Adhesion complications

Hello Most wonderful and courages Ladies..

I posted but  I guess it was missed that my surgery date ..will indeed be moved up and not the nightmarish six months away I was told intitially ... Thank God
I'm so glad I found this place ..it was because i had the opportunity to ask about this and you ladies told me 6  mon's was unexceptable ..that I went back to my Dr and am now moving along. Thank you

BUT ...

My Dr. has put quite a scare into me .Because I had massive amounts of ahesions from previous surg's and the lrg size mass(on the right ovary) plus the fact my left over (with a multi chambered complex cyst) is now attached to my bowel because of the adhesions..I will need 3 different surgeons in the operating room...and my Doc selected a hospital with a good intensive care unit( because of likely bowel perforation,also may lose part of my small bowel  ).It's all quite upsetting for me  .I was also told a hysterectomy will be performed and I need to make decisions on how to handle hormone replacement.As I am only 48.  My pain is growing and I now have cramps and discomfort all the way up to my rib cage along with the rest of my symptoms  of gas indigestion , constant nausea , constant exhaustion and bladder /bowel presuure.  I feel like I am carrying a 20lb deseased rock in my tummy and even walking fast hurts...
And to make it all worse ..I will not know if this is OC  till the actuall surgery is performed.

Question ...Is there anyone out there going through the same thing with adhesions..
Really would like to hear from you

[NikkiPoo]

Wow, I can't believe that with all of that the doctor actually was going to make you wait that long. Thank God you got your surgery moved up.. When is your surgery? Haven't had surgery yet so don't know if I have adhesions but I'm sure someone will come along who has been through it. This truly is the best site for comfort & information and all of the women are wonderful. Good luck with your surgery & keep everyone posted.

[Mary 53]

Sorry to hear of your complications and the upcoming surgery.

I had a hysterectomy in 2000 for (very early) ovarian cancer. I suffered from horrible adhesions afterwards and I understand you completely when you say that you have difficulty walking (I believe you did say that...I answer a lot of posts about adhesions, so forgive me if there is any confusion)...I had difficulty walking sometimes!

I got incredible relief by doing a certain type of massage called "body rolling."

However, at this time, I am not sure if you should be doing aggressive massage knowing you have a mass they are going to be removing soon, but to give you hope for the future....I will tell you in all sincerity that in a twenty minute session,  I got rid of about 90% of the pain that had plagued me for a year and a half that had totally baffled my doctors...(MRI's Colon cancer concerns)..the adhesions were found during a colonoscopy (the adhesions were collapsing my colon causing Irritable Bowel Syndrome)...I WAS A MESS. So, my wt. training teacher has me get on this little ball and roll on top of it from my pelvic bone to where my ovaries once were....taking a long time to do this, about ten min. per side....and, UNREAL. I encourage you to look into this.

Oh, and by the way, for the remaining pain, I just did another session a week later and was left with only a twinge now and then. No pain, though, really. I do the ball rolling about twice a year to keep things at bay. I was shopping yesterday and noticed a sharp pain on my right side that came on and off (right side was always worse for me since the most cysts were found on that ovary plus the doctors took out my appendix, too) and so I will have to do the ball rolling this week.

Google body rolling...also surgical adhesions and massage to get more info. I wrote a long post about this and you might be able to find the info in the archives on this forum....once you click on "archives" go to "general" and look for "Questions and answers about surgical adhesions" by Mary 53 (me!)....And, best of luck to you.
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I also have a lot of posts up about bioidentical hormones, which is the type of hormone replacement I use that I would not be without for anything.
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Let us know how things go for you and best of luck!

Mary

[cthsmom]

(Is this okay, since it's not ovarian cancer related??)

Is it a pretty good bet that once you have adhesions, you'll always get adhesions? 'Cause I had them taken care of during my LAVH in 1999. I haven't had any surgeries since then, and am wondering if part of my current pain issues are related to adhesions. I am having a colonoscopy on 6/15 and told the gyn that I am scared, if I have adhesions, won't that be difficult? He said no, the tube was on the inside of the colon. Um, no kidding. I know that. I'm just wondering if the adhesions will be affected by the colonoscopy, like being moved around, ripped, stretched, etc.

eeeeekkkk.

Found my operative report from back then, it says "enterolysis of adhesions of sigmoid colon to the left pelvic sidewall." That had me shuddering to thing my colon is going to cause me some problems.

