Hello @sunshine4mary, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You’ve come to the right place to talk with people who have similar experiences with adhesions and pain and to get support from members who understand what you are going through. I'd like to invite @tigreyes2004, @thull, and @upartist to possibly share their situation with adhesions.

Mary, You stated that your attacks last for a long time, how long do they normally last and what are you currently taking, if anything, to combat the pain?

My wife Lynn had open abdominal surgery at Mayo in 2015 and 2016. In May 2018 she began having partial SBO's. As of September 2022, she has experienced 25+ SBO's which keep her in bed for 2 days (sleeping) and NPO. She goes into the local hospital outpatient for IV fluids for 3-5 days. It takes another 4-5 days to generally get back to normal. When she feels one coming on she quits eating and drinking and crawls into bed. I immediately call her oncologist and arrange for her to get fluids because without fluids she goes downhill fast and it really gets bad. She is very nauseated, but has never actually vomited. She takes no pain meds.

We've met with three dietitians (one at Mayo), two gastroenterologists (one at Mayo) and have tried removing stress, breathing, etc. They occur (on average) every two months or so and come on like a light bulb. We really can't travel anymore (especially outside of the U.S.) My wife is having lysis surgery at Mayo on Oct 3 to try and get some relief. I also should mention that Lynn has been scanned three times over 4 years during an SBO. After examining the scans the surgeon said that while there isn't a 'smoking gun', the issue may be mutifocal and mutifactorial – multiple issues in multiple areas. It will be full open surgery. While she is doing lysis, she will palpate my wifes entire small bowel for any neuroendocrine tumors that may not have been revealed on scan.