Liver/GI problems after hysterectomy

obos

Hello, my mother had UC Stage IC grade 2 last spring, had radical hysterectomy and 25 radiation treatments and 3 internal treatments into early fall. Her recovery was going fine, but recently she's had a lot of GI problems (gas, bloating, diarrhea) and some pain in the liver area.

She went in to the doctors and they did an ultrasound which showed some abnormality on the liver, so they did a CT scan and are awaiting results. They also did a good deal of bloodwork and physical examination of her, all of which came back normal. They think the GI problems may be the result of adhesions, and while they don't yet know what the liver situation is, they said given the preliminary results it is "highly unlikely" that it is any sort of malignancy. Infection has been mentioned as an alternative possibility.

I know everyone is different and each situation is unique, but I'm scared and it's hard to know how to take all the information so far. I guess I'd just like to know if anyone here has had similar symptoms, and if so, what the cause was.

While the doctors sounded pretty confident that this was not something "ominous," they still don't know what it is, and that's what is frightening, since highly unlikely doesn't mean impossible.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences that relate to this? Thanks in advance for any responses. It's very helpful to have this board to refer to.


PS: My mother had lymph biopsies done after the surgery (last June) and they were all clear.

obos

Also just wanted to add that she is 63 and in otherwise excellent health. It seems so implausible that there are multiple metastases (liver, colon, etc.) given the stage and cell grade, and given that she's been monitored quite closely since the surgery, but that's what frightens me, of course. (And her too.)

groundeffect

While I didn't have the radiation your mom had, I can tell you that the post-hysterectomy pain in the abdomen is very common. I had really awful pain occasionally for a few years after my surgery; I've been told it's initially because the intestines react pretty badly when they're manipulated in any way, and then adhesions can build and cause problems later. I had a colonoscopy three years after my hysterectomy, and the doc found a narrowed spot in my intestines that he attributed to that surgery, also.

Your mom's grade was low enough that she shouldn't have continued problems because of the uterine cancer, but I've heard that radiation can cause its own side-effects. I hope that someone else will step up and let you know if they've run into your mom's sort of problems.