Blockage

RickMurtagh

I had an interesting conversation with my surgeon a few weeks ago about what to expect next and thinking it through today a thought had occurred to me; if my tumor continues to grow (nothing at present is stopping this) it will cause a blockage (the tumor surrounds the distal ileal loop) and then I will have some symptoms - no poo, bloating, possible nausea and vomittng and a possible fever. My doctor said they would do a bowel prep and create an ileostomy the next day. How on earth is a bowel prep going to work if the tumor has blocked the exit? Anyone go through this? The blockage will be near the anus (because that is where the tumor is) do they somehow try and dilate the blockage? Tell me they will knock me out for that! Has anyone gone through this? How on earth does it work? I can just see them giving me the prep and having nothing happen, then when he goes to do the ileostomy I explode! Oh my! And my doctor is away until sometime next week.

GaryinUK

As the UK PM said
Rick

I do not know the answer, but very shortly I would expect someone more learned than myslef (which is not difficult) will give you the answer you are looking for.

In the meantime as the British PM said yesterday 'calm down dear', not wishing to sound rude.

I know your doctor would have given you the answer and may actually have, just that your mind is thinking of all the ifs and buts, so why not speak with a colleague of his/her at the hospital.

I am confident though, you will not explode.

Gary

eibod

Hi Rick, don't know if this
Hi Rick, don't know if this answer is correct, but hubby has a colon tumor near rectum.
He was warned about the blockage happening as well. It happened with the symptoms that
you are listing, no poo, bloating, nausea, vomitting and a fever. His colon evacuated
by the solids turning to water. The oncologist explained it as a type of diarrea, but
can't remember the name of it. She said the body found its own way to eliminate. He had severe diarrea for days before the colostomy. And
yes he did have to take a prep before surgery. (if you can imagine anything left). But
yours may not be the same, he delayed surgery longer than he should have, not wanting
the colostomy. He has been a lot better since the colostomy. Don't know if this is the
correct answer to your question, please forgive me if I am totally wrong.
Take care, Brenda

lisa42

possible
Hi Rick,

a blockage would definitely be possible, but maybe your tumor won't grow. I have had a rectal tumor recurrence about 8 or 9 months ago & it is about a 1/2 cm in size. It hasn't grown any in 6 months although my other tumors in liver and lungs has, but uptake has definitely increased. We are just watching it and at this point won't do anything to it unless it grows and starts to cause a blockage.

daBeachBum

I sorta went through this...
Hi Rick,

Before I was diagnosed, I saw a local quack gastro doc who completely missed that my abdomen was grossly swollen by ascites. He scheduled a colonoscopy pretty much on my insistance. In the intervening two weeks, I was barely able to eat and threw up everything including water. I was only managing occasional "spaghetti" poops and a gas bubble would cause me immense pain. I was having wicked night sweats and could barely keep my eyes open during the day.

The night before the colonoscopy I took the Movieprep and it was 50/50 crapping and throwing it back up. It sucked. The next day the local hospital put me in the emergency room as soon as they took my blood pressre. My bottom number was in the 130s. This was due to all the ascites I think. They did some scans and gave me presciptions for the BP and told me I had "cancer or end stage liver disease" and then did the colonoscopy. They could only get 40 cm in even using the smaller probe typically used for going into the stomach. They used the "twilight" sedation. I was out like a light.

Then they told me to make an appointment with the quack who graciously said that he could see me.... in three freakin weeks! I not so respectfully declined and hauled @ss to the University of Penn hospital where they immediately admitted me.

They eventally put in a stent to push back against the tumor that was pressing against my colon wall. I've been crapping like a champ since.

I think what you can take from this is that you will KNOW if you have a complete blockage or anything close to it. You will have the same or worse symptoms that I did and if you did you would have already gone to the emergency room about it. I wasn't smart enough to figure that out at the time.

I know you have traveled a hard road from reading your thoughtful posts. My heart goes out to you and I wish you all the best.