~Suzanne    

[Mary 53]

I have been driving myself crazy trying to find a post for  you in the archives section. I found it earlier tonight and I copied it and pasted it to an email along with some information on hormones....so that I could re-post if I needed to. I made a mistake somehow and I did not retrieve the info on adhesions. It was a thread I started on April 14....and, it would be nice if in the archives they were dated, but they are not and now I cannot find it. It is there, though, I promise. It is called "Adhesions, questions and answers (surgical) by Mary 53....I think that is it.

Oh my, though, if I were you, I would call the doctor who is going to do the colonoscopy and try to get to talk to the doctor...if unable, leave a detailed comment/question for the nurse. I would tell them of the adhesions and of your concerns.

I will say that we almost stopped my colonoscopy because the pain was so bad. You are correct, and your gyn will be learning new information :) .....the colonoscopy will end up STRETCHING the adhesions....at least it did in mine. For me it was a huge surprise. The doctor just looked at the screen, and said, "Oh my, you have tons of adhesions from your surgery (hysterectomy  two years prior to the surgery).

I did get relief from the colonoscopy because of the stretching and popping, but no amount of versad did the trick to lessen the pain. I would have loved to have been in that drowsy, barely there state...things would not have been so bad.

Not trying to scare you, seriously, and I know that us women have to put up with pain, but, I would see if they can be prepared for you and talk this over so that pain-protection can be discussed. Because, I think that having the colonoscopy will be helpful since you will be able to see the adhesions possibly...and the procedure will likely break things up.

Try to find the post from me and see if you can get rolling before the procedure. You might be able to take matters into your own hand. Who knows, you might end up breaking these darn things up and not have a problem now.

I would go into a colonoscopy without any qualms now that I have been able to break mine up. All of this is explained in the posting I keep referring to. And, the reason I am pushing this is because I did this on my own with a little ball from Target. So, I described how my wt. training teacher had me do it.

Let me know if you cannot find the post....it is in Archives under general...

Keep in touch!

Oh, and one thing I love about this patient to patient forum is that there are no questions we cannot ask!  Mary

[cthsmom]

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll go research that!!

~Suzanne

[cthsmom]

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll go research that!!

~Suzanne

[Mary 53]

Hi Linda, Sorry to make you go through this, but if you could look for my long post on adhesions, you will find the information plus more. The thing is, you can order a ball (I think they have various sizes) through a website ...I will look that up in a second.

The thing is, I never ordered a ball. I bought two small ones for 6 dollars at Target in the toy section. I think they have "blues clues" on the design!

I explain totally how I was taught to do this procedure. It is incredible. I see advantages, though, from ordering the ball through the website. Yamuna is the name of the woman who helped develop this therapy, so you will see a reference to her name. yamunabodyrolling (just type one word) and add dot com. Didn't want to leave a link, but you get the gist.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks, Mary

[Linda J]

HI guys, I would like to purchase one of these "rolling balls". Where does one buy them?

Linda J

[cthsmom]

I think Mary said she got hers at Target.

~Suzanne

[cthsmom]

Hm, sorry for the double double up there.

Anyway, I found your adhesions post Mary, thank you. Have bookmarked it.

~Suzanne

[Linda J]

Thanks Mary, I checked out the website. Once you have the ball how do you know what routines to do? Did you order the DVD?

Linda J

[Mary 53]

Hey to all, I found my thread from the archives....and, sorry I just didn't have time to do this earlier. I cut out some of the extra stuff and left a description of how I "rolled" onto my little ball from target.

Linda, you'll see that I never actually ordered anything from the website, but the techniques used on me were based on info from this site.

I sectioned out an area with a line below to highlight the actual description of the procedure I used. I am sure, though, that the DVD would be very helpful.

Hope this helps. Once you read about getting the "blood to the bone," it starts to make more and more sense.

ADHESIONS:

The problem was because the doctor found all of these surgical adhesions and they had formed particularly around the colon and were collapsing it...thus the IBS. Well, the colonoscopy actually ultimately gave me relief because it "stretched" out the colon and the adhesions. "ouch"...

