An Update

It has now been a little over 6 months since my surgery for adhesions.

I have had my post op check since posting last (I just realised it has been a while). The pathology was good ... no recurrence of PMP in there! WOO HOOOOOO

My surgeon said he "realised why I was in trouble when he got in there" ... the entire small bowel was twisted and looped on itself and 'glued' together. He had to pull out and scrape every centimetre to free it up ... a huge surgery and it has been a long recovery time... longer than I expected. As I said in my prior post - the small bowel burst in 3 places during surgery & was able to be repaired without losing anymore ... great news because I lost my colon & part of my small bowel in my "cut'n'dice" for PMP in 2001. .... (if you want you can check the story at the bottom of the blog for more info on that)

The surgery has been successful in the fact that I am now able to manage to eat solid foods (chosen carefully) without the intense pain that followed because the food could not travel through the digestive tract.

I am still having problems with partial obstructions & pain after eating some foods or some activities and have recently started to feel the familiar 'twisting' of the bowel on sneezing, coughing or twisting while bending ... it is not anywhere near as bad as it was before surgery & I hope & pray that it doesn't ever get that way again.

There is a certain amount of pain etc that is a part of 'the new normal' after these types of surgeries & as long as I can eat a reasonable diet I am happy. I will always have to choose wisely because of my ileostomy (Harriett) ... and at the moment I only eat one "solid" meal a day ... choosing something light or liquid for the other two & I am very happy with that! (especially since I was basically living on liquids or slush for the better part of a year prior to this last surgery)

As I have shared on this blog, I have other health problems and at the moment am in a very major flare-up with my auto-immune arthritis so am in intense pain in every joint & muscle - literally. I am hoping this flare-up runs it's course sooner rather than later and goes into remission where the pain is more tolerable with the use of my pain relief patch (because it has been 'over the top' for weeks now where even getting out of bed is an effort) .

BUT the absolute best form of pain relief for me? My darling 7 month old granddaughter ... a beautiful smile and hug from her and I melt and forget about any pain for the time I am holding her &/or interacting with her. ... wish we could bottle that feeling!! LOL

To all those struggling with their own health ,

JKG!! (Just Keep Going ... derived from a quote by Winston Churchill; "When going through Hell, just keep going!")

Aussie hugs, Kay :)

A follow up on my surgery

It has been 3 weeks now since my surgery so I thought I should follow up my pre-surgery post.

Unfortunately the surgery wasn't the small keyhole surgery we had hoped for. I ended up with the full length incision once again (3rd time on the same scar - I think he should have installed a zipper LOL).

When the Prof inserted the camera to prepare for keyhole he realised the scar tissue/adhesions were very extensive throughout the entire abdomen. He then proceeded to do an open surgery, scraping the scar tissue/adhesions off every bit of remaining small bowel. Unfortunately the small bowel burst in 3 places during surgery - the upside is that it was in a controlled way & it was able to be repaired without losing any more bowel.

The Prof put a gel called Adept into the abdominal cavity before closing - this is supposed to inhibit excess scar tissue from developing in the crucial first days after surgery. He said he can't guarantee it will help but it won't do any harm.

Although it will be another long road to recovery, the best news ever is that there appeared to be no recurrence of PMP!!! Woo Hoo!

I see the Prof for my post-op check up on Nov 2nd so will get more details from him then re pathology etc

Hopefully I will be a bit further along the road to full recovery by then - at the moment I am taking one day at a time.

more later,

Kay :)