Abdominal adhesion

I wish that I could give you some words of advice, but I don't really have any wisdom in this particular area. I just wanted to offer my support and best wishes to you. Is your primary physician connected to Mayo Clinic, or is that just your specialist?

I can say that getting all if my doctors on the same page has really helped me.. . Repeating my story over and over gets really old! Especially when it's complicated by several issues. So, I suppose that if your doctors aren't really connected in some way, I would strongly recommend that you try to get that together. That way, they aren't missing anything. They're doing the proper tests in the right times.

Best wishes to you!

Thank you. Well I am not sure but I think the surgeons are more connected and discussing my condition together than other doctors. Yes, the doctors are in mayo clinic. I am thinking to go to Cleveland clinic as I am sure I need a surgery as it is getting worse. That means sooner or later I will need surgery but I think if I wait more I might have more complications like gangrene. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Hello @nooral, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @heathertink1970 and others. There is another discussion on the topic that you might find helpful here:
--- Chronic abdominal pain from extensive abdominal adhesions: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/chronic-abdominal-pain-from-extensive-abdominal-adhesions/.

You mentioned that your doctors don't want to do any more surgery until you have a bowel obstruction again. I'm a Mayo patient but haven't had an abdominal adhesion. I had a concern last year when I needed a bi-lateral inguinal hernia surgery and my first consult with a surgeon who wanted to do 2 surgeries with a recovery period in between but I was concerned with bowel issues and 2 recoveries and wanted it all done at once. I was fortunate in that Mayo has some great surgeons and when I expressed my concerns, they found a surgeon that agreed with me on doing them both at once.

Are you able to discuss your concerns on waiting until you have an obstruction with them?

Thank you but they do not want to do for me surgery. They know it is adhesion but they believe that adhesion does cause my symptoms even though they did lots of tests and all are normal. I know my body and I know it is adhesion and I am aware that the more the surgeries the more adhesion but I do not have another choice sooner or later I will need surgery as long as the symptoms are getting worse. I am on fluid diet for almost two years and half I can not handle solid food I will have diarrhea. I am thinking to go to Cleveland clinic as the surgeon agrees to do for me surgery.

Hi Nooral, much sympathy to you. I think my right sided bowel pains are also adhesions causing inflammation. I keep it under control with short courses of Naproxen and natural supplements like Serrapeptase & Curcumin & flax oil, also L-Glutamine etc. Often natural products ease my problems though I'm waiting for bowel surgery to remove a diseased sigmoid colon. I hope you find a way forward and good advice.

Thank you. Yes this is what I know that if adhesion is causing symptoms or complications. Surgery is the only solution. You can not be on pain killers for long period of time. It has many side effects. Even though the more surgery, the more adhesion but sooner or later if there are symptoms I am going to need a surgery. If it is asymptomatic, no need for surgery but if there are symptoms and it is affecting your daily activities in my case I can not eat and I can not exercise at all then the only solution is surgery. Thank you for your reply. Best wishes.

I've had adhesions since appendectomy at 9 years old. When I was 16 I had a blockage and had emergency surgery. The adhesions were crushing everything. I've now had Ovarian Cancer 3 xs (i'm 73) so more and more adhesions. My last cancer surgery in 2016 was 8 hours long as she tried to cut out all the adhesions she could because they were crushing my ureter and cutting off my transverse colon. I now have chronic constipation from all the nerve cutting. I can never have surgery again unless it is "life threatening." She said the adhesions will kill me before the cancer - yeah 🙂 So, guess I understand. I can't eat any meat or flour products. "Food prison"

Yes it is worse than cancer. It grows everywhere and never stopped. No choice except doing surgery again and again or wait till you have bowel instruction because of adhesion so sooner or later surgery must be done. I hope if more studies done about adhesion and more treatment options will be there as it really affects your whole life. Not stops your from everything and if you are still young you do not know what to do you want to enjoy your life have more children exercise so you will be in a doubt whether to do more surgery or to accept the current situation till you get obstruction or gangrene. I am not sure what I am going to do but I am going to cleveland for a second opinion as I believe that one day I might have gangrene because of adhesion. Thank you for your reply and understanding. Wish you all the best.

Hi there,
I have never heard of anyone having gangrene from adhesions. Is that something your doctor mentioned to you? I also have many adhesions from multiple abdominal surgeries. A few years ago, I had a seven hour surgery to clear them as best as the could. The surgeon was W. Scott Melvin at The Ohio State University. He did a great job! Naturally, more adhesions grew after that surgery, but they don’t bother me like they used to. Also, my gastroenterologist recently told me that the university has massage therapists who specialize in adhesions. Hope you find some relief soon!

Sorry to hear of your problem... and I am so, so sympathetic as I have suffered from partial small bowel obstructions for 30+ years as a result of 6+ abdominal surgeries (myomectomy, surgeries to repair tubal damages from 2 ectopic pregnancies, hysterectomy and more!! what fun). I have been hospitalized twice and have had to have an NG tube... ick.

The partial obstructions have always righted themselves, but I have about 4+ incidents a year. I eat a low fiber diet, use a heating pad on my abdomen every night, and have modified many other eating habits. I tried massage therapy, with no positive results.

Finally I saw a surgeon whose expertise is minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery - he is at Hopkins in DC. I am also consulting with a surgeon with the same expertise in NYC at Weill Cornell. The DC surgeon answered all my questions and thought he might be able to excise some of the adhesions and prevent regrowth. The bottom line from the DC surgeon was: "If I get in and see it is too challenging to fix laparoscopically, I will not do anything at all. No open surgery would help. My hope is that I will do what I can to obtain fewer and less severe issues." He does this type of surgery (laparoscopic, same-day surgery) every 3-4 months... and left it up to me to decide what to do next.

I am waiting to talk to the Weill Cornell NYC Dr, as that would be more strategically easy to organize... I am thinking that that could be a good solution for me. I am not sure if it is right for you, but it might be something to consider...