So $*%$#(@ frustrated!!!!

kristasplace
kristasplace Member Posts: 957 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Yes, i've been working myself up, all day. I've suspected for some time that i may have a recurrence. Mucous in stool, bad abdominal pain...little bits of blood. Well Friday i noticed a rather large amount of blood packed onto the stool. Saturday, there was more blood on, and throughout the stool.

I called for my oncologist today and got his nurse, as usual. Is anybody able to actually call their doctor? She referred me to my surgeons nurse. She said she would talk to the surgeons secretary and call me back. Did it happen? No, it did not!

It seems like my symptoms are increasing much faster than they did the first time. It took a couple of years from seeing spot blood to full bloody stools. I'm hoping i don't suddenly see pools of blood before i can see a doctor! I'm trying to talk myself out of the whole thing...could it be a bleeding fissure, maybe a huge hemorhoid? I know i shouldn't be panicking...the stress will definitely make things worse, but i'm just so flipping frustrated that i can't get in and get tested NOW before that anastomotic stricture closes up again. What do any of you do to kick your doctors a$$es into gear?

I'm sorry, i just needed to vent, and all of you actually understand!!

Hugs,
Krista

Comments

  • Patteee
    Patteee Member Posts: 945
    #2
    oh I definitely can relate.
    oh I definitely can relate. My problem is so similiar, it's like this chain of command one has to go through to figure out who is going to deal with anything and everything. I wouldn't have dealt with my oncologist- cause I am not going through chemo anymore and I know dang well he would either tell me to call my regular doc or "somebody" else. I probably would have called my surgeon at Mayo- her PA would have called me back and who knows what they would have done.

    What about the doc you saw last week, who was suppose to do the colonoscopy, Dr. Plumber? Is that the surgeon that the oncologist was going to call? Can you just call his office? I think blood in stool, said clearly and slowly, should get them hopping.
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    #3
    Get thee to an ER.....
    Blood loss is not something to mess with....and, with our histories of colon cancer...well, you just need to go....

    Maybe, just to give them one last chance, call back and say "No one has called me, and, maybe for you all it is normal, but it's scaring the HECK out of me...should I go to the Emergency room? I'm worried I might bleed out while waiting for a call back...."

    Hugs, Kathi

    (Please, please keep us posted, Krista...you have been thru ENOUGH!!!!)
  • Kathleen808
    Kathleen808 Member Posts: 2,342 Member
    #4
    Krista
    Krista,
    You should not have to wait to see someone. I hope that you get a call early tomorrow. I would call if they have not called you by 9:00am. If not I think the ER might be the place to go. Either that or you can just show up at the surgeons or oncs office. You deserve and answer and you should not have to wait.
    Thinking of you.
    Aloha,
    Kathleen
  • betina61
    betina61 Member Posts: 642 Member
    #5
    Hi Krista
    I'm almost ready to leave for the hospital to have my yearly colonoscopy, and last night after I had finished drinking my colonoscopy prep I was in the bathroom and I had a lot of blood in the toilet,is an unpleasant feeling, I'm not panicking because I have had blood in the stool or toilet "episodes" in the last 3 years and my colonoscopies have been clear, aparentely I have hemorroids, but anyway even if I'm not panicking, I can not tell you that I am completely relax,I will let the Dr. know before they start, last time that this happened to me was last year like 2 weeks before colonoscopy and it was clear, and I promised myself that I will not worry anymore if that would happen again, but forget is a bad feeling I pray that this time everything is fine again, I will know today, and will let you know.
    So try to think that it can be as you said a fissure or hemorroids,but anyway for your peace of mind get it checked, remember that recurrance are more comon to happen in other organs that back in the colon.
  • dianetavegia
    dianetavegia Member Posts: 1,942 Member
    #6
    I would think...
    I would think you'd see your Gastro first. Give them a call this a.m. and see if they can get you in.

    I was looking up something for a guy on Colonclub who thought his poop was the wrong color and the page included mention of mucous. It said that it can be caused by too much undigested fats, especially in people who've had their gall bladder removed. It can also be a minor irritation and in that case, would not be daily for long periods of time.

