Take Back Control of YOUR ARD Medical Intervention

UNDER CONSTRUCTION...Stand By for pictures of "Adhesions"

Adhesion Related Disorder-Raising World Wide Awareness and Education!

Introduction

Knowledge Is Power- YOUR Power Comes From Education, Support and The Experience of Others With ARD.
Here you will find the resources and tools to BE YOUR OWN BEST Dr.!

Post-surgical adhesions often occur following pelvic and abdominal surgery.
Data has suggested that 67% to 93% of patients will develop adhesions following abdominal/pelvic surgery!

It is imparative that all persons afflicted with ARD maintain a file at home encompassing ALL aspects of thier ARD interventions and needs.
You will need to secure the following material for your in home files:

Task

Names and contact information of all medical professionals and facilities

Doctors Office Notes.

ALL diagnostic procedure reports.

Emergency room visits.

Keep a list of all medications.

Secure copies your lab work.

List all supporting medical, social, psychological and Governmental interventions.

List all outside assistance you have had in relationship to your home care or health needs in your home.

Process

Here is the process by which you will build your home based medical file for ARD. Always try to have someone assisting you with this process
so that it is as comprehensive as possible.

The most important assignment for persons afflicted with “Adhesion Related Disorder (ARD)” is to become as educated and informed about ARD as they can be.
It is also imperative thatwilling family and friends of ARD victims also become as informed and educated about this disorder as possible. It is NEVER just the person impacted with ARD that suffers alone as it impacts every area of their life, and the lives of their extended families members as well.

Here is the best start we can share with you as you try to gain some control over a life consumed by pain, suffering, confusion, anger and the feeling of being lost and alone!
Start here and you will find that,

“Your Not Alone!”

1. With a partner, write down which medical reports you currently have in your possession, and which reports you need to secure, such as:
Operative Reports, Dr. Office Records,Lab Reports, Diagnostic Tests Results, Emergency Room Visits and any other type of physical/medical intervention you had for your ARD symptoms.

2. With a partner, list all the medical care providers you have visited in relationship to your ARD needs, such as: Physicians, Surgeons, GI Specialists,
Dieticians, Psychologists/Psychiatrists, Physical therapy, Pain Management, etc. Record full names, practice specialty, contact information and dates you were seen by the providers.

3. With a partner, list all non medical care providers you have visited or utilized in relationship to your ARD needs, such as: Dieticians, disability specialists,
legal counsel, home health care,family members taking care of your home care needs, advocates, personal counseling, other sources of non conventional interventions such as: Acupuncture, massage therapy, etc.
Record full names, practice specialty, contact information and dates you were seen by the providers.

4. With a partner, list all the Government Agency’s such as: Dept. of Social Security, Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation, Dept. of Social Services
you have visited in relationship to your ARD needs. Name the facility, contact information dates of visits and type of intervention.

5. With a partner, list all medications you are currently taking, prescriptions as well as over counter medications. Catalog the medical care provider who prescribed them to you,
the date prescribed, name of medication, dosage prescribed, times you take each medication, and your reaction to the medications. List as best possible medications you have taken in the past and record them the same as your current medications.
You can also contact ALL pharmacies for a list of prescription medications you have presented to them for filing and secure those records. (For prescriptions yet to be written, photo copy them and keep the copies in
your file as that will suffice for your medication logs.)

6. Have a calendar available that will be used to record everything you do in relationship to your ARD. Record all appointments, also record on the calendar how you feel each day,
what medication, or combinations of medications do for or against you. Record on this calendar what medical records you have requested, the facility you requested them from, who you spoke to, and when you received them and placed in your
home-medical file.

The following links will provide you with the most comprehensive information and material avaiable through the Internet on the subject of ARD.
You are warned that the information found in these links is NOT to be taken as medical advice, but simply as an education as what YOU can do to help yourself receive the best intervention for your ARD symptoms, as well as to protect yourself
from future harm when seeking intervention for your ARD symptoms.

" YOUR OWN BEST DOCTOR!"

Adhesion Related Disorder Information
International Adhesions Society
National Institue Of Health * Womens Surgical Group * Go to the ardchat.com.

http://www.adhesionrelateddisorder.com/

Find out about ARD before you have any surgery!

Adhesion Related Disorder Awareness

Find out about ARD before you have any surgery!