Take care,

Ray

Lori-S

Rick
I was diagnosed with cc at the ER. I went into the ER with a blockage. I was given go lytely as they were trying to clean out my colon before doing surgery. The CT scans didn't show the full blockage, just that there was a tumor. For 3 days they gave me go lytely with no results. It was a very painful experience with the symptoms you described, as nothing was passing through and everything was coming back up. I was very upset with the surgeon who would come in and yell at me for not going. He kept threatening me with a colostomy if I didn't go ... Like I was purposely not going. Needless to say I am not very fond of him and he wasn't my pick ... he was the on call at the time I came into the hospital.

I am sure that they will perform your surgery before your tumor grows to that extent ... don't you think? Talk to your surgeon about this so he can address your concerns. If you don't have a blockage yet then I'm sure they plan to do it before you do. If you start to have any of those symptoms then go to the ER. Remember that cc tumors are not generally fast growing. I hope that helps. HUGS

RickMurtagh

lisa42 said:

possible
Hi Rick,

a blockage would definitely be possible, but maybe your tumor won't grow. I have had a rectal tumor recurrence about 8 or 9 months ago & it is about a 1/2 cm in size. It hasn't grown any in 6 months although my other tumors in liver and lungs has, but uptake has definitely increased. We are just watching it and at this point won't do anything to it unless it grows and starts to cause a blockage.

It is growing for sure
Even in the course of one month by a measurable degree. I think mine is 7.6 x 11.2 cm. Massive is the word most commonly used to describe it.

RickMurtagh

daBeachBum said:

I sorta went through this...
Hi Rick,

Before I was diagnosed, I saw a local quack gastro doc who completely missed that my abdomen was grossly swollen by ascites. He scheduled a colonoscopy pretty much on my insistance. In the intervening two weeks, I was barely able to eat and threw up everything including water. I was only managing occasional "spaghetti" poops and a gas bubble would cause me immense pain. I was having wicked night sweats and could barely keep my eyes open during the day.

The night before the colonoscopy I took the Movieprep and it was 50/50 crapping and throwing it back up. It sucked. The next day the local hospital put me in the emergency room as soon as they took my blood pressre. My bottom number was in the 130s. This was due to all the ascites I think. They did some scans and gave me presciptions for the BP and told me I had "cancer or end stage liver disease" and then did the colonoscopy. They could only get 40 cm in even using the smaller probe typically used for going into the stomach. They used the "twilight" sedation. I was out like a light.

Then they told me to make an appointment with the quack who graciously said that he could see me.... in three freakin weeks! I not so respectfully declined and hauled @ss to the University of Penn hospital where they immediately admitted me.

They eventally put in a stent to push back against the tumor that was pressing against my colon wall. I've been crapping like a champ since.

I think what you can take from this is that you will KNOW if you have a complete blockage or anything close to it. You will have the same or worse symptoms that I did and if you did you would have already gone to the emergency room about it. I wasn't smart enough to figure that out at the time.

I know you have traveled a hard road from reading your thoughtful posts. My heart goes out to you and I wish you all the best.

Take care,

Ray

And yes
The thought is when symptoms develop I will simply go to he emergency room.

RickMurtagh

daBeachBum said:

I sorta went through this...
Hi Rick,

Before I was diagnosed, I saw a local quack gastro doc who completely missed that my abdomen was grossly swollen by ascites. He scheduled a colonoscopy pretty much on my insistance. In the intervening two weeks, I was barely able to eat and threw up everything including water. I was only managing occasional "spaghetti" poops and a gas bubble would cause me immense pain. I was having wicked night sweats and could barely keep my eyes open during the day.

The night before the colonoscopy I took the Movieprep and it was 50/50 crapping and throwing it back up. It sucked. The next day the local hospital put me in the emergency room as soon as they took my blood pressre. My bottom number was in the 130s. This was due to all the ascites I think. They did some scans and gave me presciptions for the BP and told me I had "cancer or end stage liver disease" and then did the colonoscopy. They could only get 40 cm in even using the smaller probe typically used for going into the stomach. They used the "twilight" sedation. I was out like a light.

