Mom's third small bowel obstruction after hysterectomy
From: John (johnabcd@email.com)
Tue Sep 7 09:25:35 1999
My 73 year old mother went back to the hospital this weekend with the
same unpleasant symptoms of small bowel obstruction (SBO) ... bloating,
vomiting and intestinal pain. She had a hysterectomy (due to uterine
cancer) about five years ago and the first SBO occurred about a year
ago. They put a tube
down her nose to draw off the fluids and hope that the obstruction would
clear itself. When it didn't, and xrays confirmed it was getting worse,
she went in for surgery. The surgeon opened her up, saw the adhesion,
snipped it and closed her in a quick operation that nevertheless was
hard on mom. The second SBO occured this spring , but this time the
surgeon did a thorough job of clearing out any adhesions or potential
adhesions that he saw. Unfortunately, four months later, the xrays show
another blockage and, if it doesn't improve with the nose tube (NG
tube), there may be another surgery. These surgeries have been hard on
my mom, and she worries that she hasn't built up her strength enough
after the last surgery to handle another one.
It sounds like each surgery is irritating her intestines enough to set
the stage for the next adhesion. Is there any way to break out of this
vicious circle? I've read that adhesion can sometimes be caused by a
reaction to the talc on the outside of surgical gloves. I've read about
adhesions being more common when the peritoneum isn't sutured (not sure
what this means). And I've read about the new barriers such as
suprafilm (but don't know if these are available in Canada). I've also
been reading about diet and wonder if mom should be on a low-fibre,
low-residue diet (which if I understand it, means no fruits, vegatables
or whole grains).
Any advice would be appreciated.
--
John