Any successful Adhesion surgeries out there?

Hey, ladies.

Looks like I'm going back in for day surgery (hopefully!) for adhesions on August 25. I am sooooo nervous about it. I felt pulling and tugging fairly soon after my TAH/BSO in January and every now and then they'll subside but my gyne says it's time to do laparoscopic surgery to take care of them. I told her I now feel a pulling pain behind my belly button and she immediately made a note in the chart to use a particular instrument to cut through the navel and insert the scope, rather than whatever the normal procedure is. She told me that with a laparoscope, they generally enter into the abdomen blindly (isn't that scary?) until they can see what's on camera and she wants to minimize risk of damage to other areas (I guess the bowel from some of the postings I'm seeing). After reading some of the posts here about perforations to the bowel and more stays in the castle I'm almost paralyzed with dread. I had such a hard time with my hyst (9 days in the castle, ileus, NG tube, and now adhesions!) that I can't stand to think of that happening again. The problem is that not having the surgery doesn't feel good either because there are days that I'm miserable! Bottom line is that I know about the stuff that can happen - is there anyone out there who can tell me they've had successful adhesion surgery? Just because I've likely got adhesions attached behind my belly button - does that mean an automatic perforation of the bowel? The other thing I wanted to mention is that I asked my gyne if she has any information on why women get swelly belly (mine still swells and it seems like it's worse when I'm having pain from these adhesions) and she said no. She acted like she'd never heard about swelly belly before! How is that? There are so many women I've seen on this site that still experience swelly belly up to a year out! Anyway, thanks for listening. As you can tell with my rambling, my thinking is quite distorted right now.

My dr said the swelly belly was due to the inflammations created by all the stitches we've had to have. Blood and fluid rushes to the inflamed sites to help in the healing process. Made sense to me.........

As far as the adhesions, I too had mega issues with it, my dr commented that it took an extra hour to do the surgery because of what what left behind after my two c sections. He said he was taught not to distrupt what was there, but to work around them to avoid any future issues.

I asked about future problems, and he said he didn't see why if what has been there hasn't been bothering me to date. I guess different dr's do the surgery different ways?

I curious as to other rsvp's to your post. Best of luck and keep positive!

Hi,

I had two prior C-secs before TAH and I know there was a lot of "clean up" during my surgeries....

I fear I have adhesions too now but I don't want to go in for more surgery.....I can't even get urine in for a lab work up for a UTI because I'm so sick of doctors. I know I should go...I have the lab slip but I just spent sooooo much time at apt's I'm tired of being sick....

Anyway....good luck with your surgery....fill us in on the results and I'll be thinking of you.

Renee

I am post op 1 and a half and already I feel the pulling of adhesions. I had 5 laporoscopies prior to hyst because I wanted to get pregnant so doctors said lets try this. I never got pregnant but I do have 3 beautiful children that I am planning to adopt but the adhesions really get in my way. There is an adhesion specialist in Atlanta GA named Tom Lyons. He said when it is unbearable he will clean it out again. It is like a stabbing pain on my right side. On the plus side in your situation a laporoscapy will be a lot easier on you than your last surgery. It is not so much recovery time (although you still need to take it easy) . I also had the behind the navel pain but my adhesions did not go to my bowels and a lot of times it is hard to tell where the pain is actually coming from. I will pray that your surgery will be a success. I feel your pain. Please PM me if you would like. I wish I could give you more answers. I hope I have helped some. Take care and God Bless. Also see www.adhesions.com

I had adhesions removed about 8-9 months after tah. During my hyst my md removed alot of adhesions(he told my mom it look like I have had c-sections- never had c-section just laproscropes) but any how when I had to have adhesion removed . The doctor use the laser for the adhesion through the laproscrope and I had a quick recovery. The md said some people just grow adhesions for no reason. My adhesion were connecting the bowel to the cervix. Hang in there God will see you through another surgery and hopefully your last.

(((( Anita )))) 's to you my PM buddy!!! I hope you get alot of answers on this thread.. This seems to be a subject near and dear to my heart too!

I have a question... Does anyone know, if they use a barrier, can they do that through the laparoscopy procedure or do they need to open you up to do it?

Dixiepeep! We are almost surgery sisters... I was 3/7/02! I have already had a laparoscopy to remove adhesions 4/24/03! I am already having repeat pain, so I am not sure what is all going on right now., But the pain was totally gone, and now it is creeping back.. No barrier was used on mine. So I am not sure now what is the next step...

Anita knows my story already as well as the sisters on this road!

Thanks - Sue. Did get your PM and I really appreciate your support. That's really the pits that you're feeling repeat pain. Maybe it'll level off where it is. My gyn did say she was going to use the barrier and she told me they can only use this particular barrier on laparoscopic surgeries because the open surgery is just so messy with them moving everything around they can't keep everything in place. The other thing is that apparently it depends on how large the adhesion is as to how much barrier they can put down. For instance, she said if there are larger adhesions the barrier may not cover the entire area because it only comes in small strips or something like that. There used to be a spray gel but they took that off the market because it's too messy and was actually setting up infections in some people. My gyn is being very supportive - - she asked me what she could tell me that would make me feel better. My imagination is just running away with me. I just imagine myself as one big adhesion! I never had the tendency to develop them before this hyst (even after my laparoscopic appendectomy 7 years ago) so I just don't know quite what to think. You're right, though, in what you said in the PM - - it's definitely the unknown that's the scariest.

Anita you are a wealth of info!!!! Thanks for the info on the barrier. I did not think to ask how big the adhesions were... Hmmm writing that one down. It seems that you have a good gyn... Stick with it... I too can picture myself as one big adhesion.... Sticky Sue!!!! Yaaaa thats it! My new name.. As for my pain, I got two weeks before my doc visit... It is bothering me enough today to use the heating pad at work.... Kinda bizzare that it is EXACTLY the same place as before. Now all he did to my knowledge was cut the adhesions and the colon snaped back and the abdominal wall went back... Are they supposed to scrape them off or something... And the fact that it was just left there meant it could get sticky again...

I am learning so much from this discussion.... Thanks