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abdominal distension after surgery on small intestine

My husband (age 69)had a blockage in his small intestine a few years ago which required the removal of about 18 inches of his small intestine. The last six months or so he's been experiencing bouts of extremely painful abdominal distention. Doctors think it is due to scar tissue at the site of the surgery. Sometimes the pain is so bad he becomes nauseated and dizzy. Do any of you homeopathic doctors know of a remedy that will help him. It breaks my heart to see him hurt like that.
Thank you.
 
  Suze5 on 2010-08-01
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
Of course, he can be helped with Homeopathic treatment.There are good many medicines.

Can you provide more details?

Please specify the location of pain(upper,middle or lower abdomen, or entire abdomen)

What is the type of pain?

When is the pain worse?

Is there belching or flatulence?

How is his appetite?

How is his thirst?

What about his bowel movements and urine?

Can he sleep well?

Does any food seem to aggravate his condition?

How is his general health?

Give details about his mental/emotional state?
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
Of course, he can be helped with Homeopathic treatment.There are good many medicines.

Can you provide more details?

Please specify the location of pain(upper,middle or lower abdomen, or entire abdomen)

The entire abdomen is distended, but the main pain is an inch or two below the navel.

What is the type of pain?

Intense pain from the pressure of the distention.

When is the pain worse?

A few hours after eating, most often at night.

Is there belching or flatulence?

Flatulence relieves the pain, while there is pain there is no movement in his intestines of any kind (which seems to be the problem). There is belching only if he gets to the point of nausea (which has only happened a few times).

How is his appetite? - appetite is good, but he has taken to eating many smaller meals (which seems to help prevent the distention/blockage to some degree). However, after a major incident he is afraid to eat for several days. He eats, but it makes him very nervous.

How is his thirst? - His thirst is fine, but sometimes he gets too busy and distracted to drink.

What about his bowel movements and urine?

Both normal.

Can he sleep well?

Has had a problem with insomnia his whole life due to thinking when he should be sleeping.

Does any food seem to aggravate his condition?

Any food that increases gas in the intestines - beans, fiber, most vegetables (all the things that have the nutrients that are good for you - and I worry about that). Also, medium to large meals aggravate the condition. He loves potatoes and eats them almost everyday for the 25 years I have been with him.

How is his general health?

He is strong and generally healthy. We run (not jog) most every day for an hour. He is a top runner for his age group. However, he has had prostate cancer (had his prostate removed and has had radiation treatment for that) some years ago.

Give details about his mental/emotional state?

He is very analytical in the world. Likes to understand the way things work. Has a PhD in psychology. He is very even in his emotions except when it comes to me. He likes us to be on the same page - or think about things the same way. When that doesn't happen he gets upset. I worry sometimes that the stress of that can cause the problem to occur, but I cannot always control for that. Also, when he is having pain he is stoic to a point and then becomes depressed when he can't do anything about it.

Thank you, and let me know if you need any additional information.
 
Suze5 last decade
You can try Nux vomica 30C,4 pills/ 3-4 times a day for 2 days.Kindly report me the chnages.He may have to make changes in his diet.If you need advise about diet, kindly mail me details about his diet preferences.
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
He eats cream of wheat in the morning with a variety of fruit and nuts (almonds, pumpkin seeds, a strawberry, a few blueberries, a small portion of apple, and banana.

Around 10:00 am he eats one half of a bagel with sesame seeds, toasted with peanut butter on top and a half of an orange.

At 1:00 pm or so he eats a homemade cookie - peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and whole peanuts, the recipe also includes eggs, yoghurt, apple sauce, flour, a little soy milk, and chocolate powder. He likes these cookies and says they sit with him very well. There is no added sugar or oil, other than the oil from the peanut butter, so they are not real sweet cookies like you'd buy in the store. He thinks the peanut butter helps move things along with his digestion.

In the afternoon around 3:00 pm he might have another small snack of crackers and a little cheese. Or maybe some avocado on a cracker.

Then we go for our daily run on the mountain trails.

For dinner he generally has steamed potatoes and maybe a little white fish with a boiled egg sandwich with avocado and tomato on white bread (he used to eat whole wheat but worries that it causes gas now). When he has something to drink it is just water and sometimes milk. Sometimes he will have an omelet with mushrooms black olives and cheese with toast and strawberry jam.

Around 2:00 am in the morning he wakes and has another cookie and some milk, which he says helps him go back to sleep.

Although he sometimes varies from this diet, it is infrequent. Mostly this is what he eats every day. It is what he has come to trust and seems to work for him. He used to eat lots of steamed or stir-fried vegetables (brocolli, cauliflower, chard, celery, onions, mushrooms, etc)and also salads, soup, and maybe pasta now and then, but those things make him nervous now because of the distention and pain.

I would appreciate any suggestions you have on improving his diet. He will not eat anything like sweet potatoes or cucumbers or beans or green or red peppers or . These are things he has never liked and would never eat.

By the way, I have been giving him Calc Flor when he has an episode coming on, and I think it has been helpful. It's hard to tell because the episodes are so periodic. He can go for quite a while without one, and then it comes again, so it's hard to tell exactly what has helped. That will be the case with the Nux-V as well. We won't know whether it has helped unless he never has another episode again. And if he does have another episode - maybe he just needs another dose of Nux-V.

Do you have any suggestions as to how to know if the Nux-V is helping, given that the episodes happen periodically and we never know when they are going to strike?