Then they told me to make an appointment with the quack who graciously said that he could see me.... in three freakin weeks! I not so respectfully declined and hauled @ss to the University of Penn hospital where they immediately admitted me.

They eventally put in a stent to push back against the tumor that was pressing against my colon wall. I've been crapping like a champ since.

I think what you can take from this is that you will KNOW if you have a complete blockage or anything close to it. You will have the same or worse symptoms that I did and if you did you would have already gone to the emergency room about it. I wasn't smart enough to figure that out at the time.

I know you have traveled a hard road from reading your thoughtful posts. My heart goes out to you and I wish you all the best.

Take care,

Ray

Hmm
Thanks Ray. I have recently started having horrible sweets w no fever at night. Did not connect the two - doh. And a poo stent! However thought of such a thing?!

RickMurtagh

Lori-S said:

Rick
I was diagnosed with cc at the ER. I went into the ER with a blockage. I was given go lytely as they were trying to clean out my colon before doing surgery. The CT scans didn't show the full blockage, just that there was a tumor. For 3 days they gave me go lytely with no results. It was a very painful experience with the symptoms you described, as nothing was passing through and everything was coming back up. I was very upset with the surgeon who would come in and yell at me for not going. He kept threatening me with a colostomy if I didn't go ... Like I was purposely not going. Needless to say I am not very fond of him and he wasn't my pick ... he was the on call at the time I came into the hospital.

I am sure that they will perform your surgery before your tumor grows to that extent ... don't you think? Talk to your surgeon about this so he can address your concerns. If you don't have a blockage yet then I'm sure they plan to do it before you do. If you start to have any of those symptoms then go to the ER. Remember that cc tumors are not generally fast growing. I hope that helps. HUGS

I hope we come up w something
I hope we come up with something, but since I am already passing only sawdust and the tumor at this point has preliminarily been determined to be inoperable, the blockage will likely happen before any significant reduction in size. It turns out my tumor might be infected (just retarded to even think that could happen, but it does happen). Treating the infection might reduce the pressure on the bowel - perhaps.

RickMurtagh

eibod said:

Hi Rick, don't know if this
Hi Rick, don't know if this answer is correct, but hubby has a colon tumor near rectum.
He was warned about the blockage happening as well. It happened with the symptoms that
you are listing, no poo, bloating, nausea, vomitting and a fever. His colon evacuated
by the solids turning to water. The oncologist explained it as a type of diarrea, but
can't remember the name of it. She said the body found its own way to eliminate. He had severe diarrea for days before the colostomy. And
yes he did have to take a prep before surgery. (if you can imagine anything left). But
yours may not be the same, he delayed surgery longer than he should have, not wanting
the colostomy. He has been a lot better since the colostomy. Don't know if this is the
correct answer to your question, please forgive me if I am totally wrong.
Take care, Brenda

Looked up funny diarrhea
Turns out there are tons of funny stories on the Internet about having diarrhea. Guess I should try types of diarrhea. It is a lead to chase down, which will have to do until I can call the hospital in the morning. Thanks - I feel like the Sherlock Holmes of the poo world - the deep dark under world.U

RickMurtagh

GaryinUK said:

As the UK PM said
Rick

I do not know the answer, but very shortly I would expect someone more learned than myslef (which is not difficult) will give you the answer you are looking for.

In the meantime as the British PM said yesterday 'calm down dear', not wishing to sound rude.

I know your doctor would have given you the answer and may actually have, just that your mind is thinking of all the ifs and buts, so why not speak with a colleague of his/her at the hospital.

I am confident though, you will not explode.

Gary

Hospital
Will probably call the hospital in the morning.

I still think I might explode - my GI tract has been very active lately.