Adhesions affecting digestion and causing pain

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.

Hello,
I am 39 years old female with a history of malrotation, bowel obstruction and adhesion. I had open surgery twice. I am suffering from chronic abdominal pain, diarrhea after each meal, and bloating. The only thing which relieved my symptoms is to fast or be on fluid diet and not to do any physical activity. I have been doing this for almost two years and half. I know it is adhesion as all my tests are normal. Does anyone have suggestions? Anyone has similar issue? I know that sooner or later I will need a surgery as it is getting worse but the doctors do not want to do any more surgery till I have bowel obstruction again. My symptoms are getting worse. No improvement at all. I am afraid that if the adhesion has not been resolved now it will cause lots of complications later such as ganagrene and it will be very difficult for me to recover completely.

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!

Hello,
I am 39 years old female with a history of malrotation, bowel obstruction and adhesion. I had open surgery twice. I am suffering from chronic abdominal pain, diarrhea after each meal, and bloating. The only thing which relieved my symptoms is to fast or be on fluid diet and not to do any physical activity. I have been doing this for almost two years and half. I know it is adhesion as all my tests are normal. Does anyone have suggestions? Anyone has similar issue? I know that sooner or later I will need a surgery as it is getting worse but the doctors do not want to do any more surgery till I have bowel obstruction again. My symptoms are getting worse. No improvement at all. I am afraid that if the adhesion has not been resolved now it will cause lots of complications later such as ganagrene and it will be very difficult for me to recover completely.

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...

Do you have the contact number for Hopkins or Weill cornell please? I am going to be in US till the end of July I do not have enough time. Thank you

Hi Susanh... great to hear that the surgery worked for you. I too am thinking about it.. was your surgery laparoscopic ? 7 hours sounds challenging... but worth the results, it seems.

No, my surgery was open. The incision went from my breast bone to my belly button. I needed a total of seven pints of blood during and after the surgery.

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?

Hello @johnbishop , This discussion is of interest to me since I have an abdomen full of adhesions, have had a partial small bowel obstruction and have had a laparoscopic adhesion lysis all in the last 10 months. I have persistent abdominal and back pain but have been managing fairly well with a low fiber diet with a small dose of Miralax daily but my doctors have been trying to get me to increase my soluble fiber intake. Every time I start to add a little more fiber to my diet I develop persistent diarrhea so I resort to a liquid diet until it stops. I am hesitant to add Meta Mucil to help control the diarrhea because I know that it could cause another blockage.

I would like to know how other people who are cursed with a situation such as mine deal with it
?

I need all the help I can get! Thank you so much for any advice you can give me.

docm