I have had several abdominal surgeries, all related to ulcerative
colitis and then an ileostomy over 20 years, and over the last two years
have had trouble with adhesions. Finally, my surgeon felt it was time
to remove them and in late January, he performed a laparatomy for
"extensive intra-abdominal adhesions." I recovered well, but not long
after I started developing pain much lower than where the pain had been
before the surgery. The doctor believes that while he removed the
adhesions that caused the initial pain, he also removed some that did
not, but now these have begun to grow as well (around my bladder) with
some significant pain as a result. The situation is worse in many ways
than before (the pain is certainly more intense than before the surgery)
and the surgeon is very reluctant to go in again because the situation
could become even worse. So my doctor has set me up with pain
management. I really have no idea what to expect, except that for now,
my GP has given me Ultram to keep it under control and Lortab (which
sometimes give me terrible headaches) for the times when it gets really
bad. Those prescriptions will run out soon so that the pain management
doctor and figure out how to proceed. Does anyone have any advice on
this? I know very little about treatment options, but thought some of
you may be in a similar situation and already know what works well. Any
advice would really be great!