Hi again, everyone. I don't know if this will help anyone else with recurrent sbo's (mine, again, are for adhesions), but I just wanted to report the results of my recent dietary experiment and how it seemed to affect the severity of the partial sbo I started to get two nights ago.
As I mentioned in other posts, I've started to have pretty much all clear (or pretty clear) liquids during the day, and at night I try to stick to healthy soft foods and super-healthy smoothies. The idea is to make it as unlikely as possible that if an sbo starts there will be anything in my digestive tract that doesn't have a reasonably good chance of getting through.
So as I was going to bed two nights ago, I started to feel the dreaded pangs. Unfortunately, that night I'd done something unusual and ate a whole orange, but otherwise everything I'd had that day was soft/liquid (the most solid thing was ice cream!).
Long story short--although I had a decent amount of pain, it never reached the level it usually does. And I vomited only ONE time--I think because I was so thirsty by last night that I took in more liquids than I could handle yet.
I've been exhausted and useless, but the main thing is that I never got to the point where I felt that I needed to go to the hospital!! This afternoon I was able to take a nap sleeping on my stomach, which always seems to indicate the danger has passed.
So I'm encouraged and motivated to continue. If I'd had the usual severe pain and vomiting I would have headed for the ER, but if I can keep these things manageable enough with my nutritional regimen to avoid repeated (expensive!) hospital stays, I will have achieved my goal. And it was nice not to be so scared this time.
So maybe it's something others can try, if they're interested (I also did some stretching, walking, and light massage at the beginning).
But I would never suggest that anyone NOT go to the hospital if symptoms become more severe. It's risky.
Sorry for the long post!