Pain in upper left quadrant after septic shock & ostomy reversal

[elove]

Hello,

for about 2 months now I have had fairly severe, chronic pain in my upper left abdominal area, under the lower part of the left rib cage. It feels sometimes muscular, sometimes like a nerve being pressured, and sometimes like part of an intestine being achy. I had multiple abscesses , hematomas which ocurred after several doctor errors (infecting of ovarian cyst while trying to remove eggs) and then perforation of intestine while trying to do something else to fix me. This led to transfusions, several surgeries, septic shock, transverse loop colostomy, reversal. About a month after the reversal the pain started, and now I am almost permanently attached to a heating pad, or aching for motrin! I can't eat much, it only increases the pain, and am cautious with alot of stretching or exercises that might irritate it. Any thoughts? I know I have a complex history, but Im not even sure at this point if I should go to a GI doc or a PT or something else. And, Ive spent so much time in the hospital and with doctors over the last 8 months that I have been trying to ignore/self-solve this, but cant seem to be able to. Thank you for any thoughts you may have!!

[elove]

Thanks for your thoughts, Jaybay. I am hearing adhesions can be very nasty and are extremely common after internal infection.

[Jaybay]

I bet you have scar tissue (adhesions) wrapped around your bowels.  You mention you had a perfed intestine and peritonitis as a result.  All that infection inflames tissue, so the healing response results in scarring.  If the adhesions attach to bowels (or other structures) they can cause the symptoms you're having - and worse.  

You might start with the gastro doc and discuss this possibility.  Sometimes the intestine can be opened up with a colonoscopy.  If the adhesions are on loops of small intestine, or the scope can bust them up, you'll need adheliolysis surgery, which is done with the laparascope.  Adhesions don't show up on tests either, so prepare yourself for a battle.