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Hysterectomy Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy, Laparoscopic Hysterectomy, LAVH, menopause, Oopherectomy, ovarian cysts, pelvic pain, radical hysterectomy, subtotal hysterectomy, supracervical or partial hysterectomy, uterine fibroids, and vaginal hysterectomy.
Recurrent abdominal pain- adhesions?
by cmcn, May 06, 2008 01:48PM
In 2005 I had an exploratory laparotomy, TAH/BSO with excision of two large (14 cm each) ovarian cystadenomas. About 20 years prior I had excision of a unilateral 5 cm serous cystadenoma. Other surgical history includes laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
I'm having a recurrent problem with intermittent left/mid upper abdominal pain. The cycle seems to be approximately 10-14 days in duration, and then disappears for lengths of time varying between a couple of weeks to several months. When it occurs, the pain quickly increases in severity over the course of a few days, reaching a peak and remaining severe for several days, then slowly decreases over several days, all the while of which it feels like there's a large fat snake turning about in my left abdomen. There is a large amount of GI noise. I do have two incisional hernias, a large one (about the size of the palm of my hand) in the right lower quadrant, and a smaller one on the right upper quadrant. These do not appear to be incarcerated.
Because of the peristaltic character of the pain, I'm suspicious of adhesions causing intermittent partial small bowel obstruction. My question is that if this is the case, how serious a problem is it and how concerned should I be about obtaining/achieving a surgical correction? Also, is there a nonsurgical treatment that I could be initiating at home, say at the onset of the pain? I have no health insurance and seeking treatment could easily turn out to be financially devastating. On the other hand, when the pain is at its worst, it is what I can only describe as "mortal pain" and leads to anxiety attacks (because of a definite feeling of impending death, especially when pain radiates into the chest). Since this cycle has continued many times over the past year, I do not anticipate it correcting itself. I'm just recovering from the latest siege and already dreading the next one.
I'm having a recurrent problem with intermittent left/mid upper abdominal pain. The cycle seems to be approximately 10-14 days in duration, and then disappears for lengths of time varying between a couple of weeks to several months. When it occurs, the pain quickly increases in severity over the course of a few days, reaching a peak and remaining severe for several days, then slowly decreases over several days, all the while of which it feels like there's a large fat snake turning about in my left abdomen. There is a large amount of GI noise. I do have two incisional hernias, a large one (about the size of the palm of my hand) in the right lower quadrant, and a smaller one on the right upper quadrant. These do not appear to be incarcerated.
Because of the peristaltic character of the pain, I'm suspicious of adhesions causing intermittent partial small bowel obstruction. My question is that if this is the case, how serious a problem is it and how concerned should I be about obtaining/achieving a surgical correction? Also, is there a nonsurgical treatment that I could be initiating at home, say at the onset of the pain? I have no health insurance and seeking treatment could easily turn out to be financially devastating. On the other hand, when the pain is at its worst, it is what I can only describe as "mortal pain" and leads to anxiety attacks (because of a definite feeling of impending death, especially when pain radiates into the chest). Since this cycle has continued many times over the past year, I do not anticipate it correcting itself. I'm just recovering from the latest siege and already dreading the next one.
Post Comment
hernias and GI issues. The pain is on the right side, but all of the other symptoms are exactly the same. I had a hysterectomy and a laparascopic cholecystectomy in Nov. 2007(same operation, different surgeons). I went to both doctors and had an ultrasound and blood tests, but nothing unusual was found. The doctor's assistant told me that she had the same problems and her doctor said it was from adhesions.What are these? I am afraid I may have to live with this for the rest of my life. I am taking oxycodone (Percocet) and Ibuprofen for the pain. Any advice out there?
Another awful thing about adhesions is that it takes more surgery to treat them. More surgery can cause more adhesions to form, so you may end up in a vicious circle and worse off than where you started. It's a really personal decision about how much pain and nausea you can stand before looking into treatment. If you end up with a full bowel obstruction, however, emergency surgery is necessary and that's all there is to it.
In the meantime, you can try to manage the symptoms by following a low-residue diet. I live primary on liquids myself. Meat is the worst, followed by high-fiber foods. That doesn't leave much to work with, but at least I can keep down what I do manage to eat. Forget about eating the 3 squares your mom always told you to eat. You'll do better slowly grazing on tiny amounts throughout the day instead of sitting down to a normal meal.