At Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Christine M. Smith wrote:
>Hi Gina:
>If it makes you feel any better, and I hope it does, there are no
>guarantees from any of the adhesion barriers. They work for some people
>and not for others. Just the way some people get adhesions after
>surgery and some don't. My surgeon told me that and people on this
>forum have had barriers that didn't work. I am sure my surgeon got his
>opinion from going in and seeing adhesions in people who had barriers
>used previously on them.
>Also, my surgeon operated on me just because it hurt. There was no
>other reason, I had no sign of obstructions or complaints in the area of
>bowel function. It had only been 6 months since the first lap and he
>knew there were other adhesions. But he didn't brush me off and say
>that surgery for adhesions doesn't work. (and as far as we knew at that
>point, my first surgery didn't work because I was complaining about the
>same exact pain.) What he did say was that there were no guarantees and
>that I could even be worse after the surgery. When I asked him if this
>was ever successful he said "sure, or else we wouldn't keep trying, or
>at least I hope we wouldn't keep trying" Gyns who do infertility surgery
>do repeat surgery all the time. But I think you are right there in that
>the difference is the goal-it is not pain control, but pregnancy. And
>most infertility patients would risk future pain to become pregnant.
>I also worried about the post-op period, especially after the second
>lap. Should I be active or restrict my activities? There is no
>guarantee that exercise right after the surgery works, but I agree, its
>something to try. Dr. Bradley wrote on the ob-gyn website that he has
>his patients doing side roles etc. every 15 minutes as soon as they
>return from the recovery room. I worried like you, when I restricted my
>activities, would I just be letting the adhesions solidify. Well, what
>about when you are asleep? Any good you did by exercising in the day
>could easily be negated by 8 hours of relative inactivity during the
>night. I think if adhesions are going to form, they are going to form
>and there isn't a whole lot you can do on your part. There is also some
>thought on presribing large doses of anti-inflammtories post op to cut
>down on inflammation.
>I think that at 5 weeks you are still in the recovery period, even
>though it was a laparoscopy. You had major work done. I wonder if
>those friends and family who tell you that exercise is the best thing
>for adhesions have any experience themselves with adhesions? If my
>problem is adhesions, then exercise made the pain much worse. If it
>isn't adhesions it also made my problem much worse so I guess you can
>tell what I think about exercise!!!:< P I'm talking about strenuous,
>high impact stuff, not necessarily walking or most household activities.
>
>Chris S.