Adhesions are internal scars that bind organs and tissues that are not normally connected. Adhesions form as a result of trauma due to surgery, infection, disease or other injury. Adhesions can distort and disturb body functions and cause pain, intestinal obstruction and infertility, giving rise to a complex of problems, collectively termed "Adhesion Related Disorder (ARD)" - Dr. David Wiseman, Founder International Adhesion Society,

More..http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/9/prweb279356.php

The rate of adhesion formation after surgery is surprising given the relative lack of knowledge about ADHESIONS among doctors and patients alike. From autopsies on victims of traffic accidents, Weibel and Majno (1973) found that 67% of patients who had undergone surgery had adhesions. This number increased to 81% and 93% for patients with major and multiple procedures respectively. Similarly, Menzies and Ellis (1990) found that 93% of patients who had undergone at least one previous abdominal operation had adhesions, compared with only 10.4% of patients who had never had a previous abdominal operation. Furthermore, 1% of all laparoscopies developed obstruction due to adhesions within one year of surgery with 3% leading to obstruction at some time after surgery. Of all cases of small bowel obstruction, 60-70% of cases involve adhesions (Ellis, 1997). Lastly, following surgical treatment of adhesions causing intestinal obstruction, obstruction due to adhesionreformation occurred in 11 to 21% of cases (Menzies, 1993). Between 55 and 100% of patients undergoing pelvic reconstructive surgery will form adhesions.

Recent analysis of the latest US health statisticsby the International Adhesions Society (IAS) (www.adhesions.org) reveals that over 2200 people died in 2001 with a diagnosis of intestinal obstruction due to adhesions. This number has been consistent for five consecutive years with between 2100 and almost 2500 deaths per annum. Women account for a 60% majority of these deaths.

In 2001 there were over in-patient 67,000 discharges with a primary diagnosis of adhesion-related obstruction, with an average length of hospitalization of 9.8 days. With an average charge of some $32,000, this represents a cost to the economy of $2.15 Billion. About two-thirds of these costs were borne by Medicare and Medicaid. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. When other inpatient diagnoses of peritoneal and pelvic adhesions are added, the cost easily exceeds $5 billion, and that is before out-patient costs and loss of work are considered. Nearly 30% of the hospital discharges for adhesion-related obstruction occurred in the 45-64 age range, and 53% occurred in the 65+ age range.

The most deaths (1196) occurred in the 45-64 age range, but as a percentage of the hospitalizations, the greatest risk of death (10%) occurred after age 85. report to document the number of deaths related to adhesions, and serves to highlight the extent of an under-appreciated problem. Others have previously reported that a patient undergoing pelvic or abdominal surgery will be readmitted twice in the next 10 years for a problem related to adhesions, or for a procedure that could become complicated by adhesions. Given the extent and severity of ARD it is surprising that few people have heard of the condition. In a recent survey conducted by the IAS, patients reported that they were told about adhesions in only 25% of procedures they underwent. This number dropped to only 10% when procedures not known to involve adhesion surgery were considered.

Patients facing ANY surgical procedure are strongly urged to ask their doctors about ARD before undergoing surgery. Patients are also urged to discuss the issues of "post surgical adhesions" with hospital and public health officials to ensure that adhesions are discussed as part of the informed consent procedures. By engaging in this discussion doctors will want to consider options for reducing the risks to the patient of post-operative adhesions. This will benefit not only patients, also the doctors who are faced with the sequelae of ARD.

For more information please contact: Dr. David Wiseman, Founder, International Adhesions Society 6757 Arapaho Road, Suite 711-238, Dallas, TX 75248 972- 931- 5596
Email: david.wiseman@adhesions.org

A Patient's Guide to Adhesions & Related Pain
Written by Dr. David Wiseman, PhD, MRPharms

What are Adhesions?

The Magnitude of the Problem of Adhesions

Adhesions and Chronic Pelvic Pain (CPP)

Do Men Get Adhesions?

Conclusion: You Are Not Alone

http://www.adhesionrelateddisorder.com/adhesion1.html

Abdominal Adhesions
Written by Dr.Harry Reich.

What Are the Symptoms of Adhesions?

