Adhesions affecting digestion and causing pain

Hello @suzanneb,

I am sorry to hear about your pain and previous surgeries. I can understand your concern about another surgery which might result in more adhesions. I would like to invite @thull to talk with you about her problem with adhesions and pain. She had a procedure at Mayo which was of great help to her.

Have the adhesions affected what you can eat? Have you lost much weight?

Thank you! Yes- in a major way. I believe that the adhesions have caused my intestines to stick together as well as involving some nerves. Due to being unable to walk or stand much for such a long time, my psoas muscle has now tightened so it's more painful to stand and walk. Anytime I try to gently stretch the psoas with my yoga therapist I am in terrible pain that makes my other issues worse.

I am on a gastroparesis diet that my gastro dr. at Mayo had me try.(the low fodmap diet- and lots of other diets- that a local doctor suggested was too restrictive especially since I generally don't have a big appetite) He also suggested I take FD Gard and IB Gard (peppermint tea was too harsh for me) which has helped some. My local therapist taught me how to do a belly massage which I do a few times each day. I really has helped with breaking up the gas bubbles and moving things along. Otherwise things back up to a dangerous level. I had originally had weight loss and was too thin, but not a dangerous weight; the pain doctors at Mayo have had me on cymbalta for a year now and I am having steady weight gain. It was fine at first, but now it is continuing to the point where I'm considering searching for an alternative medication.

When I got the obstructions from adhesions after my first 2 surgeries, I was on clear liquids. When I got home, had pic line on TPN for nutrition. I did massage on my belly once it was healed enough to be comfortable and I really believe it helped immensely. They did my big surgery a year ago today, actually! They wanted to try laparoscopic to minimize additional adhesions. However, when they got the scope in, they realized the adhesions were so dense they were going to have to open me up again. 4th Surgeries in less than a year. They spent the first 2 hours laising the adhesions and accidentally perforated my small intestine which they then repaired. The rest of the surgery went well, ended up with Deloyers procedure.
So the massage and Boost Breeze( a clear liquid drink box) is what really helped me. I also did clear broths. I cannot really tolerate the opioids as they make me really nauseous. I took liquid Advil .

Thanks for the info. I'm glad you are doing so much better! I do the belly massages at least twice daily and that really helps. I will definitely try the Boost Breeze and clear broths to see what that can do for me. What kind of surgeon removed your adhesions? I'm trying to figure out who to seek out since so far none of my current Mayo doctors seem to be experts on adhesions and none have had suggestions on who to see other than pelvic therapists and pain doctors; both of which couldn't help with that issue. Thanks!

I have only been able to find the Boost Breeze on Amazon. I had a colorectal surgeon at Mayo. The went in because I had a really bad blockage again and ended up with the Deloyers procedure that removed the majority of my large intestine.

Hello Thull. I was wondering about your Deloyers procedure? Do you have an ostomy now? Is that what it would be called? And how is your bowel working now? I am on my 5th obstruction since October, and I am particularly concerned about this one. So far I have been able to get through them with my enemas, miralax, linzess, pureed food, and backing up to clear liquids. This one is more painfull though, and I am in the middle of it as I write this note. I have had lots of abdominal surgeries and am trying to avoid more.

Hello Thull. I was wondering about your Deloyers procedure? Do you have an ostomy now? Is that what it would be called? And how is your bowel working now? I am on my 5th obstruction since October, and I am particularly concerned about this one. So far I have been able to get through them with my enemas, miralax, linzess, pureed food, and backing up to clear liquids. This one is more painfull though, and I am in the middle of it as I write this note. I have had lots of abdominal surgeries and am trying to avoid more.

With the Deloyers procedure, they removed the rest of the sigmoid that was still there, all the descending colon, part of the transverse and then turned the rest of the transverse that was left, counter clockwise and ran it down along side my ascending colon and reattached to my rectum. So I have no large intestine on my left side. I have no bag, and although it took awhile for things to heal and settle down, my bowel functions pretty normally now. The dr said it is not a procedure they plan on, so I am thankful that I had the colorectal surgeon at Mayo, otherwise I could have ended up with a permanent ostomy. I had a temporary one for 6 months while they waited for my colon to heal in 2018

Hi Teresa. Another question I have, is what tests are done to figure out where the adhesions are located? Any information would help. Thank you!