NEWS ON LIZZIE AND ALLIE

Rosemary, I am so glad to hear this about Lizzie. I hope this doctor can help her and quickly. Lizzie has been through enough and she deserves to be able to eat food, drink, and to live her life. Thanks for the update, Tracy

Thanks lifeinterrupt and Tracy, keep those prayers coming. Rosemary

P.S. Lifeinterrupted, very short form of Lizzie's story, she had colonic inertia so they removed her colon and hooked colon to top of rectum. THEN discovered she had pelvic floor issues. Then did an ileostomy but stoma not made correctly. Then they did some internal pouch instead. That malfunctioned so they fixed it one or two times. THEN back to ileostomy and had to redo that one? (I may have missed a few steps in here, but these were all open surgeries). Finally her intestines all scarred together and the place that did all the surgeries wrote her up as failure to thrive. Then a more local hospital at least did a feeding tube, then for awhile she could eat. BUT then back to throwing up what she ate. Then lots of tests to see if her intestines worked. Then kidney, bladder issues. FINALLY they figured out adhesions. These are THE most common side effect of open surgery, are on no consent forms, and they can kink your small intestines so you cannot eat and have NG tubes A LOT! AND hardly any docs warn you of these ahead of time. She is only 30 or 31 by now. This has been several years for her now since around age 28 or 29 or maybe even younger? My heart bleeds for her. I am 55 and almost died of similar scenario when I was 50. Took me 13 months of being unable to eat or pass stool due to small and large bowel and rectum being scarred almost shut. (Simple form of my story). Turns out original surgery that did all this to me was not needed upon review. Devastating. That is why I am so tied to Lizzie getting out of this. Hope this doc can help. Any others forgive me if I missed a few steps in Lizzie's scenario, but this is the quick summary I could come up with to update the new comers. All with thoughts of prayer and that God or greater being give this adhesion specialist the gift he needs to help her. Sincerely, Rosemary PS If he is successful I will definitely remember his name just in case I ever go the adhesion blockage road again.

Life, WOW, your age? I know. Her ordeal tests the limits of human endurance. At her and your ages I was invincible, or thought I was anyway. One never knows. I keep wondering how long I have until another adhesion blockage, but so far so good since my 2007 adhesion lysis and ileostomy made necessary by the what turned out to be unneeded surgery in 2006 (irony all around). That is why I have been traveling so much. Waste not a minute. Rosemary

Thanks Life, I sure hope my luck holds. It is one day at a time. Due to the seriousness of my adhesions, even though fixed the best that could be done, I am at daily risk for adhesion regrowth and reobstruction. Sort of like living with a guillotene over one's head. BUT, hence all the travel and good times. AND the worry factor is big, but then there is the side of the coin that the adhesion regrowth may not happen (my adhesion surgeon was very experienced and did use an adhesion barrier) so why wreck the gift of time I've been given worrying about what may not happen. So that is the mental train I'm trying to stay on. Rosemary

Adhesions can be an issue for anyone who has surgery. Just a fact. Some of us tend to have more difficulties with them than others. Point to take: they cannot be seen by most testing, unless they are banding an organ or the intestine. I've had issues since my ostomy surgery with them blocking the emptying process of the stomach into the small intestine. Painful, reflux, cannot eat. I have a wonderful GI who is willing to do an EGD as needed, and that has been a temp/perm fix for me but more recently it has only lasted 6-8 months in between episodes. I have been assisting/lifting my husband a lot lately (he has ALS) and I can't help to think that this may be contributing to my issues now. Your thoughts?