Mary53 adhesions

Mary   hopeshell  needs your input on possible adhesions  and body rolling if that is what is causing her pain.  Marty

[Mary 53]

Wow, I almost missed this post. That teaches me to review more carefully!  I have been wandering over to the hysterectomy site now and then and I am seeing the issue (or questioning) of scar tissue and/or adhesions come up more and more as this newer forum gets more traffic, if you will. I recall posting on Hystersisters years ago and I would say that it was constant...postings about undiagnosed pain after hysterectomies ran rampant.

I will post my adhesion information and I will send a message to Hopeshell. Thanks for the heads-up!

Sincerely,

Mary

[Mary 53]

Hang on...In my next post I will have the (even more) specific details about this procedure. But first:

First, just a general comment:

If you suspect that the problem is with adhesions, it is wise to check with your doctor's  office to make sure you are allowed to use a deep massage on that area.  

Essentially ~ and I will refer you to my old posts on adhesions, but briefly ~ You lie down on a smallish ball and focus lying on the pelvic bone and SLOWLY SLOWLY roll out to where the ovary used to be (I have no ovaries but this was the area where my horrible pain was for a year and a half...also more on the right side since two cysts and appendix were also removed during my hysterectomy) and then BACK to the pelvic Bone and then out to the where the other ovary would have been and then back to the pelvic bone again. ALL OF THIS should take time, like 10 PLus minutes....not rolling quickly....TEN minutes to complete the sequence of going once out to the ovary and then back and to the other again. Make sense? DEEEEP breathing periodically while doing this.

My concern though is you don't want to damage anything if you are still healing. Not sure exactly how long one has to wait to do this is they have just had surgery...Perhaps at least three months???. I did this technique about a year and a half after my surgery....I was told there was nothing that could be done for me short of having frequent Colonoscopies (oh joy) so that the adhesions could be SNAPPED open. They were colapsing my colon. YES..they can be very painful.

Information on how to find other posts on adhesions that would include comments from others as well. **********************************************************************************
(Just more general information that I copied from my words on the hsyterectomy site, but us here on the OVCA are old hands at working this new format!  RIGHT??? And, I never thought I'd make it!


To do this find "Posts" on my profile and sift backwards. As of this writing, you may have to go back a ways...to December perhaps and there are many more prior to this as this info has been posted many times. Any title such as "Scar tissue,"  "Adhesions," "Pain after surgery," etc, will most likely have my info. Read through the thread because sometimes my good friend, Paula, posts the info for me and then later in the post I repost it with just a few variations or updates. But, if it is in my "Post" section, then my posts on adhesions will be there. I explain how I learned this and WHY it works. I also share the comments from the doctor who did the most recent lap for me and the shock he felt when he saw how "clean" it was inside me....no sign of anything adhesion-wise. I have been pain free (adhesion-wise) since 2002 now. Surgery for me (radical hysterectomy) was in 2000.

Good luck to all of you. I understand the frustration.

~ A Question from MARY ~

If anyone knows much about endometriosis and the connection it has to adhesions, please let us know. My understanding is that the two can be tied together. I know that they found endo in me (including Old Blackened Out endometriosis which they thought was cancer when they found it but biopsy showed otherwise), so I know it can be rather nasty. Isn't Endometriosis considered a type of adhesion? Not sure but I do think it is.

Mary

[Mary 53]

  THE EXHAUSTIVE post on Bodyrolling (a gem of a lifesaver, though, for those with adhesions...I am still amazed that I found the technique and that it worked so well and sad that more don't know about it. Spread the word...as we on this board blessedly do!
***************************************************************************************************

The woman who taught me how to do this is an Exercise Instructor. She said that one reason she wanted to learn this was so that she could teach elderly people how to do it since some of our insides "glue together" as we age and that this releases much of the gluing because of all the blood, thus oxygen, it brings to the area.

