Denial & Ignorance - PREVENT people from making wise decisions!!!!!

From: Helen Dynda (olddad66@runestone.net)
Tue Sep 14 17:10:49 1999


I am sorry if someone was offended by my message, which I titled "Adhesions." My adhesions message WAS NOT written in response to the preceding post.!!!!

** The intent of my "Adhesions" message is to call attention to the consequences, which can happen, when a person does not act in a timely manner to get appropriate professional help for serious symptoms.

** The intent of my message is a warning to people as to what can happen when people deny serious symptoms, such as rectal bleeding. This denial prevents them from making an appointment with their doctors as soon as possible to have appropriate tests done.

** The intent of my message is to tell people how important it is to learn everything you can about your health problem(s). If you are having scarey symptoms, DO NOT IGNORE THEM - make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible!!

Yes, DENIAL is perhaps a better title for my message. My husband's DENIAL prevented him from going to the doctor much sooner than he did.

Also, DENIAL may have had a hand in preventing me from even thinking that adhesions could also be my husband's problem - until about a week ago. Then, for the very first time, I sat down with and told him that I am almost positive that he must have developed adhesions following his surgery in 1989.

This was the very first time that we talked about it together - 10 years after his surgery!! DENIAL!!!!!!!!!!!

If you were offended by my message, I am sorry. Some day we all need to face the truth of our situation - and this was my way of coming to terms with the truth of my/our situation.

Re: Adhesions

At Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Helen Dynda wrote: >
>My husband became the victim of cancer in 1989. He had been having
>rectal bleeding problems for some time; but would not go to the doctor.
>Research has taught me that this is typical of men - to resist going to
>the doctor when they have medical problems.
>
>When he finally went to the doctor to find out why he was having rectal
>bleeding, he was quickly admitted to the hospital for tests and then
>just as quickly to be scheduled for and to have surgery.
>
>What was the result of his surgery? He had a malignant tumor the size of
>a tennis ball in his colon !! Yes, I said the size of a tennis ball !!
>He had to have most of his colon surgically removed - as a result of his
>delay in going to the doctor.
>
>Ten days after my husband's surgery, I received a phone call from his
>surgeon - after 9 PM that night!! The surgeon told me that I needed to
>come to the hospital so that I could give my permission for my husband
>to undergo emergency surgery that night.
>
>I had been to see my husband that same afternoon. While I was there, I
>watched as a nurse attended to the drainage tube which was in his
>abdomen. I noticed that the liquid draining through that tube was not
>clear, but rather a light tan in color. I wondered if that was okay;
>but not being a very assertive person at that time, I did not question
>anybody about it.
>
>It was not okay!!! The 9 PM call from his surgeon was an emergency call
>!!
>
>The surgeon located and repaired the leak which had developed from my
>husband's first surgery. Then the surgeon fashioned an external outlet
>for the colon, known as a colostomy: He made an opening in the remaining
>healthy colon and then brought this to the surface of my husband's
>abdomen - where the surgeon created an external outlet for the
>elimination of body wastes.
>
>Following his release from the hospital (he was in the hospital for 5
>weeks), he had to have a colonoscopy done every month for 6 months. Six
>months later the surgeon reconnected my husband's colon. That was in
>1989! Since then he has to have colonoscopies, as scheduled by his
>surgeon. He is due for another colonscopy in October - almost two years
>have gone by since his last colonoscopy.
>
>Ten years have gone by without a reoccurence of cancer. But they have
>not been quality years!!!!!!!! My husband has experienced pain ever
>since those two surgeries - with the pain being the worst whenever he
>has to eliminate body wastes following a meal. Since he lost most of
>his colon as a result of cancer, he has also lost the storage ability of
>the colon - which is the purpose of the colon.
>
>As the result of losing most of his colon, he better be near a bathroom
>whenever he eats a meal !! This is the time when I can tell that he is
>in a lot of pain! Consequently, eating - at home or away from home -
>gives him no pleasure.
>
>It never occurred to me until about a week ago (10 years later) that he
>might be a victim of adhesions too! The more I read about adhesions I am
>now almost sure that adhesions are causing his daily pain. I would
>never have made this connection if I had not decided to do research on
>adhesions.
>
>I have read that some women have what is known a "frozen pelvic" or a
>"concrete stomach" - as a result of adhesions. Our intestines are meant
>to move freely and cannot do this when adhesions are involved.
>
>I encourage each one of you to educate yourself about your particular
>adhesion problem. When we can understand why we are hurting, we no
>longer need to be anxious about our adhesion problem. We can then focus
>more on what we can do to help ourselves live more comfortably in spite
>of our pain. A decision to give a pain clinic a chance to help us, can
>be the first step toward bringing our chronic pain down to a level that
>we can be able live with more comfortably.
>
>--
>The purpose of medicine is: * To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always. *
>


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