bowel issues and colostomy

ezbitz

Good day to everyone.  Anyone experienced bowel issues or a recurrent perhaps in the bowels requiring a colostomy? 

My niece is a 4b and she is having some bowel problems.   Her gyn-onc ahs already suggested another round of chemo but 

putting a colostomy to get her nutrition better is being floated.  I wonder whether anyone has had some personal experience 

with this.    Any bit of information is welcome.  Thanks for your help. 

 

 

Soup52

I’ve had bowel issues, but

I’ve had bowel issues, but believe mine have been caused by numerous abdominal surgeries and radiation. I see gastr. Drs and have had virtual colonoscopy because a regular one couldn’t be completed because of narrowing or turn which made a complete regular one not possible. Anyway no polops found. Has she tried going to a gastro Dr for advice or opinion?

Kathy G.

Hi!

Hi!

Sorry to hear your sister is having a difficult time with her bowels. To me, that and UTIs are 2 conditions I hate having to deal with!

 

I had a colostomy last year related to a serious infection. Unlike many people I found it kind of fascinating to be able to monitor how my body handled the foods I ate, meds I took & the impact of regular exercise.

 

Prior to the colostomy I had serious constipation for years. I usually only had a bowel movement once a week regardless of what or how much I ate. Consequently I was often bloated and passing any stool could be painful.

 

This was despite stool softeners and laxatives.

 

With the colostomy my stools were almost daily, nicely formed unless I ate something that disagreed with me.

 

My colostomy was reversed this past January. Since then my bowel habits are pretty normal...I seldom have constipation...never have diarrhea.

 

I do take Miralax a few times a week to keep things soft and regular. I would recommend that for your sister if she hasnt tried it already. It does not cause any problems like laxatives do.

 

And maybe if she had to have a colostomy it would help her like it did me.

 

Anyhow...my 2 cents!

pinky104

I had my cancer recurrence wrap itself around my ascending colon last year.  It was also in the rectum, the paracolic gutter, the peritoneum, and retroperitoneum, plus in a muscle near my pelvic bone.  I didn't have to have a colostomy, but I had two resections of my intestines.  One was for the cancer and the other was for the result of an incisional hernia surgery I had in 2012.  I'd had mesh put in to repair the hernia, and my intestines grew into and got tangled up in the mesh.  My GYN/onc. told me I was "a mess" inside and I had him and a general surgeon fix things up and put me back together.

The recurrence was found when I had a hemoccult test, and one of the three smears I did had microscopic blood in it.  I was sent for a colonoscopy, and that's what found the cancer growing on the outside of the ascending colon.  It actually looked like a pair of testicles stuck on the outside of the intestine in the pictures taken my the gastroenterologist's camera in his scope. My husband and I joked that I'd "grown a pair."

Soup52

Pinky, that is what I worry

Pinky, that is what I worry about having the cancer growing around the bowel rather than in it.

Armywife

Pinky

It's so interesting to me that a colonoscopy found cancer on the outside of the colon!  How do they do that?  I'm asking because I had some tissue removed from the outside of my small distal bowel during my daVinci hysterectomy, and it turned out not to be cancerous, but "acute and chronic inflammation."  The other tissue fragments (in the cul de sac) were malignant.

derMaus

Armywife said:

Pinky

It's so interesting to me that a colonoscopy found cancer on the outside of the colon!  How do they do that?  I'm asking because I had some tissue removed from the outside of my small distal bowel during my daVinci hysterectomy, and it turned out not to be cancerous, but "acute and chronic inflammation."  The other tissue fragments (in the cul de sac) were malignant.

Crap. When did *that* happen

Crap. When did *that* happen ? I must be missing more than I think these days. B

pinky104

Armywife said:

Pinky

It's so interesting to me that a colonoscopy found cancer on the outside of the colon!  How do they do that?  I'm asking because I had some tissue removed from the outside of my small distal bowel during my daVinci hysterectomy, and it turned out not to be cancerous, but "acute and chronic inflammation."  The other tissue fragments (in the cul de sac) were malignant.

Armywife

Sorry for the late reply to your question.  I haven't spent a lot of time on here lately and I guess I didn't go far enough down the list to see your question.  It actually all started when my PCP's office billed Medicare for a hemoccult test that I hadn't had.  As I like my doctor's office, I complained to them rather than to Medicare about it (which is what I know I should have done).  My PA was going to have the office staff give the money back to Medicare, but then we discussed it and decided I should just do the sampling for the test.  A few days later, I turned in the specimen card.  One of three smears of my stools showed blood in it when my PA checked it (most likely from passing a very painful stool), so then I was referred for a colonoscopy.  After a long wait for the colonoscopy to be scheduled, I finally got it done.  The doctor's camera in the endoscope showed the mass stuck to the outside of my ascending colon.  He took pictures of it and showed me.  The colon must have been very thin for this to have shown through it.  This led to a CT scan and a PET scan a couple of days later, and I was rushed into surgery the very next week, as my oncologist feared I would end up with a bowel obstruction.  I now know to pay close attention when I start having recurrent narrower stools!