gas or bowel obstruction?

I haven't posted here but got alot of support for my surgery just from reading. Had my surgery 4/19. Lavh. Had them take my ovaries too. Huge multiple fibroids etc. My question is: I am 9 days post-op and still having gas pains and a pain in my left side with it. I am taking gas-x, acidopholous, and a little motrin. I feel great otherwise. How do I know it's just gas and not a bowel obstruction or an adhesion or something. Is this normal. Everything is healing fine. I am able to go to bathroom, passing wind isn't easy , sometimes after having normal bathroom function I have the diarrhea. I don't want to go off the deep end here on this. Don't know when to be alarmed. Please let me know what you think! Thanks everyone in advance.

You probably need to check with your dr about this, I don't know symptoms of adhesions, but any marked change in bowel habits needs to be assessed by a Dr. I'm 7 days postop, and the gas is still hard for me to pass. I find lying on my stomach is just about the only way for me to make it easier. I also take Gas-x if I get too bad.

Anise worked fine for me, it comes in tea bags I think is the best thing for gas.

Well thanks for the info. When I told my Dr. about it 4 days post op he just said that it takes the bowels time to find their new home and they are touchy. He said sometimes it takes weeks. Is anyone else experiencing anything like this? What could it be? Geez I don't want to panic. Thanks for the feed back.

Hi - had my surgery on 4/20 - and I also have gas pains. I'm doing my bathroom "duty" fine . . . but I'll feel pain from gas at different times during the day. Like you, I hope it goes away soon . . . I'm just trying to eat well, and avoid soda and other obviously gassy stuff. (Well . . I did eat some brussel sprouts for dinner . but they were prepared for me, and I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth lol:

Thanks again everyone for getting back to me on this. How in the world would we get through this otherwise? So many unknowns. We would be burning down the telephone lines to our doctors without this site. I am so grateful to all I have learned here. It gave me the courage to finally go through with the surgery and now I am getting support in my recovery when I am so alone. I have no friends in this area as I am a transplant and stopped working due to Rheumatiod arthritis. It keeps me out of touch with people. Now that the arthritis is under control and when this is behind me I may just go back to work as I feel so isolated. My husband is great support but there is nothing like "girlfriends"
Thanks a million and I wish for everyone a speedy recovery. Heads held high and ready to face anything!

Wow, I wondered why the gas was SO horrendous after this surgery.
I was so embarrassed when I had a couple of girl friends over to visit about a week after my surgery... It was coming about every 10 minutes or less. I was almost in tears because it hurt and I couldn't easily expell it, (Swelling?) I must have gotten up and left the room 15 times, when my best friend says, "Cathy, just let it go... it can't be good for you to get up and down a million times so soon". I had really wanted them to leave, but how do you say that? So they both start encouraging me to just relax and let it go, pretty soon, they are trying to do the same to help me feel better! We were laughing like a group of adolescent boys at camp!!(Which hurt too...)
Now it's funny, but the gas went on for days... didn't seem to matter what I ate or didn't eat and all the simethicone in the world didn't touch it. Could this be from the bowel, "finding it's new home"?
I am a little over a month past surgery date and I still have a little more gas than I used to, but it isn't as hard to expell. I am taking acidopholus and enzymes with my meals. I take two doses of citracil a day (not supposed to cause gas) and still take 2 TBL. of M.O.M. to keep my bowel soft. I don't feel as if I could push at all yet if I got too bound up. Constipation was my biggest problem before my surgery, I am still convinced that my prolapse problems wouldn't have been such an issue if I hadn't spent so much time trying to clear my rectocele before I knew what it was. So I am nervous about stopping the Milk of Magnesia, but sooo tired of it... anyone have similar experiences?

I had my TAH March 2nd, going to be 2 month now and I still have gas in the middle of the night I get a pain in my back that I know is gas pains. I still have problems with BM taking citrucel and lots of water and still constipated. I have to say that I feel better now than before surgery, at least I don't have all that weight aches and pains inside of me. No sex yet, I am kind of worry and nervous about that I'm afraid I am going to start bleeding I've had no bleeding yet since my TAH I hate to risk it. Anybody had sex at 8 weeks? and how did it go.

even at 6 weeks tomorrow I am still windier than I used to be!

If you are passing gas and your intestines are noisy this is a good indication that you don't have a blockage

(sadly my mum died of a bowel blockage which ruptured) Her symptoms were like a severe stomach bug with vomiting and diarrhoea - so I used to panic every time one of the family came down with a rota virus - the doc told me to listen to my kids tummies - if they were rumbly all was welll.

Hope this helps - you're symptoms sound normal -though there's nothing quite like hearing it from your surgeon to put your mind at rest.

Take care

Chicky

No sex with penetration here yet at about 5 wks, although last night was my DsweetH and my 14 yr anniversary. We played around and tested my responses... (I had the ok from the doc) I had read some things that some women had felt as if their responses were dulled, and some no longer experienced orgasm. This had worried me, but my doctor said that he had not had patients complain of it, excluding some with nerve damage. I was very happy to find out that everything still felt just as nice without my uterus! YEAH!!! (I actually think the extra blood flow helped with my healing a little!)

Cathy