Post-surgery intestinal adhesions

[carlysy]

Hey everyone,

So I had my first surgery nearly a year ago (ileocolic resection) to remove the section of my bowel that had been causing me so much grief over the last 10 years, hoping that I would finally be able to look forward to some good health (or at least remission for a little while). BUT that didn't go according to plan. I had very bad infections from the surgery and a very long recovery time. Ever since the surgery I have not been well. The last 3 months I have gotten so bad that I can't work or live a normal life - the symptoms are similar to crohn's symptoms but they feel different to what I had always experienced before my surgery. After many tests, throwing every crohn's drug under the sun at me and many months of frustration my specialist thinks that while I am having a minor flare and do have a few small patches of active crohns, that my symptoms are actually the result of intestinal adhesions from my surgery. Has anyone experienced this? What do they feel like? I'm told the only way to treat them is with more surgery (booked in to see my surgeon in a few months) and I would do anything to feel normal again - has anyone had adhesions corrected? Do more adhesions form from more surgery? Does anyone have any advice for living with adhesions?

Anyone that has any insights/experience with problems caused by adhesions from bowel surgery I would love it if you could share. Thanks!

 

[UnXmas]

One thing I've heard is that adhesions are a controversial topic among doctors and their patients. It is very hard to determine when adhesions are responsible for symptoms. Some doctors believe it is very unlikely that adhesions cause symptoms, as some people have lots of adhesions and feel fine. So what often happens is when another cause for symptoms such as pain cannot be found, the symptoms end up being attributed to adhesions by some doctors, where other doctors would dismiss the idea, believing adhesions to be incidental. Adhesions are also controversial because more surgery can lead to more adhesions, hence operating to try to correct them may be seen as unproductive.

It really depends on how many adhesions you have, how bad, in what position, etc. The possibility for complications will vary hugely depending on these factors. I think if your adhesions were causing very obvious problems, your doctor would have picked up on them sooner and recognised a specific adhesion problem, rather than resorting to adhesions after ruling out many other possible causes. This doesn't mean that your adhesions aren't causing symptoms, just that it's harder to be certain that they are the problem.

Remember also that Crohn's itself can change, especially after surgery, so the fact that you feel different now than you did during previous flares does not necessarily mean something other than Crohn's is going on.


In my own case, I've had several surgeries affecting my bowel, abdomen, pelvis and the base of my spine. When a urologist was investigating bladder problems I was having, he suspected that adhesions may be involved purely due to the number of surgeries I'd had in that area. I knew this wasn't the case as I'd been having bladder problems since before my first surgery - which to me made it seem obvious he was on the wrong track. But he was determined to investigate anyway as he was convinced adhesions must be contributing. A couple of tests later and he was convinced adhesions weren't involved.

I think this is pretty typical of adhesions in terms of the uncertainty involved - in a person with adhesions and symptoms, it's very hard to determine if adhesions are the problem and one doctor may form a very different opinion about it than the next!

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. You'll really need to discuss it further with your surgeon and try to get him to be specific about how certain he is that adhesions are causing your symptoms and that further surgery would be beneficial.

 

[Donjh]

I'm one year out from surgery to have coke pouch removed replaced with a stoma, etc. i just started having pain a month ago so they had me go in for an MRE last Friday. The doctors at Shands that specialize in Crohn's say the MRE showed some adhesions and thats what is causing my pain. I've had an ostomy 45 years and never had a problem with adhesions that caused this kind if pain. Doctor Glover at Shands has been right up to this point so I guess I go with what she says. They want me to go for physical therapy for adhesions whatever that is and try taking lyrica for the pain. I guess we'll see what happens with this all..The adventure is never ending with crohn's thats for sure

 

[mrjohns2]

I have been worried since I may need a resection and a CT scan said there were adhesions from my appendectomy. I assume if they suspect adhesions, you are not a candidate for laproscopic surgery, correct?

 

[carlysy]

mrjohns2 I don't think that adhesions would rule you out for laproscopic surgery - the surgery to fix adhesions is laproscopic so I would imagine that they would remove any adhesions that were in the way before performing the resection