Hi Wendy, I am also looking for any self-help group available anywhere in Aus as I am willing to keep in touch via e-mails. I live in Perth, Western Australia and have been enduring the constant pain of adhesions since my last abdominal surgery for bowel blockage in Nov 2007. It was a traumatic time as I landed up having 2 very big ops which kept me in ICU and hospital for almost 5 weeks! It is definitely something I do not wish to revisit anytime soon! I have a wonderful support group in my family, GP, Pain Specialist (Public), Psychologist and Surgeon. Everyday is a hard road but I learning and adapting to strategies to help me cope and move on. My adhesions are a result of 23 ops (laparotomies & laparoscopies) for endometriosis. The last they told me was they (adhesions) were so extensive that they could only deal with the immediate issue of the blockage (in the fist op) and the dying bits of bowel (inthe 2nd. op a week later) and had to leave the rest as it was due to the problem of not being able to identify bowel from other organs and my pelvic wall. At the 2nd. op they decided to put in a by-pass which my new surgeon and another have concurred was a bad idea. But I'm not ready yet to let anyone go back in even to recitfy that! The agony and trauma of those 5 weeks are still so fresh in my mind that the thought of experiencing anything even minutely similar terrifies me!
It would be good if some group could be established here in Aus to offer help and support to the many sufferers just here in Aus. It would also open up a much needed forum for others to obtain information regarding help in any area, regarding medical, physical, emotionl and spiritual help, that others have been able to garner. I sincerely hope that maybe both our e-mails might reach many more Aussie sufferers who will then reach out and make this happen.
Regards Alice
> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 11:57:31 -0600
> From: tracy.joslin@adhesions.org
> To: adhesions@mail.medispecialty.com
> Subject: Australia
>
> Sender: wndyb72@yahoo.com.au (Wendy)
> Subject: Australia
>
> Hi,
> I will be having my second laprascopy for adhesions in about 6 weeks. It
> will my fifth lap, with an abdominal hysterectomy and oophorectomy thrown
in
> after my third lap. My doctors and surgeons have decided they will keep
> giving me laps to release them if that is what they must do.
> I have always found forums and chat sites a large part of my healing and
> coping (especially when dealing with my endometriosis), but cannot find
> anything here in Australia (I live in Frankston which is not far from
> Melbourne, Victoria). Does anyone know a group, or even a clinic in
> Melbourne or Frankston or even Geelong who I can get in touch with?
> Regards,
> Wendy
>