In my case, I had a total hysterectomy in 2000 and suffered from surgical adhesions for about a year. The pain from the adhesions started about three months post-op. This technique seems to break up the adhesions and it worked for me.  I figured that if it worked for adhesions that formed naturally in our body, it should work for surgical adhesions. It did!

It is truly 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 at a time. I did this procedure again about a week after the first one and that gave me even more relief. I think it was about four months til I had to do it again. Now I do it about once a year, if that. I have been virtually pain free, ,aside from a dull ache now and then, from adhesions since learning this technique.

The idea is you want to get the blood to the bone, not just the muscle....so it floods the tendons and gets lots of oxygen 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.


The ball I used measures 16 inches. Again, though, I did not get the ball thru the website (Bodylogic.com) but you can go there and check it out if you want. The website is all about body rolling and about the woman (her name is Yumana and I think she is from Russia) who developed the technique. Anyway, I got just an ordinary ball in a toy section at Target and it looked similar to the one the instructor had used. The ball I have has a picture of Blues Clues on it! Hey, it works. 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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Here is how I did it...leaning my body wt. into it, literally placing the ball underneath me and "rolling" on it...slowly.

I would lay on the pubic bone and then take about four minutes or so to SLOWLY (while remembering to take deep breaths now and then) work my way out to the right side where the ovary once was on that side. After you get there, go back slowly to the pubic bone...breathe deeply. When you get to the pubic bone again, then go to the other side, following a path, if you will, of where you imagine the falopian tube once was. So, you are rolling in something like a "V" formation. After you get to the left side where the ovary once was, then go back to the pubic bone...and, you are done. But, take about 15 minutes to do the whole procedure.

**********************Udated information....August 2007***********************

At first I did this technique twice in two weeks. Then I had to do it about once every two months or so...then about once a year. When my doctor did the laparscopy on me in June,07 (hoping to find adhesions so we could figure out why I have been having pain, which they now think is from a ruptured disk) he was shocked at how "clean" my insides were. He said he actually consulted another doctor about it. He said that you always see evidence of any type of abdominal surgery no matter how invasive the surgery. And, since I had such a huge surgery back in 2000, he expected to see some type of adhesion debries...but did not see anything. A great testimonial to Body rolling!


I always suggest checking with the doctor. I am not a doctor, just a person miserable from the pain of
adhesions.

It does hurt a little while you are doing it, that is for sure, since you are initially pressing on the pubic bone with all the weight you can manage to put on the ball. And then you roll slowly to where the ovaries once were and yes, it is not the most pleasant feeling, but it is a "good hurt" if you know what I mean.

I recall Star saying that a "Squishy" type medicine ball could be used. I bought one a year ago for regular exercise and I do think that the squishy one would be perfect.

Take care and good luck!

Mary

[silver&gold]

Yes endometriosis is like a glue and it sticks organs together and causes adhesions my oncologist told me . the stretching of these causes the horrendous pain that is experienced by some with endo.
   Angie

[Mary 53]

Thanks Angie,

Before I had my hysterectomy I had much pain and I attributed the pain to the cysts (and still think that much of the pain did come from the cysts) but I also had pain in random areas of my body. During the hysterectomy they found endometriosis splattered all over, but it was little pieces of "blackened" endometriosis. They found pieces on my bladder and on my diaphram.

Then just before my lap in May I called the oncologist's office to run the idea by them to see what they thought of me having the surgery. My hope was that they would find adhesions (the doctor said that even one little one could cause big problems whereas sometimes someone will have many adhesions and have no problems) and snip the nasty thing so I would start to feel better. The nurse said, "Well, with your history of adhesions and endometriosis, that makes sense that this could be the problem."

So, that got me thinking but I never had a clear cut answer. So, thank you for the response.
My surgery revealed nothing but "clean" insides. Eventually I saw a Neurologist who discovered through an MRI that I had the ruptured disc.

Anyway, thanks again.

Mary