Living with Adhesions

I just found out that I have adhesions. More specifically (and in plain english since I don't have my surgical report yet) my left ovary is adhered to the uterine wall which in turn is stuck to a part of the colon! eeeeek!

I have been living with this for about 18 months or so. It really flared up around the holidays and drove me into further testing and eventually to a diagnositic Lap. last week. It's painful. I can actually feel that ovary "throbbing". Motrin helps a little. The vicodin that was prescribed post-op helped a little, but it NEVER goes away.

My OBG Doc will order a barium enema and maybe a scope. She also said that if it is surgically addressed it will be an abdominal incision and possibly result in colon restructuring and the potential loss of that ovary. In other words, major surgery.

I have read 100's of messages here about the horrible pain and discomfort that many of you have experienced and frankly I'm deeply humbled. I'm just beginning to have chronic pain, of course I want to get rid of it, but I'm not sure if the major surgery is the route to go now? or, maybe I'm just kidding myself?


Any hints for exercises, foods, herbs, alternative routes to help this?



Cindy

P.S. I'm not sure if this question is appropriate for the "pre-op" board, but I'm hoping to find some of you that have confronted this issue and maybe found some relief, even if temporary.

Hi Cindy,

If adhesions are the problem I don't know of any way to release them except surgery. I had almost exactly what you are describing and I wish I could be more optimistic for you but I ended up having the ovary and the tube removed, but it was not that bad of a surgery and recovery took only about 2 weeks, and the best part was that I never noticed any change in my body once that the ovary was gone. The right ovary picked-up the slack and made up the difference. I never regreted doing it. There is no reason to live with that kind of pain if you have an option to get rid of it.

Have you thought of getting a second opinion? I had very thick adhesions and they were able to do mine laparscopically. You might find a doctor who is willing to try this approach and switch to a abdominal incision only if necessary. A scope is so much easier on you that open surgery, plus I learned from experience that adhesions will regrow if they are cut off, so try to find a doctor that uses a lazer to zap them. I had mine cut off once and they came back, the second doctor used the lazer and they have not returned. If you have any other questions let me know, unfortunately, I'm an old pro at this. Kathy

I can't help out too much as I didn't know I had adhesions until after my surgery. I had a number of things going on but fortunately was not having any pain either.
It is a big decision and a 2nd or 3rd opinon is always valuable. It is good to be confident that you are making the right decision.
Here is our link to Options and Alternatives. There may be someone there that can give you some additional advice.
https://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/for....php?forumid=4
FYI-you may want to change your surgery date in your profile to N/A. As the date we list there usually refers to our hysterectomy date and may be confusing to some of the women who would like to respond to you.

Hey Cindy,

I have adhesions, too. My rt ovary is glued to my uterus. My bowels are glued to everything else, and I have a big piece of tissue stretching across my abdomen that has been there for who knows how long... My dr told me that it is like a tent pole; if you try to pull on one line, the rest of the tent moves. He also compared it to a bowl of spagetti noodles; they should move independantly of each other but the adhesions is like pouring glue on the noodles so that if you try to move one, the rest come with it. That is why I am having a TAH.

The dr also told me that endo, which is causing my adhesions, has a tendancy to nucleate at the ovaries. That is why I am having the BSO. He is also putting me on Lupron post-op to shrink any endo tissue that is being left-over. Hopefully, this will put it into "remission." Endo has a nasty habit of growing back. Who knows, maybe I will be having adhesions removed again in another year?!

I figure, the best method is the preventative method...no more endo, no more adhesions, no more pain.

You are right though, my pain is just becoming chronic; it is not as bad as some of the stories I have heard.

Good luck with your decision. I will send you my prayers and good wishes!

Adhesions are rough. I had them for around 8 years (thank you, endo). When I had my TAH/BSO, they found both ovaries adhered to my uterus. If you don't get them taken care of, it can and probably will become more painful - I know mine did.

They do have things like laps, etc that they can do, it sounds like you have more problems than just adhesions though (icky sticky goo). Talk it over and make sure there won't be any regrets, it's not reversible!!

Thank you so much for all of the information. I have alot of Dr. appts lined up in the coming weeks and I'll be sure to get some more opinions.

I'm in my 6th post-op day from the gallbladder surgery and the thought of inflicting more "recovery" weeks are depressing-BUT if that's what it will take to feel "normal" again-then bring it on!...I'm sorta wishing I had given the Doc carte blanche last week (squawk)....

KathySue, you are right, there's no need to be in pain!

Thanks again!....I'm getting addicted to this site, what a fabulous resource!

Cindy