At the time I was attending a weight training class. Although I'd had some relief due to the colonoscopy, the thought of having a yearly colonoscopy to STRETCH out the colon and break up the adhesions was NOT very appealing. Anyway, the pain was so bad one day that I told the teacher that I had to leave. She talked me into working with her on a massage ball (a small ball, not a pilates ball)...this has been around for about 18 years and she had just taken a class in it. Two half hour sessions of rolling on this ball (like a smallish soccer ball)...leaning my body wt. into it, literally placing the ball underneath me and "rolling" on it...slowly.....and, I have had tons and tons of relief. I could not believe it!
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I would lay on the pubic bone and then take about four minutes or so to SLOWLY (while remembering to take deep breaths) work my way out to where the ovaries once were...my right side was worse, and interestingly enough, that is where I'd had two cysts, one from which they had aspirated cancer cells during a tubal...long story, but, thankfully, I have been cancer free for five years...anyway! I digress. After I got to the area where my ovary once was, I worked my way back to the pubic bone and then started the procedure on the other side. The whole thing took about 10 to 15 min.
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There might be information on line if you "google"...massage balls (smaller than a soccer ball, not too hard, not too soft), instructions...classes..etc..Actually, I know you can find a website for it where they sort of teach you to do it at home. My instructor had just started to look into this, because she said as we age, we "glue together"...and that this releases much of the gluing because of all the blood, thus oxygen, it brings to the area. It seems to break things up. She intended to teach elderly people because the "gluing" is so bad as we age if we don't treat it.

It is truely amazing. I noticed a HUGE difference immediately. When I sat up after the fist time I did this (about a 15 min. session) I could feel a "FLOOD" or a Rush of blood or something! going to that area. After having pain about 40 times an HOUR for over a year and a half after my surgery, my pain decreased to only about 10 times a DAY for a few seconds. I just did this massage two days ago, because my right side was hurting again, but, I had not done a session since last winter.

It is worth looking into. You want to get the blood to the bone, not just the muscle....so it floods the tendons and gets lots of oxegyn there to start healing and breaking up the adhesions. My instructor told me to think of a steak and how the tendon is sort of splotchy with blood where it is attached to the bone...well, you want to get the blood totally to the bone so as to really break things up. Regular massage is not "deep" enough.

(Radical Hysterectomy due to Ovarian cancer diagnosis, prior Severe Cervical Dysplasia, endometriosis)

I will tell you that I never ordered a ball from the website, but I picked up a smallish ball at Target in the children's toy section, and just used that a few times when the pain started to get bad again....like about every three months. Again: RELIEF. There were times that doing the procedure was not all that pleasant, especially when you are putting all of your weight on a ball and it is against a part of your body that is giving you pain anyway, but, in a weird way, it was a "good" hurt, you know? And, you could almost feel the blood rushing to that area to start to unglue, so to speak. I am not a doctor, but, as I said, I had told my doctor about this, and he was just happy I got relief. But, again, that is why I want to find the website on it, and I know there has been one in the past, so I am on a mission. That way you will have professional advice on what this thing is all about.

My old weight training instructor called today to give me some information regarding the techniques used. She said it is called "Body Rolling." Specifically, "Yamuna body logic" Bodylogic.com is the website. (However, I like to use Google so that when I type different words in, like adhesions; yamuna body logic for adhesions; surgical adhesions; body rolling to break up adhesions...you get the picture. I like to then like to click "cached" to get to the website so that the words I have googled are highlighted in the article or website I am checking out). I believe Yamuna is the first name of the woman who developed this technique. Some of the sites offer an explanation on the different types of massage, including deep tissue massage. But, Yamuna's technique talks about getting blood to the bone and the tendon and not just the muscle. Very interesting.

Oh, there is another website that my teacher referenced. It is OPTP.com and it is based in Minneapolis. It is all about fitness balls of various sizes. They sell something called the "thera cane" that they say breaks up surgical adhesions. I have never tried that item. But, I would start with the body rolling first.

I measured my ball tonight. It measured 16 inches. Again, though, I did not get the ball thru the website. I got one in a toy section and it looked similar to the one the instructor had used. It probably is bigger than the ones they recommend, but, if you think about it, it is squishy to the point where once all my weight is on it, it probably shrinks down to about ten inches. And, I just put my "front" onto the ball for the pelvic pain and not my back.
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If this seems disjointed, it was several posts put together....hope everyone gets major relief!!!  Mary

[Linda J]

HI and thanks for taking the time to post on the ball rolling. I am going to try it. You said the ball you bought at Target is 16 inches, meaning in circumference? I don't know if I have adhesions or not, but I am still getting weird pains, mostly around my incision,  at the navel. Maybe the rolling would relieve some of that? At any rate, thanks again for posting.

Linda J