adhesions every
month during your
period when the uterine lining sheds. It does depend on what stage of
endo though. Anyway, I've always had terrible periods. But I had
REALLY bad pain RIGHT after my c-sec in '99 to this day. I had all
sorts of tests & everyone thought it was my gall bladdar. Finally I
asked my dr about a laparoscopy. He found a lot of very dense
adhesions. So many he couldn't get the scope in very
far to see anything else. He cleaned out what he could. So we're ttc
this whole time again & I get pg & have a mc, then still more pain. Dr
says a
laparotomy is what we should do (a surgery like a c-sec) He finds more
dense adhesions wrapped around both ovaries, my liver & pretty much
everything else. & he finds a SEVERE case of endo too!! So yes, you
could still have endo, but it could be in what dr's call the cul-de-sac
behind the uterus by the rectum & if adhesions are dense enought it may
be hard to see. I hope this helps a little bit. I got pg 4 mths after
that surgery & I feel pretty good right now, but I'm only 10 wks along.
Email me if you have any questions & good luck!!
Amanda