Dealing with partial small bowel obstruction for 11 years

Is that your most recent scan (CT or MRI) of your small bowel? You're long overdue for another scan if 2007 was your last one.

Ability to pass gas and have bowel movements is impeded when a person has strictures in the colon.

Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, bloating, fullness, those are signs of small bowel obstructions.

I'm no surgeon, and I haven't seen your scans, but with that many small strictures in a row, I doubt they'd be able to strictureplasty them successfully. I think a resection is probably a much more likely approach. But only surgeons can tell you that for sure.

Good to know you've had a more recent scan and are soon having another.

To say they only operate out of complete obstruction is, well, absurd and stupid. She's either misinformed or there was miscommunication. By the time there is complete obstruction, surgery is mandatory - and often an emergency surgery. Emergency surgeries are to be avoided whenever possible.

To do surgery or not depends on you and your quality of life with the condition. Waiting until it becomes an emergency just puts you at higher risk of poor surgical outcomes.

Seek opinions from one or two surgeons in your area, regardless of what the nurse told you.

After your upcoming MRI, get copies of the images (probably on a CD-ROM) and talk to a couple of surgeons in Boston, just to get their opinions on what your options are as far as surgery goes. I'm not saying you will need surgery sooner rather than later, but I do think you're in a position to start considering it and to get a feel for what the possibilities and options are.

Paul, Beave has given you some excellent info. That nurse really spoke out of turn. I had a complete blockage & abscess hit & the symptoms hit suddenly, no warning. We were on vacation out of the country & it was not a place to have something like that to happen. I can assure you the risks are real.

Paul, from reading here over the years the folks that had partial obstructions, pain was very much a part of it. Look at what Beave described in his post.

Your best source to discuss this with (crohns related issues) is your gi. My pcp will not discuss anything crohns related with me. He says talk to your gi that is his area not mine. Keep in mind his wife has UC & he has much knowledge.

It will be interesting to see what the MRI shows. There is a small chance of of issues at the resection site, not something I am concerned with at all. It's been 16 years since my resection & things look good. I didn't have a choice on surgery. If I needed a resection again, I would have surgery without hesitation. I don't ever want to go down the road I did before.

For people with IBD, an actual colonoscopy is highly preferred over a CT colonography for a number of reasons.

You might want to ask how close in proximity are your multiple strictures? If they are close together and you won't lose too much bowel, then I think you should seriously consider a re-section surgery, especially if they think the strictures are primarily from old scar tissue.
I had about 17 cm removed (so not a lot) in a re-section in 2014 and I have been in remission so far with no re-occurence and no Chron's meds. I know that's only 4 yrs, but has been a nice long break from obstruction pain!