Belly pain seems to be starting again...

It is not what I would call "severe" yet... but I am having the initial kind of distress that usually happens before the serious pain) and the other surgeon I saw suggested that the next time it got severe (is not substantially relieved with Vicodin) that I go to the ER right away so that they couldd do a CT scan early in the attack and perhaps "catch" whatever is happening (that we have so far not been able to "catch" with previous CTs when I have waited a whole day (or more) to go in).

Not sure whether to hope for the serious pain to kick in or not...  would rather not have it at all, but since it always seems to come back eventually, I would really like to find out what it is (and fix it)!

Lora

 GET WELL SOON

I hope you get some relief!  FWIW, I had adhesions, pretty bad in fact, and the scans and all the other tests showed nothing.

The pain was so bad that I learned that was my cut-off, i.e. pain so bad I wanted to go to the emergency room.  My primary care doc did all the tests and I told my surgeon, who yelled at me for not telling him sooner.  The adhesions were twisting/growing into my intestines which was the cause of the severe pain.

It wasn't everyday pain until the week before I had them removed.  

Again, I hope you get some relief!!

Boht surgeonsa re pretty sure the problem IS adhesions, but my RNY surgeon will not surgically remove adhesions (she says that the surgery to remove them will just create more adhesions anyway, and the new ones might actually create a bigger problem than I have now)... and the second one would like to avoid it if possible.

Lora

Oh Lora, that *could* happen.  Both my PCP and RNY surgeon, *****moved them, said there is a chance that the surgery could make more adhesions.  But, knock on wood, it's been a year and another surgery later (had my GB out 3 weeks ago today) and it's been good. 

The pain was worse than the chance of more adhesions for me.  It's not a given that you will get more adhesions.

I had the band in, out, and RNY done within one year (June 08 - April 09).  Last May (10) I had the adhesions out.  The pain started in October of 2009.  It came and went so infrequently I didn't think much of it till it became more and more often.

Had the tests in April and was on the schedule to get them removed in the first week in May.  They may be causing your intestines to kink.  That is really bad, and I would be willing to bet that's what you have.  No scan will show it because the adhesions are so clear.

Make yourself heard - it could be causing you serious damage if you don't act fast.

hope you get relief SOON!!!

Hope you get answers soon.  It is possible exploratory surgery will be the only answer.  As Jenn mentioned those adhesions won't show up on the test. 

I've had a fair share of abdominal surgeries and everytime I've had another was told they had removed a "fair to significant" amount of adhesions.

He is trying to rule out things other than adhesions since the pain is so sporadic (or a condition with the intestine that is CAUSED by adhesions that theyt can see without doing surgery. I, too, have had a fair number of abdominal surgeries (including a TT that turned necrotic and generated a lot of palpable scar tissue when the "crater" filled in) and, although both surgeons think that the pain likely IS from adhesions, the frist one refuses to do additional surgery and the second one will only do it reluctantly if I cannot find another reason for it or a way to manage it.

Lora

Lora, I hope you get relief. My sister had a similar issue, and finally the doctors did exploratory surgery, and cleaned up a LOT of adhesions. She was warned that she might have more of them and someday end up back in the same place. She hasn't had any problems since then, and I know the adhesions were shortly after my neice was born .... she just graduated from high school.

I had surgery on my girl-bits a couple summers ago. My surgeon was surprised that, after four abdominal surgeries, I had NO adhesions. My skin almost never scars significantly. Must be my genetics.