Question
my gran has been suffering from chronic pain in the right side of her abdomen for the last 7-8 months, she has had x-rays and a full body scan all of witch showed nothing. The doctors think that it could be scar tissue from when she had her gall bladder removed some years ago. The doctors have given her morphine patches that last for a week i think they are 10mg but they are having no effect other than making her extremely tired. We wondered if there were any other treatments that she could try such as acupuncture or anything else that might help.she is 76 years old and in alot of pain.

Answer
Dear Kirsty,

From the information you've given, I can offer one possible explanation and two courses of action.

The explanation:

All wounds (including surgical ones) prompt protective-reflexive muscular contractions that can cause pain.  So, it could be from the surgery.

The courses of action:

If adhesions are indeed involved, she should see a rolfer, who works with the connective tissue of the body and can free such adhesions.

If muscular contractions are involved, she should see a Hanna somatic educator, who works with such reflexive contractions and can help end them quickly.

More on Hanna somatics:

http://www.somatics.com/recovery.htm

More on Rolfing:

http://www.rolfguild.org
http://www.somatics.com/pdf/More_Enjoyable_Rolfing.pdf

regard,
Lawrence Gold