Adhesions?

So today is my 8th day in the hospital. After I got all the Ileus issues worked out (and pooped more than I thought humanly possible), I thought I would be going home. WRONG!

Now that the bloating and pain in my belly are gone, the original pain that brought me to the ER is not being masked. And it's unbearable. Getting into bed last night I actually let out a blood-curdling scream and 3 nurses ran to my room. I was flat on my back crying like a baby & hyperventilating. It honestly felt like someone had had stabbed me with a long knife clean thru my right side. They gave Ativan to calm me down but the doc had changed pain meds to every  6 hours instead of 4 so I pretty much had to suffer for another 2 hours.

I can't stand up straight, I can't take a deep breath, getting in and out of bed is a nightmare and coughing makes me scream. I am not a complete wimp when it comes to pain and I almost never cry but this is excruciating!

The surgeon thinks I'm nuts - she says she's done everything she can from a surgical standpoint. She did order a KUB X-Ray and told me to talk to my primary doc. He said to talk to her after the X-Ray.

If I think about describing the pain, the only thing I can think of is that it feels like my abdominal wall has attached itself to my liver or peritoneum or some other organ inside. Every time I breath it pulls and it feels like it's ripping. A friend mentioned adhesions and the surgeon said there were a lot of adhesions around my appendix & cecum. Could this be the case with this side pain?

So my nurse just looked at the Xray report and told me it didn't see anything. WTH? Would an Xray even show adhesions?

 

Has anyone had experience with adhesions? Please help! I'm so frustrated :(

 

 

OMG - you poor thing!  No - x-rays show bones - not muscle, tendons, etc.  I'm not a medical person by any means, but I'd think an MRI would show you more.  

I  hope they can get it figured out fast.  I hope someone who has some experience with adhesions can answer you.  

BTW - good to see you again!

And this just goes to show me that things can still happen 4+ years out... 

So sorry. I think if I were you,by this point,I would be demanding and open exploratory surgery to find out what is going on once and for all.

That's not right.  I had amazing adhesions which my surgeon cut out when he did my RNY.  Adhesions take a while to grow, like more than 8 days.  I have horrible adhesions in my knee that was replaced and they prevent me from bending my knee past 90degrees.  And because they get wrapped around nerve endings, they are very painful.  But I don't think it is adhesions this early.  I'm no medical professional but you shouldn't be hurting like that.  I guess xrays would show if they left something in you that they weren't suppose to but they won't show adhesions.

  Hope they find out your problem very very soon.

Did you have surgery?  Did they even look for adhesions?  They are very common after abdominal surgery and hard to diagnose without going in there and looking for them.

Yes I had an lap appendectomy last Wednesday evening. She said there were adhesions around the appendix and cecum which she removed but I don't think she looked up further by my ribcage since she only used 2 trochars and their incisions are very low on the belly - my pain is upper right at the base of my ribcage.

I've been known to tear abdominal muscles before - I did after my hysterectomy and this pain feels very similar. So I'm going to get discharged from this place and see what happens the next couple of days.

Adhesions are a b*tch!
Been there.
But didn't you have some other abdominal surgery last year too?
A CT might see the problem - but do you really want to be opened up again so soon?
What about residual pain, or gall bladder?
Adhesions even if cut out have a 70% return.
Mikimi in Israel

I actually got on here today to ask about something similar, but not as severe.  My pain is in my mid-right side...almost directly across from my belly button on the right side.  Feels like a sharp knife in my side.  I had been researching on the web, but haven't found anything yet, and thought it could be adhesions.  I did find that pain just like you are describing is generally the gallbladder.  Have they checked it?  I certainly wouldn't leave till they figure it out.  Fortunately mine isn't nearly as severe, but it is getting a little worse and I am getting pretty tired of the pain.  Hopefully we will both get some answers soon!

The surgeon said that my gall bladder seemed fine. I think it's just a pulled muscle like I had with my hysterectomy - me not being gentle with my abdominal muscles. It's a bit better today and I'm wearing a binder to remind myself not over-do it.

Hope yours gets better or you figure it out!