Hello all, it is a long time since I posted on here. I finished my treatment ( the usual radiotherapy/chemo regime) in December 2021 and have been lucky that my treatment has been curative and post radiation effects have been minimal . I have been pretty much able to return to the life I had before. I have had some continue fairly low grade issues with bowel and bladder control issues. I am very grateful.
Last week I ended up having to have surgery for a small bowel obstruction caused by adhesions in my pelvis. I am just interested to know if anybody else has experienced this as a complication of pelvic radiation. The cause of my adhesions may not even have been to do with the treatment, it could have been because of a previous hysterectomy, but as I say just interested to know if others have experienced this?
Hi Irene75359
No, I don’t mind the tag at all! I had adhesions directly caused by pelvic radiotherapy, which meant that my planned salvage hysterectomy when my cancer recurred couldn’t be completed. Basically my organs were fused together inside-womb to bladder etc so they couldn’t be safely separated and I was stapled up on the operating table and sent home.
It was safer to have a total pelvic exenteration where everything in my pelvis could be removed in one go, which is what ultimately happened. That then caused adhesions where my gallbladder, liver and omentum became stuck together which was discovered when I went for surgery to have my gallbladder removed! It made surgery difficult, and it took 4 times longer than normal but was luckily successful.
My original adhesions were definitely caused by pelvic radiotherapy, but didn’t cause me any issues at all and my team were surprised to discover them when they opened me up as it hadn’t been obvious on a scan. The cause of mine they told me was the pelvic radiotherapy-I had 32 sessions.
Sorry to hear you’re waiting for hernia surgery Irene-I hope it will all go well for you.
Sarah xx