    I'm praying this is nothing serious and hope you'll update as soon as you know anything.

    Diane
  • angelsbaby
    angelsbaby Member Posts: 1,165 Member
    #7
    dianetavegia said:

    I would think...
    I would think you'd see your Gastro first. Give them a call this a.m. and see if they can get you in.

    I was looking up something for a guy on Colonclub who thought his poop was the wrong color and the page included mention of mucous. It said that it can be caused by too much undigested fats, especially in people who've had their gall bladder removed. It can also be a minor irritation and in that case, would not be daily for long periods of time.

    I'm praying this is nothing serious and hope you'll update as soon as you know anything.

    Diane

    krista
    Keep calling until you get the answers you need, or go to their office. thats not right but that has happened a couple of times to angel but i just kept calling until i spoke to someone, I hope it turns out to be nothing but a hemroide. i will thinking of you and wishing good thoughts.

    michelle
  • mommyof2kds
    mommyof2kds Member Posts: 519
    #8
    sorry for your frustration.
    sorry for your frustration. If it were me, I would go to my doctors office and say you are loosing blood and need to be seen today. I would push and push to be seen. There is no need for you to be going through this stress. Get in there girl and demand to be seen. wishing you well. Petrina
  • lisa42
    lisa42 Member Posts: 3,625 Member
    #9
    call the gastro dept
    Krista,

    Knowing this same Dr., I do believe Mondays are their clinic day and I know I've gone Mondays before with no answered phone call from Sally or his other nurse. I was never feeling like I was having an emergency, though. Hopefully you'll have better luck contacting them today. As others have said, try to contact them ASAP again today & if you don't get through, tell them you're coming in. Actually- call the GASTRO DEPT first- Dr. Savides or any other gastro (he's the only one I know) maybe could get you in on an emergency basis or at least soon this week for sure. Be sure to tell them you feel it's an emergency and you're ready to go to the ER at your local hospital if they can't get you in, but you really would rather have the test done there, since that's where you been tested, and have been seen and treated.

    Hope all works out-

    Take care,
    Lisa
  • kristasplace
    kristasplace Member Posts: 957 Member
    #10
    Maybe i'm not being
    Maybe i'm not being aggressive enough with these people. I just feel the more i scream about things, the less they hear me. I told them for months after the takedown that i had a stricture (i went to the ER two or three times). No one would do ANYTHING. They'd send me home doped up, and tell me to call my GI the next day. The GI is always about a month booked, and the one and only time he called me, i told him it was a miserable stricture, and he still wouldn't get me in. During the last dilation, i told him i was pretty sure of a recurrence. He nodded his head, and scheduled me another month ahead. I KNOW he could've flushed me out after the dilation, and performed a colonoscopy right then and there. He was running behind, and obviously wasn't going to deal with it. I think the only way i'm going to get any attention is if i go somewhere else, and that may even be fleeting. At least i can get the diagnosis, and figure out what to do from there. I'm very seriously thinking about dumping all of them, and trying to cure myself through some alternative methods. Emily did it with juicing, and i've heard of others doing similar things and destroying their own cancer. That sounds perfect to me!

    Love you all!
    Krista

    Betina, how did your colonoscopy go? Did they find the source of the bleeding this time?
  • kristasplace
    kristasplace Member Posts: 957 Member
    #11
    lisa42 said:

    call the gastro dept
    Krista,

    Knowing this same Dr., I do believe Mondays are their clinic day and I know I've gone Mondays before with no answered phone call from Sally or his other nurse. I was never feeling like I was having an emergency, though. Hopefully you'll have better luck contacting them today. As others have said, try to contact them ASAP again today & if you don't get through, tell them you're coming in. Actually- call the GASTRO DEPT first- Dr. Savides or any other gastro (he's the only one I know) maybe could get you in on an emergency basis or at least soon this week for sure. Be sure to tell them you feel it's an emergency and you're ready to go to the ER at your local hospital if they can't get you in, but you really would rather have the test done there, since that's where you been tested, and have been seen and treated.

