Re: Adhesions after colectomy. (Please help)!
From: MGM (schempster@hotmail.com)
Sat Sep 4 20:08:55 2010
My daughter now 12 has had 3 operations over the last 3 years (the last
one being last week) to remove adhesions that have caused blockage in
her small intestine's. The first blockage from adhesions came 2 weeks
after she needed emergency surgery to correct a condition called meckles
diverticulitis (doctors basically took 6 inches out of her large
intestine and spliced the ends together because of a blockage). The
blockages that are caused by adhesions are very treatable that's the
good news. The bad news is they don't show up on xrays or MRI's and
usually requires surgery to cut and/or remove the adhesion, which in
turn increases the likelihood of getting more adhesion. That is the
hideous aspect of adhesion; the correction causes more of them. I am
not a doctor, but from what you have scribed it does not sound as if
your husband has intestinal adhesions. I say this only because a
blockage is extremely painful (doubled over painful) and usually is
accompanied by no farting, no bowel movements, nausea and/or vomiting
without a fever. (Digestive gases and contains have to escape and if
they are not going out the other end.well you get the picture I am
sure). The pain also ebbs and flows, not a constant pain but a very
sharp attacking pain that subsides and then comes back again. If your
husband has these symptoms then I would say he has a blockage. What it
sounds like to me is he might have adhesions that have attached to other
organs i.e. kidney, stomach etc. The pain comes from the organs
inability to move freely which causes the pain. The reason the
intestinal blockage are so painful is that your intestines move around
quite a bit and then have a tendency to wrap around its self causing the
blockage. I hope this has helped, feel free to ask any other questions
you might have.
At Sat, 28 Aug 2010, Tiggy wrote:
>
>To make a long story short, yesterday my husband was sent home from his
>work because he was having a dull, niggling pain that was focused in his
>lower back on one side, just above the hip bone. The discomfort was
>also in the front of his body, to a lesser degree. We were worried it
>might be kidney related (he has a history of kidney stones), so he ended
>up in the ER because our primary physician wasn't available. After many
>blood tests, urine samples, and abdominal x-rays, it was determined that
>there was "nothing wrong with him." The ER doctor seemed competant, and
>she assured us that all emergency conditions had been ruled out. We
>enquired about possible obstructions, kidney stones, hernias, etc, and
>she said that there was no indication that any of those issues were
>apparent.
>
>The doctor did mention that my husband might have some abdominal
>adhesions as a result of the colectomy he underwent a little over a year
>ago. When I got home, I did some reading online about adhesions, and
>learned that these are a very common effect of open abdominal surgery.
>