my friend Jill has and I just sent her a note. I hear its a bit uncomfortable but as she has a history of adhesions this seemed to help her a great deal. but hopefully she'll come along and opine directly.

Has she needed to be opened up to remove adhesions or has the myofascial prevented other obstructions?

she said it helped but a few years back she had a SBO that unfortunately required surgery.

I started with myofascial release (MFR) back in 2002, shortly after my first surgically-mediated SBO. It has done wonders!!! I highly highly super-duper really endorse it! Make sure that you get someone that really knows what they're doing. My therapist had also taken some visceral PT classes, too. I had another SBO this summer and could not go to the ER (long story). My hubby "railed on my tummy" and broke up the obstruction. Even my GI has said that it's done wonders for me. After awhile, they taught my hubby to do the release on me. When I've felt particularly bad, he's done that 3-4 times per day. GO FOR IT! Email me if I can help!!!

J-pouch one-step 10/15/2001

Hi Jilly

Thanks!!! Much appreciated ;-) that is great news!!

How does one know if they have found a good one? I will be going to an osteopathic doctor to perform this treatment in one week.   

I get A.R.T., active release technique therapy and it really helps. My PCP noticed my abdomen felt better before I told her I'd had ART treatments.  They sound a lot like what you are discussing here.

I had laproscopic surgery to divert from using my j-pouch to a permanent ileostomy 4 months ago. My surgeon spent 3 hours working in my adhesions as they were bad. There was no way all of them could have been fixed by my A.R.T. therapy. It was an unexpected benefit from having the surgery. I am continuing on with the treatments so hopefully the adhesions won't all comeback. 

I was told that they never did surgery for adhesions unless they were obstructing or otherwise needed. They did small bowel studies on me and even though my transit time was super slow  my local surgeon told me partial obstructionsm would happen from time to time and basically to live with them. It pissed me off as those tests were done when there was nothing in my intestines and j-pouch but the barium I'd drank that had the consistency of water.  With food inside me it was worse. But since there were no kinks, knots or strictures all was well according to my local surgeon.

Fortunately my Mayo surgeon saw fit to spending her time peeling my intestines off of the mesh that was inserted to treat  my incisional hernia 4 years ago. There was also adhesions everywhere that made diverting me difficult.  

This is why I continue to get the A.R.T. therapy. I also bust thinks up myselfor but the therapist gets to the deeper ones. It was difficult to do this when my j-pouch was still working as it was inflamed and large. We didn't want to damage it.

You can look up local people, usually physical therapists and chiropractors, trained in A.R.T. on their website. I couldn't find anyone in my area that did myofascial release. I even went to a big P.Therapy Group office and talked to them about it and if they knew anyone around that did it. I got the deer in the headlights look.

Wow, you  have had a lot of dialation done, did you find that helped.  Was yourbowel slow after the anesthetic? I am told I need the same as I have a stricture close to the rectum.  I am told by the surgeon that it will be extremely painful.

Thanks for the advice, will look into it for sure ;-)

Hi Maddie18,

I had stricture problems too as even after dilations during pouchoscopes and a surgical one under anesthesia it wouldn't open up.  I had chronic cuffitis and pouchitis and my surgeon said something like the cuffitis was causing the strictures.  I had pelvic floor problems by then too so it all added up to a dysfunctional pouch.  Had too many problems that wouldn't settle down.

I didn't find the dilation's too painful.  My bowels always did fine waking up.  My bladder is always stubborn. I wish I would have told them to leave the catheter in an extra day but they probably wouldn't have listened  I've needed straight caths several times.  Those aren't fun. 

My surgeon and her team expected a 1.5 hour surgery and it was 4.5 hours due to 3 hours spend on my adhesions.  The surgeon that did my j-pouch surgeries noted a lot of scar tissue from my hysterectomy surgery.  That and the 2 open j-pouch surgeries followed 6 months later with an incisional hernia repair surgery with mesh had me in a mess.  Sometimes we just have to say uncle. 

She first suggested excising my j-pouch but I wasn't ready, mentally, for another big surgery.  Hopefully I will never have to have it removed.  I relied on many here that told me a permanent ileostomy was better than a temp one.   

I'm still in daily pain but my quality of life has improved greatly.  I wish I'd had the diversion 18 months before I did.  That's when I started thinking about it.  Time to get on with life!

Good Luck!  I had a second opinion as my GI at Mayo's thought it was time to quit using it.  I always think we should have several opinions, even if at the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic or where ever we have our surgeries performed. I hope all works out well for you.

You say you are still in pain, why?

What do you mean by you wish you had the diversion 18 months eearlier?  What is diversion?

I have a ton of adhesions,  xrays are hard to read.  Thinking two opinions are enough considering there is not much else to do but remove them so that I can return to a somewhat better way if living.

I still have abdominal pain even after switching  from using my j-pouch to a permanent ileostomy. I didn't have my j-pouch removed but am not using it any longer. Removal is a major surgery that I hope I will never need.

You are right the x-rays, CTscans and barium x-rays I had done over the years didn't the tell much about adhesions. The only thing the barium one proves is if you have a kink, loop or stricture inside. They can cause obstructions and they might be caused by adhesions. Since I only had partial obstructions they wouldn't perform surgery for my adnesions and they didn't know how bad they were.  I should have pushed it more in hindsight. 

18 months before I  was diverted I realized that none of my j-pouch problems were going into remission. The treatments weren't working very well.

Diversion= diverting ileostomy

Jan