Stuck Inside: Abdominal Adhesion Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe abdominal adhesions, scar tissue inside the belly that writers trace to caesareans, a burst appendix, a childhood operation for a twisted bowel, Crohn's surgery, a gastric bypass, pelvic radiation, typhoid, fibroid removal, endometriosis, a bike handlebar and a boda boda crash. Many were first told it was gas, IBS, stress or period pain. Contributors include a school bus driver, a cruise ship cook, a care assistant, a corn farmer, a pipe-fitter, a retired airline pilot, a tailor and a surfing lifeguard, from Columbus and Cork to Accra, Seoul, Manila and Gdansk. They describe repeated admissions for blockages, nasal tubes and drips, emergency and planned surgery, paying privately for an operation in Mexico City, a pain clinic, a hands-on therapy that helped movement but not pain, and the long search for a surgeon willing to operate. Food runs through the book: small meals at seventy-eight, rice porridge, soft food for a Sunday table of fourteen. Pregnancy, work, money and living alone all appear, along with partners who learned the warning signs. Many accounts stay unresolved: pain that remains after surgery, five admissions in two years, a baby plan still uncertain, and a woman of eighty-one who ended up on her kitchen floor before she would ask for help.

Who it's for

For anyone living with adhesions or repeated bowel blockages after surgery, infection or injury, and for the partners and parents who have learned the way to the emergency department.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 254 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.