Background:Historical Understanding, Causes & Frequency Data

Minimally Invasive Treatments

Laparascopic Peritoneal Cavity Adhesiolysis

Typical Surgical Plan for Extensive Enterolysis

http://www.adhesionrelateddisorder.com/adhesion1.html

Country's 'First Lady' Tammy Wynette dead at 55

Tammy Wynette died Monday at the age of 55. The cause of Wynette's death was Adhesion Related Disorder.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tammy Wynette, who rose from beautician to ''the first lady of country music'' with hits including ''Stand by Your Man,'' died Monday. She was 55.Wynette, who had a history of health problems, died Monday evening at her home, said spokesperson Wes Vause. The cause of her death was not immediately disclosed.

Her 1968 top-seller, ''Stand by Your Man,'' which she co-wrote with her producer Billy Sherrill, became her signature song, with its advice to forgive one's mate because ''after all he's just a man.'' But her throbbing voice in other tunes, such as ''Till I Can Make It on My Own,'' expressed flashes of independence. She was one of country music's greatest success stories, catapulting from a job in a beauty shop to a three-time winner of the Country Music Association's female vocalist of the year award - 1968 to 1970. Country music fans polled for the annual Music City News awards voted her a legend in 1991, but she said it was premature. ''I don't consider myself a legend. I think it's kind of overused,'' she said.

Throughout her 25-year career, her stormy marriages and hospital stays, even a kidnapping and beating for which no one was ever convicted, threatened to overshadow one of the most successful singing careers in country music history. But she didn't emphasize the negative. ''I've had a wonderful life,'' she said in a 1991 Associated Press interview. ''I absolutely feel I've been blessed tremendously. I can't complain at all.'' Besides ''Stand by Your Man,'' Wynette's hits included ''D-I-V-O-R-C-E,'' ''I Don't Wanna Play House,'' ''Womanhood,'' ''Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad,'' ''Singing My Song'' and ''The Ways to Love a Man.''

In the fall of 1993, she teamed up with fellow country queens Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn to record the album ''Honky Tonk Angels.'' She also recorded several duets with country star George Jones, to whom she was married from 1969 to 1975.
Wynette was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on a cotton farm in Itawanba County, Miss. She picked cotton as a child, and as a young woman worked as a waitress, a doctor's receptionist, a barmaid and a shoe factory worker. In the mid-1960s, she was working as a beautician in Birmingham, Ala., and making periodic 180-mile trips to Nashville in hopes of getting discovered as a singer. She visited music business offices in Nashville and caught the eye of Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagoner who asked her to sing at his road shows.

Tammy Wynette's Autopsy Reports Can be Found at
- Go to Tammy Wynette's Autopsy Reports
http://www.adhesionrelateddisorder.com/Tammy-Wynette.html

We remember these women, who died from complications related their Adhesions Related Disorder. May they represent the many who die without ever knowing what caused their deaths:
- Please hold thier families in your thoughts and prayers - these are but a few!

Christina Buelteman age 42 - Died January 2000

Marian Lewis - Died July 2000

Cindy McAleer age 32 - Died June 2000

Rochelle “Shellie” S. Sabowski age 38 - Died July 2003

Susan Stransky age 30 - Died February 2000

Marjorie Lee Wantz age 59 - Died October 1991

Ms Terri S. Schmitz age 49 - December 3, 2009

Edith Isabel Rodriguez age 43 - Died May 9, 2007
- Go to Edith's Autopsey Reports -

http://latimes.image2.trb.com/lanews/media/acrobat/2007-06/30524153.PDF

Adhesion Related Disorder
Is There Any Justice For These People

"REMEMBER"
The first cut is the deepest – there is no turning back!

Holding those who caused these patient's lives to be compromised by disabling pain and dysfunctional internal organs, some leading to the patients death!"

What does the word "iatrogenic" mean?
Iatros means physician in Greek, and -genic, meaning induced by, is derived from the International Scientific Vocabulary. Combined, of course, they become iatrogenic, meaning physician-induced. Iatrogenic disease is obviously, then, disease which is caused by a physician. Now that we have entered the time of physicians intentionally killing their patients and calling it "physician assisted suicide,"iatrogenic" takes on a whole new meaning. To understand that we need to look at Germany in the 1940s. More....http://www.iatrogenic.org/define.html

"BE YOUR OWN BEST Dr. - GET EDUCATED TO ARD!"

"COLONOSCOPY WARNING!"
The pictures in our "picture" section present solid evidence as to why a "COLONOSCOPY" must never be performed unless a "CONTRAST BARIUM BOWEL X-ray" has been completed prior to the procedure, as the intestines in patients afflicted with ARD are NOT in a normal position and the risk of bowel perforation is extremely high!