Thank you for your help Dr. Saravanan. I appreciate it very much.
 
Suze5 last decade
Dr. Saravanan,

I received an email that you had replied to my answers to the dietary questions, but when I went to ABC Remedy to look for your response, there was nothing new there. Don't know if you answered or not.
 
Suze5 last decade
Nux vomica can be taken during an episode of pain, in frequent doses to get relief.Just try this and let me know the response.If it does not seem to help, then we shall consider some other remedy.
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
Some tips for digestive health.


Flatulence may be due to various factors.

*STRESS: Stress harmones such as epinephrine and cortisone divert blood from the digestive system to the muscles, trigger contraction of the stomach muscles and may increase acidity.
Stress also makes to swallow air while eating.

*Eating too fast can reduce the flow of digestive juices.

*Unwise food mixtures and combinations may lead to disturbed digestion and gas formation.

*Excess wind may occur if you eat fruit after a fatty meal.
(Avoid taking fruits along with vegetables or cooked food.Fruits can be taken on an empty stomach or 2-3 hours after meals.
Do not mix sweet fruits with citrus fruits.)

*Eating unripe fruits may cause indigestion.

*Indigestion and gas formation may be due to certain foods such as milk,Peanuts etc to which you are sensitive.

*Drinking too much water while eating affects digestion, as water tends to dilute the digestive juices.
(Do not drink more than 50-100ml of water while eating.Water can be taken generously an hour before or after meals.)
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
Thank you, Dr.Saravanan.

I will pass your words on to my husband. I thank you for your kind assistance.

All my best to you,
Zoe
 
Suze5 last decade
You are welcome.If you have any queries, feel free to mail me.
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
Dr. Saravanan

My husband is still having problems with distension and intense gripping pain in his abdomen. If he eats very small amounts of food - and only certain foods (potatoes, eggs, cottage cheese, white bread, and peanut butter) he is okay, but if he eats a just a little more than usual, he will get the distension and pain and sometimes nausea. I believe that he has scar tissue in his intestine from the surgery where they removed 18 inches of his small intestine. I am wondering if Staphisigria or some other remedy might help with the scar tissue and the pain.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Suze
 
Suze5 last decade
Can you please email me?
I shall re-evaluate the case and suggest the remedy.
 
Dr.Saravanan last decade
To Suze

'Flatulence relieves the pain, while there is pain there is no movement in his intestines of any kind (which seems to be the problem). There is belching only if he gets to the point of nausea (which has only happened a few times). '

I note that another homeopath is treating your husband's case but I must inform you that his problem may be due to the food he eats not passing down his gut for some hours which then reacts with the pain due to it not passing down as it should as the gut reacts by going into spasm which in turn results in pain.

I note that he continues to do his exercise 'Then we go for our daily run on the mountain trails. '
I also note that he eats rich food which may be difficult for his stomach to digest. He is advised to reduce his intake of fatty food and also eliminate all raw salads which are difficult for the stomach to digest especially in his condition. He can also eat a lesser quantity of food but he may eat an extra meal or snack to make up the deficiency if he feels hungry.

He is also advised to reduce his level of exercise as at his age of 69 running is not recommended.

The remedies that I would like to prescribe are:

Nat Phos 6x dose 2-4 tablets taken immediately after every meal to help his condition. NP will accelerates the passage of food down the gut thereby causing peristalsis. He can reduce the dosage of NP when he finds that it has helped his condition.

He can also take Arnica 30c in the Wet dose twice daily. This will help him in many ways which you can read by visiting:

ARNICA THE MIRACLE REMEDY
http://www.joedelivera.com/?p=66

You may like to know that I treated a 93 year old man who is my close friend about 10 years ago on the day before he was scheduled to have surgery for a similar condition to your husband as he was constipated for about a week and his abdomen was distended. He was also in severe pain which his doctors could not diagnose. When I was informed of his problem I took with me some Nat Phos 6c tablets and I gave him 6 tablets with instructions to repeat the dose every 3 hours. He had a motion within 12 hours after he took the first dose and he is still very much alive but has to be supported to walk. He takes a daily dose of Arnica 30c and his mental power is undiminished. He is a retired electrical engineer and suffered from Eczema since age 19. The Arnica cured him within a week after he returned from hospital and he is now completely free of Eczema.

For the record I would like to state here that I am 82 years of age and have taken Arnica 30c in the Wet dose nightly for the last 16 years and am convinced that it has helped me to maintain my present status of health with BP
 
Joe De Livera last decade
Thank you for your replay, Joe De Livera. It is true that as soon as soon as my husband can pass gas, the pain and distension is relieved. However, the food he eats, is the only thing that keeps him going. He has experimented with different types of food and the things he eats are the only food that works. He already eats 'very small' meals, four or five times a day (as you suggested. It is when he tries to eat just a little bit more (only a few bites more) that he has the problem (and also if he experiences any psychological stress. He had a test recently, and was told that his digestion is 'very fast,' faster than most people. So that is most likely not the problem. Also, he has never suffered from constipation. It is just that sometimes, his digestive system gets full of gas and he becomes painfully distended.

My feeling is that it is the scare tissue from his intestinal surgery that is causing the problem. Perhaps, the area where he removed 18 inches of his small intestine, is narrowed and if he eats too much things get trapped there temporarilly and cause pain. So, I am interested in a remedy which will help get rid of the scare tissue.

Thank you.
Suze
 
Suze5 last decade

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