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Chronic small bowel obstruction from adhesions

Digestive Health | Last Active: Feb 12, 2023 | Replies (212)

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@loriel59

Just to share my own story...I started having horrendous attacks in September of 2013. I went over two years of seeing many GI doctors and no one had an answer (was even told it could be nerves or stress!). Fast forward to November 2015 and I ended up in the hospital because the attack was so severe. They finally caught me "in" an active attack and did a CT scan. The good news was they finally knew it was "small bowel obstruction". The bad news was they told me there wasn't much to be done about it. I had 30+ abdominal radiations back in 2003. After two more years of attacks, hospital stays, NG tubes I was desperate. I was told that if I had a very severe attack that couldn't be fixed with an NG tube I would have to have emergency surgery. The problem was supposedly this could cause more adhesions and hence make me worse. The attacks were coming once a month. I finally decided to see a laparoscopic GI surgeon in NYC. He was affiliated with Mount Sinai. He was amazing**. He asked me "Why hasn't anyone tried to help you?" I broke down. He spent a lot of time talking to me. He felt there was less than 5% chance of developing new adhesions if he could succeed with laparoscopic surgery. He would know more when he actually went in. I agreed to have regular surgery IF when he looked he thought it was the only choice. Bottom line was I really couldn't do worse than I was doing. He successfully did the laparoscopic surgery and removed 4 feet of small intestine and a small amount of large intestine. I had radiation enteritis. This was 7/31/17. I cannot say that recovery was simple, but I have my life back. The trade-off is that have diarrhea most of the time, but that was happening anyway. I now am working with a GI doctor to help me with this. I avoid certain foods and he is trying some different meds to regulate me. I think I just have "short bowel' syndrome. I eat lower fat, higher carb diet. I know alcohol can be a trigger. Each person is different. I'm also a vegetarian /vegan. My diet is probably 60/40. Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who is suffering. **I have to say this particular doctor didn't take insurance. We paid up front and I ended up getting about 60% back from my insurance company as I had a PPO. Worth every cent.

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Replies to "Just to share my own story...I started having horrendous attacks in September of 2013. I went..."

Glad you were able to get the help you needed. I am 8 days past Deloyer procedure, keeping fingers crossed that any adhesions that may form do not cause any problems. They started this surgery laparoscopically, but adhesions were so bad they had to open me back up. The surgeon spent the first couple of hours cleaning them out before they could start on the actual bowel surgery. Right now on soft, low fiber diet for the next couple of weeks and so far so good. Don't know yet if I will have issues with regular diarrhea yet as my body is still sorting itself out.

How wonderful things have improved and getting your life back. Teresa Australia

Hi Loriel59,

So glad I found your post. My mom frequently suffers from SBO attacks. She was hospitalized for the first time last year but has had attacks for many years. We’re trying to find treatment options. We live in NYC and was wondering if we could have the name of the Mt. Sinai doctor who performed your laparoscopic surgery. We would be more than grateful. Also, how have you been after the surgery? Any more SBO attacks? I’d really appreciate if you could reply! Thanks 🙂