Adhesions

 Hi everyone,

I am 3 weeks post-op from my RNY gastric bypass.  This past week I was readmitted to the hospital because of some severe abdominal pain that came in waves and had surgery on Wednesday.  They saw a small hernia by my belly button and some swelling in my intestines on the CT scan, so they went in with the laproscope to take a look around first.  They found I had a lot of inflammation in my intestines by my JJ (the second hook-up they make during the RNY) and adhesions there as well.  They removed the adhesions and stitched up the hernia.

Since then I've been doing a lot of reading on adhesions.  I am surprised that they were never mentioned by anyone to me pre-op because according to the reading I've done online, they occur in 93% of abdominal surgeries.  In most cases they are harmless, though.  They become a problem when they are attached to the intestines because they can cause blockages over time.  They cause cramp-like pain that comes in waves, lasting seconds to minutes, and usually gets worse after eating (exactly what I went to the ER for).

What concerns me is that there is no way to prevent them and they are caused by surgery itself.  I'm left worrying that although they were removed, they could form again.  I haven't been able to find material online talking about reoccuring cases and so I was wondering if any of you had problems with adhesions after surgery and if you did, was it a one-time problem or a reoccuring problem?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Take care,
Amy

 I'm sorry for what you have been through.  I hope things are better now.  I am almost 9 years post op and have daily pain from adhesions.  Of course the multiple abdominal surgeries that I have had haven't helped either.  Everytime they cut out my adhesions more grow back.  Two out of the three times it has been for the worse.  I usually get about four months of being pain free after they cut them out and then back to the same pain.  I get a partial bowel obstruction from them about two to three times a year, my last one had me in the hospital for a week in May.  And I've been in the ER twice this week because I couldn't handle the pain.

I'm not responding to scare you, just to inform you that it does happen.  Feel free to read my profile.

Stephanie E

That  is my concern also. I have had other surgery like c-section and tubal ligation and have a lot of scare tissue. I haven't had my surgery yet but have it scheduled. I talked to my doctor and told him that was my concern he did a lapband two years ago and I am getting a revison to RNY. He told me don't be concerned they where all in my lower ab. But I am wondering too if they will form like yours did. If anyone else has any more info would love to hear about it. 

Hey Amy :)
Adhesion's grow over time - they are internal scar tissue.  So yes, they can reoccur. Mine did/do.  I'm pretty confident that I'm going to end up with a bowel obstruction at some point because my body loves to make scar tissue (adhesion's). 

Nothing you can do to prevent them.  They just happen.

I had surgery 2 weeks ago tomorrow.  I had been sick for weeks and had a CT and a scope both finding nothing wrong but showing my bowels to be backed up.  Eventually I could keep nothing down and I was constipated (suffered from this my whole life).  I ended up in the hospital overnight here in town due to dehydration, released on Sunday and by Sunday night I was just as sick as before.  I called my surgeons office Monday morning and they got me in on Wednesday morning.  He went in on thursday thinking it would be something with my RNY -- I expected to wake up with laprascopic incisions but they used my old c-section and hysterectomy scar and cut me all the way down.  Seems adhesions were would around my bowel and colon and they had to cut them all away and unkink my bowel -- they also found an abcess pocket  on my colon.  My surgeon said he hadn't seen anything much like it before and that he didn't know what had happened in there but something had. 

My fear, like yours,  is that it will happen again.  This is by far the worst illness I've ever been through and I've been having a difficult recovery. 

I feel your pain and I hope things get better for you all and pray we don't have to go through this anymore.