What do adhesions feel like?

I am 5 months post-op and am having some moderate to severe pains in the area where I had all the problems with my right ovary. So of course I immediately begin to think of the worst. And knowing that so many of you wonderful women here have had to deal with post-op adhesions, I figured I could get some answers here.

I should mention that mild adhesions were found during the hyst, but the only other ab surgery I have ever had was my appendix about 3 years ago now.

So...what do adhesions feel like when you are beginning to get pains from them?

Thank you so much for all your help.

Blessings,
Paula

Hi free I am wondering the same thing.....I had a TAH March 21 kept ovaries but am now having some of the same pains as I was having before...I am actually seeing my dr. on Mon....-so hopefully I will be able to get some answers.....

When I had both of my surgeries in May for suspected endrometriosis and in August for hyster and removal of ovary I had tons of adhesions. Both doctors said that my insides looked like cobwebs! It was explained to me that it was like having a tight rubberband connecting to other tissues and instead of everything in your abdomen being free flowing and moving around each other they pull on each other and sometimes (not all of the time) cause pain. My left ovary went missing because it was stuck under an adhesion. My bowels finally are performing at tip top shape because they are not knotted up by adhesions! yeah! no more tummy popping. Anyway, please check with your doctor for what is normal for you. It may not be adhesions because I was full of them and the only ones that bothered me were the bowel, bladder and ovarian adhesions.:O

*hugs*

I got to see pics of my adhesions. They look like the insides of a pumpkin.....only red. I'm no longer fond of pumpkin carving.....it's just "too personal" now. LOL!

I had a cyst on my ovary that was blood filled. I had no idea. It popped. The leaking blood caused the adhesions.

For me it was pain where my ovary was. Then it got worse. Much worse. NOthing made it go away ( go figger).

By the time I got seen for it all the adhesions had glued together my ovary to my tube, my tube to my uterus, part of my uterus to my abdominal wall, my bowels to each other, the uterus and abdominal wall.

Needless to say walking, moving and perfoming natural functions were no easy tasks......

I never really "felt" the adhesions. It's not like you can feel them growing and stitching things together. What I felt was the pain. The pain got worse and spread. Nothing I did helped it. I had to go in several times to the ER. Then the doc. Then a specialist. It was pretty bad by the time they got to it.

If you are in pain and are concerned definately go see your doc. Better to nip this problem in the bud, whatever it is.

*hugs*

-LBS

littlebluspider. You and I must be related somehow. I'm 42 and been suffering w/adhesions since I had my c-section when I was 17. It's been VERY frustrating because they cannot detect adhesions w/any type of imaging (so I'm told). I just now found out about all of the problems and why I have been suffering for so long. I also just recently found out that my grandmother died of an obstructed bowel from adhesions. I wonder if they have found any genetic links in families that make certain people more subscebtible? I feel nothing but compassion for you. It is an awful thing to live through. And to try to get a doc to take the pain your having seriously is sometimes frustrating. I have a friend who has since passed that worked for a pharmaceutical company observing how certain drugs worked during surgery. He alway said "that's why they call them practitioners. They're practicing on you". He was a wise man.

So does it start at first feeling like a tight muscle?

That was how my pain before started. But I had numerous hemorrhagic cysts over the years, and in the last year I attributed the pain to those alone. Maybe I was feeling some of the previous adhesions and didn't know it.

I had more adhesions than either one of the two doctors that have been in practice for over 20 years had ever seen so I'll try to remember how it feels. I've lived with the feeling so long it becomes second nature. I had to urinate a lot because the bladder was connected to everything and when I moved the adhesions would pull against it in an opposite direction creating a sudden urge. I had explosive tummy problems. It sounded like a popcorn machine and it hurt every time that I ate because as the food was passing through the adhesions were pulling. Five years ago I had surgery for an umbilical hernia and the scar tissue created an obvious lump. I always thought it was because of the surgery itself. Nope more adhesions. When I had intercourse (can I say that on this site?) I had a lot of pain because my uterus was pulling against everything else because it was contracting(makes it difficult for a relationship, so am single). I had smiley shaped pain from one ovary over to the other ovary. It felt like IBS pain, stabbing like a knife going in to you because one ovary was smashed flat against my abdominal wall by adhesion and the other connected to my bowel. However, they have to put you through a battery of tests to find out if it is something else. And the only way to find out if it is adhesions again is laprascopically. So I hope this helps. To sum it up everything just pulls against everything else so there may be pain or just a dull uncomfortable feeling. My feeling from the doc's is a lot of them don't think about adhesions and pain relation. There are sites on the internet that have support groups strictly for adhesions too.

For me it was like this.....

One day I am fine and chillin with my b/f and friend. Then I felt sick.
I knew what it was (but I was dumb). For some reason I was bleeding inside ( I had experienced this once before when shortly after my tubal one of my tubes ruptured.....internal bleeding makes you sick in a way you do not forget).

I could na figger why I would be bleeding inside and was loathe to go to the ER ( "Hi yeah I am a fairly healthy young female who was doing absolutely nothing strenuous and now I am bleeding inside. I need to be seen now please") I should have gone in. I didna for another two days.

And that is where it began.

First it felt like a tight stabby pain round about where my ovary was. NoOoOoO biggy. Rahoulio ( the right ovary) likes to act up so no probs. I will just ignore it right?

Then my pelvic floor felt "heavy". When I say pelvic floor I meen the bottom of your bottom. Like the very most bottom part of you. It felt like it was filled with lead. Made it VERY uncomfortable.

Soon uncomfortable meant I couldn't really sit or stand or walk. Curled on my side in a semi fetal position was the closest thing to comfort. This was not going to happen as I had to go to work.

Yup. In between ER visits I was still trying to work. Can you say stubborn? LOL!

Now everything was killing me. A car ride meant I could feel every bump, rock and crack on the road. The pain would ripple through that lead feeling achey area all the way up to Rahoulio who would scream in pain at me.

By now using the bathroom was a tear inducing ordeal. Just thinking about a BM made me hurt.

The pain was all throughout my pelvic area, the sharpest being my ovary. The rest of it was dull, heavy, uncomfortable and achey.

When I saw the specialist apparently I had a cervical infection too ( which the ER docs neglected to mention or fix) so that compounded things.

She set me on pain killers and antibiotics for the infection and another medication for this gigantor cyst they found on Rahoulio.

Three days later I was in the worst pain of my life even though the infection was gone and the gigantor cyst had packed its bags. Thats when they did the exploratory surgery.

I don't know if that helps any. Basically the pain was sharp and pulling for me where my ovary was and just terribly dull, heavy and achey in the lower regions.

*hugs*

-LBS

Thank you so much for your detailed descriptions. I think I may need a once-over to see if it may be something else.

However, since I am in pain in spite of twice daily doses of 20mg Oxycontin for my Fibromyalgia pain, I think something is definitely not right. Not to mention the fact that here I sit wide awake after a horrifically busy day, and Elavil and Neurontin for sleep, and it is now 1:13 am!

Thanks again for your input. I truly appreciate it.

Blessings,
Paula