I had a bowel instruction out of the blue when I was 25 years old. It was extremely painful and I had to have emergency surgery (NG tube and all!) Many adhesions were removed. I had never had previous surgery except for a shoulder repair for a dislocation. So these adhesions were a big mystery to me and my doctors. Where did that scar tissue and those adhesions come from? No one knew. I recovered fully and did fine until 4 years later almost to the very day when I had another obstruction, again followed by emergency surgery. I got very good care at Johns Hopkins and they seemed to think that this obstruction resulted from the first surgery. That made perfect sense to me and I recovered uneventfully once again.
I had GI problems off and on since high school which included intermittent nausea and diarrhea accompanied by malaise, Fast forward many years after the 2nd SBO surgery and I started having many days at a time where I was very sick with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. This started in about 2013. In 2016 I had to stop working (as a psychiatric nurse) because of this. I was miserable (hospitalized several times where nothing was resolved) until about the end of 2017. I finally went to Mayo Clinic (Phoenix) and went through many different tests. I am still being seen there and am receiving excellent care from my doctors. The doctor I have had an idea that I might be suffering from Crohn's Disease! Since Crohn's is an autoimmune disease, that could very likely account for the mystery of the initial scar tissue in my small intestines as well as all the GI problems I had for so long. I am presently taking Entyvio which I receive at the clinic (Infusion) every 8 weeks and my symptoms are considerably better. Incidentally 2 markers for Crohn's were identified in a test at Mayo Clinic.
It is wonderful to at least be able to put a label on what was going on with me and to have the mystery of my etiology of those initial adhesions solved! I am happy to say that I am doing well. I do have scar tissue but I will take it as it comes.!