Re: Adhesionalysis Surgery & surgeons
From: Christine M. Smith (smithy@maine.rr.com)
Mon Nov 15 16:30:02 1999
At Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Beverly J. Doucette wrote:
>
>Peggy & Theresa and all:
>
>I can understand your enthuseasm about finding a surgeon who can deal
>with adhesions, or who is willing to an adhesionalysis..and it would be
>great if he too can do an adhesionalysis with a cure...never have heard
>that to date.
>
>That is the miracle we all are looking for...BUT here are a few things
>to think about and to ask about regarding him and to him..ok?
>It is so important that when you elect to have another adhesionalysis,
>that
>you be given the best chance for a
>" full " recovery as possible today! Even though those of us who had
>surgery
>under Dr. Reich don't know how the outcome will be, but we do know his
>reputation for having a higher percentage of non reforming
>adhesions...and
>that gives him the edge on adhesionalysis surgery.
>
> That will bring me to our first point with this other surgeon...need
>name so we can check him out further. Do not feel as though you " owe "
>him
>your total allegence for fear he will not accept you as a patient. Never
>comprimise your needs for that...you must ultimatly be the one to find
>out
>EVERYTHING that you can about him and his procedure, experience in that
>procedure and references for it! Get his name and do a bit of
>tracking on him..ok?
>
>Next...you need to get his adhesionalysis procedure in writing. We need
>to
>see what is procedure includes that offer you something different then
>any
>other surgeon....you will be able to see that in the videos I am sending
>you! Go back into the IAS postings of June and read or print out my
>descrition of Dr. Reich's theory as to why adhesions reforem and why he
>does
>what he does in his surgery to decrease that from happenning...YOU must
>be
>knowledgable in all this in order to be able to know how good this new
>surgeon is....it is all up to you!
>Dr. Reich offers his procedure for review as this will give you the
>opportunity to know just what he does and has done in the past. next
>you ask
>for a contact of another adhesion patient who HAS had his procedure
>done...I
>communicated with a woman who had her surgey under Dr. Reich a year
>before
>mine...it was a great way to learn about the surgery, DR. reich himself
>and
>I still keep in touch just to track her recovery, which is one year
>ahead of
>mine. You must also discuss with him how many laporoscopic
>adhesionalysis
>surgery's he does in a year, what is his track record for success with
>these
>surgeery's, and how DOES he track those results. Will he video the
>surgery?
>
>If you think that you will offend him, or intimidate him by doing any of
>this, then your with the wrong surgeon to begin with..this is not only
>YOUR
>body, but your LIFE!! You want to make darn sure YOU have all bases
>covered before you go into any surgery this time. This time IS different
>because now you do know what to ask your Dr. You do know much more
>about your disorder and you do know the repercussions of going into an
>adhesionalysis to quickly...think of what has happened to you in the
>past!
>
>I know you just want to feel better...but is that going to be at the
>risk of
>getting worse in the future..NO! You are going to take control of your
>medical care yourself this time....as you want this time to offer you
>the
>best you can get with having adhesion disorder!!
>
>If this surgeon is for real and offers hope to those of us who suffer
>adhesion disorder, then we are another step ahead, ..do a good job
>tracking these Dr.'s and you may just be opening another door for
>yourself as
>well as others!!
>I have heard the claim that Dr. Semertzides has a good reputation
>dealing with adhesions, but have never heard it from a patients of his
>who has actually had any adhesionalysis done by him. Again, one would
>want to gather as much information on the surgeon and his procedure and
>statistics of success before agreeing to any further adhesion
>surgery...unless it doesn't make any differnece to really know about
>that surgeon and instead, just have surgery after surgery until you
>cannot have any more at all. Check out everything for yourself and take
>responsibility for your own future. You already have adhesion disorder,
>doesn't mean you have to make it worse beacuase of desperation and
>sufferring...not when you KNOW it could just be making things worse!
>
>If you have never SEEN abdominal / pelvic adhesions for yourself ( and
>most of you have not I think ) then let me know and I'll send you my own
>surgery and operative reports to study..free of charge! bnb@cybrzn.com
>Then decide just how YOUR going to handle YOUR case!
>
>Just because you have agreed to a surgery doesn't mean you cannot put it
>on hold until you are better educated and have a better chance to know
>just what IS best for you!
> Best of luck! Beverly
Hi!
I don't think you can really say there has never been an adhesionalysis
that cured adhesions. I personally know of one person who had surgery,
had an ileus post op, one week later opened up and was covered with
adhesions. They were lysed and she never had a problem again. Now its
true that unless they looked again there is no way for sure to know if
they hadn't reformed, but since she never had pain again I don't think
its too outrageous to say that perhaps the adhesions didn't reform.
I know in my own personal case, the adhesion lysed during my first
adhesionalysis had not reformed by 6 months. It doesn't matter if it
never caused my pain, that is besides the point. The truth is that it
didn't reform. So I would say that was a successful adhesionalysis. A
small one I agree.
I'm sure any surgeon could give you success stories as well as failures.
I know my surgeon, when I asked if these were ever successful, said
"Sure. Why else would we keep doing them? At least I hope we wouldn't
keep doing them." I think he was honest.
Just remember that the majority of people who have a successful
adhesionalysis don't hang around support forums!
Chris S.