Bowel obstructions caused by adhesions following abdominal surgery

ditto except that I have found that I am able to eat more naturally without that FODMAP diet just following a whole food plant based diet and 12 prunes daily. I am totally sick to death of them but they do help. Yes about the water, yes about the Tylenol, yes about the Advil. I have that Agiolax but don't have to use it. I used to but don't need it as long as I do the whole food plant based thing. No meat and no dairy. That stuff is the same as the old Perdiem in the yellow can that my doc told me to use way back when I was in my 30's. Aren't we the most sensitive systems? My husband could consume rocks and not have trouble. Thank you for speaking up. It helps me not to feel like such a freak....

For protein, I recommend Boost Breeze….they gave it to me at Mayo and I lived on it for over a month while I was restricted to clear liquids.
It looks like a kids juice box, has 250 calories and 9 grams of protein. The peach flavor is my favorite. Had to order it on Amazon as I could not find it in stores

I did abdominal massage a few times a day when I had the adhesion blockage. I had been looking at Small Passage treatment, but then it cleared.
Now when they ended up doing a Deloyer’s procedure a few months later, they started out laparoscopic, but the adhesions were so bad they had to open me completely up. Dr spent the next 2 hours laising all the adhesions. They perforated my small intestine and had to repair that as well. Ended up being like a 6 hour surgery

Hi! I know this is a really old thread but I have had two bowel obstructions in the past two years and I still have 24/7 abdominal pain. Are you still struggling?

I have not visited this group for a while, but I am still here, and still suffering from SBOs - they seem to occur every couple of months... and range from really painful to simply annoying... I am starting to research the potential for laparoscopic surgery ... but I wonder if it will do more harm than good. My research shows mixed results. I have tried a number of things, from closely monitoring diet to exercise to heating pads .. but I still live in constant fear of another attack. Anyone have any comments on surgery?

I had a total hysterectomy in February 2022. I had extensive lysis of adhesions done at that time, over 6 hours, and I had another bowel obstruction in July 2022. For me, it seems that the adhesions re form very quickly.

What is SBO ?

My bowel burst in 2015 and I had a colostomy placed and also needed a wound vac for three months ! Had resect a while later during which time doc took my sigmoid colon. Had constipation issues one year before all this happened and went to a Rectal specialist who found an issue with sphincter muscles, I believe. This was one year before burst bowel. Since burst bowel and sigmoid colon removal I have had bad "impaction or blockage " issues. Between total thyroid cancer removal and sigmoid colon removal i felt my body wasn't metabolizing my food thus food was backing up, also causing gerd. I take an over the counter pill to help me metabolize food especially after a high protein meal. Mostly it helps. It's called Betaine HCL with Pepsid. When it gets really bad I take Phillips Milk of Magnesia which helps greatly. Gastro doc had prescribed Relstor to help most recent issue. But when I looked it up it said "do not take if you've had a bowel obstruction, bowel perforation, diverticulosis etc" of which I had all three. As well as a basically violent reaction to the Relstor while the bowel emptied! I called doc late that night and said I couldn't and wouldn't take it as I had all the bad contraindications!!! He called back in the morning and agreed. Omg. What would have happened to me if I had taken it!!!!! I've added an apple a day. Cutting out snacking especially carbs. Portioning foods correctly and not overeating at meals, adding salads, and trying to finish eating at least two hours before bed. So far it appears to be helping but I woke up with gerd this am (even tho I had a normal
Bowel movement.). Drank some ginger ale to release gas. Don't know what else I can do 🤞🏻🤞🏻

I looked up SBO online. And I can see I have a lot of the issues that cause it. I was told by a radiologist that my neck is filled with ropey scar tissue (on top of my thyroid cancer and leukemia nodes!). And I've had FIVE abdominal surgeries!!! I'm doing PT now to try to keep myself moving, and maybe even buying a bicycle, as maybe I can break the adhesions (can that even be done!) I've been basically sitting, when not shopping or going to doctors, so I need to increase movement also which might help with SBO to keep things "flowing ". Just some ideas posted in my last post and this one now that I know what SBO is !

I had my initial colon surgery to remove my tumor in June 2019. I needed a second emergency surgery 10 days later. I started chemo and immediately developed horrible diarrhea and spasms. They had me stop the xeloda, and a few days later I developed horrible abdominal pain requiring me to be transported to hospital. I had a SBO caused by adhesions. They did multiple things to try and clear it (the last being a small bowel follow through scan) and at that point, I started throwing up contrast mixed with stool so ended up having surgery. He got rid of 15 cm of small bowel and removed tons of adhesions. But my bowel was nicked (we didn’t know) and I developed a leak. This turned into a fistula that eventually turned into a perforation and sepsis. When they repaired the perforation, he removed more adhesions. I haven’t had any obstructions since but have had a few times where I felt the symptoms coming on. I immediately stop eating, drown myself with fluids, heating pad and massage constantly. It’s always in the same place and I can deeply massage until the pain clears.
The obstruction was very stressful and mentally wrecked me for a good three or four months. My husband was out of town and I had to leave my kids by themselves for hours while he flew home. The pain was horrific and the NG tube was awful so I feel for your wife a lot. I would recommend surgery for her