    Hope all works out-

    Take care,
    Lisa

    Dr. Fanta
    I know! I love Dr. Fanta, but i can never talk to him. Sally is always the first one to dump me onto someone else, and this time it was the surgeon. Why she wants me to see Dr. Ramamoorthy, i don't know. I think it should be the plumber, Dr. Docherty who is pressured here. I honestly don't want to see him again. I just don't trust him. I'm going to the San Diego Cancer Center website today, and see if they can help.

    Hugs,
    Krista
  • krystle singer
    krystle singer Member Posts: 108
    #12
    kristasplace said:

    Maybe i'm not being
    Maybe i'm not being aggressive enough with these people. I just feel the more i scream about things, the less they hear me. I told them for months after the takedown that i had a stricture (i went to the ER two or three times). No one would do ANYTHING. They'd send me home doped up, and tell me to call my GI the next day. The GI is always about a month booked, and the one and only time he called me, i told him it was a miserable stricture, and he still wouldn't get me in. During the last dilation, i told him i was pretty sure of a recurrence. He nodded his head, and scheduled me another month ahead. I KNOW he could've flushed me out after the dilation, and performed a colonoscopy right then and there. He was running behind, and obviously wasn't going to deal with it. I think the only way i'm going to get any attention is if i go somewhere else, and that may even be fleeting. At least i can get the diagnosis, and figure out what to do from there. I'm very seriously thinking about dumping all of them, and trying to cure myself through some alternative methods. Emily did it with juicing, and i've heard of others doing similar things and destroying their own cancer. That sounds perfect to me!

    Love you all!
    Krista

    Betina, how did your colonoscopy go? Did they find the source of the bleeding this time?

    Going elsewhere...
    Yeah! I'd sure go somewhere! Doctors sometimes have a most frustrating way of just dismissing our symptoms. Krista, bleeding is a dangerous thing, as you know. I understand how hard it is to actually TALK to a doctor. They seem to hide or at least put layers of protection between themselves and their patients...at any rate, they do somet6imes. Don't wait tooooo long. And don't think you are beong paranoid.

    Wishing you the best and hope you find the answer soon.

    Sandi
  • betina61
    betina61 Member Posts: 642 Member
    #13
    I'm back from hoapital
    Krista as I told you in my other post, not always that we see blood in the toilet have to be really bad news, I told my Dr. that did the colonoscopy which is the surgeon that did my colon resection what happened last night and he knows that it has happened to me before and he told me before doing my colonoscopy, please Berta stop worrying, end of the story clear colonoscopy to see him in one year, I hope that this put you a little bit more relax,it could be as you mentioned a fissure, or just hemorroids, I will pray that everything goes great with you.
  • tootsie1
    tootsie1 Member Posts: 5,044 Member
    #14
    ER
    Krista,

    I know I'm late replying to this, but I hope if you didn't get to speak with a doctor, you went to the emergency room. My cancer introduced itself to me via a toilet full of blood. My family doctor told me to come right into his office, and then he made me go directly to the hospital. No fooling around! His office called and arranged admittance immediately. He explained it to me that there could be several reasons why I was having the blood, but that I could bleed out, so he didn't want me to fool around with this thing. So, my feeling is, your bleeding could very well be from something other than cancer, but somebody needs to check it out and do something about it NOW.

    *hugs*
    Gail
  • tiny one
    tiny one Member Posts: 465 Member
    #15
    blood
    Hi Krista! Maybe the blood might be from more stool passing thru and stretching the rectal area and the scar tissue. You just prepped not long ago for a colonoscopy. The last sigmoidoscopy I had my surgeon said that I hadn't narrowed anymore. He even thought regular use of tap enema's would help to keep stretching this area. Keep this in mind as long as stool is coming out the stricture is still somewhat opened. It's frustrating though when you want answers. I heard that Dr. Heidi Nelson from Mayo Clinic is supposed to be very good. Anyone heard of her? Hugs for you.

Discussion Boards