Anyone had a small bowel obstruction and advice after discharge?

[LouH1981]

Just after some other people’s experiences please.

I’m 45 and was admitted into hospital last Tuesday after having severe abdominal cramps. A CT scan showed a small bowel obstruction which they put down to scar tissue (I’ve had two c sections and two gynae ops previously).
I had a nasal bile tube inserted, they rested my bowel and it resolved by itself.

On discharge, the Dr told me very little other than I could ‘eat whatever I like’ and I may or may not have another one especially as the it wasn’t surgically repaired.

So, Google tells me that actually I should be eating very soft, non fibrous food. Very few options for fruit and veg.

I’m pleased I am out but I have two small children, I wanted desperately to get out and enjoy the holidays but I’m living in fear that-

a). Any slight pain means it’s happening again
b) I desperately wanted to lose weight and now I’m unable to eat as healthy as I would like. (They recommend rice, pasta, bread, canned fruit, yogurt)

I know everyone is different, but for all those of you out there that this might have happened to, did you experience another obstruction soon after the first and what if anything were you told to do to aid recovery?

TIA

Hi, I've had many hospital admissions for small bowel obstruction.
The first and second admissions i needed operations as the bowel was herniated resulting in necrosis and sepsis. This was pretty bad but once recovered I was trouble free for about 5 years.

Then about a year ago I had an experience very similar to yours, severe abdominal pain and admitted to hospital, naso gastric tube and conservative management and after around 4 to 5 days the blockage cleared and I was fine .... until about 8 weeks later when the same happened again. This pattern was repeated every few weeks, in my case the blockages were due to adhesions caused by previous abdo operations. On every admission the docs wanted to treat conservatively and would not operate unless absolutely necessary as there's a risk that an op to remove the adhesions would end up causing even more adhesions.

It all came to a head on my last admission when the adhesions had trapped the bowel in a loop so there was no other option but to operate, I needed an open op as keyhole wasn't possible but afterwards I felt much better and Ive been completely pain free since then.

The docs and dietician were quite strict about gentle reintroduction of food during and immediately after the acute phase but I was told that once I was recovered I could eat anything.

Every time i was admitted i was desperate to try to avoid it happening again so asked the docs what i could do to prevent recurrence. I was surprised but they said there's absolutely nothing I could do, it's just one of those things that happen to some people, and diet or exercise etc won't affect the chances of another episode.

I don't restrict my diet much now, but I have reintroduced foods gradually and just avoid anything that doesn't agree with me. I avoid some of the more dense foods, and bread, but I'm fine with most fruit and veg.