Stomach Pain....

Robkel7
Robkel7 Member Posts: 68
in Ovarian Cancer #1
Hi All....have not posted in a while. I have been feeling so discouraged. I just finished five of six chemo treatments and each time i feel more poorly. I have so much pain in my abdomen that I finally gave in and took the vicodin. I took this week off from work which I find so annoying. I love my job and I want to be well. Does anyone else have this stomach pain when they get chemo? It goes away after about a week and a half, but it always returns on the next round. I also have lots of other crappy chemo side effects. Will I ever feel good? :(

Comments

  • kikz
    kikz Member Posts: 1,345 Member
    #2
    Sorry for your pain
    but YES, you will definately feel better. I only had pain after my very first infusion but enough pain to send me to the ER. It's discouraging to feel so sick but as sick as I felt during chemo it's nothing compared to wonderful how I am feeling in remission. Granted there are aches, pains and fatigue and a lot of other stuff I can complain about but mostly I feel terrific and happy and grateful. You will too!

    Karen
  • Tethys41
    Tethys41 Member Posts: 1,382 Member
    #3
    Pain
    I had pain after every chemo, and it seemed to correlate to areas where I had some intense surgical activity. I had two bowel resections, just be low my ribs, and removal of a number of lymph nodes in my lower left side. These areas were painful, despite the pain meds, immediately after chemo, and kept me on the pain meds, even between treatments. I've heard that it could be due to tumor die off in that area. I also wondered whether the chemo aggravated the areas that were trying to heal. I commend you at being able to work at all during treatment. I was too sick to even consider that option. It is also typical that you feel worse and worse through your treatments. They say the effects are cumulative. I was doing high dose IV vitamin C throughout my treatments. So, although all my treatments hit me hard, they did not get significantly harder with each treatment, but stayed about the same. You will feel better, and your body will love you when you don't hit it with chemo again after your last treatment. Hang in there.
  • carolenk
    carolenk Member Posts: 907 Member
    #4
    Tethys41 said:

    Pain
    I had pain after every chemo, and it seemed to correlate to areas where I had some intense surgical activity. I had two bowel resections, just be low my ribs, and removal of a number of lymph nodes in my lower left side. These areas were painful, despite the pain meds, immediately after chemo, and kept me on the pain meds, even between treatments. I've heard that it could be due to tumor die off in that area. I also wondered whether the chemo aggravated the areas that were trying to heal. I commend you at being able to work at all during treatment. I was too sick to even consider that option. It is also typical that you feel worse and worse through your treatments. They say the effects are cumulative. I was doing high dose IV vitamin C throughout my treatments. So, although all my treatments hit me hard, they did not get significantly harder with each treatment, but stayed about the same. You will feel better, and your body will love you when you don't hit it with chemo again after your last treatment. Hang in there.

    abdominal pain after chemo
    I certainly had my share of pain post-op and after chemo, but it got better after about 3 treatments whereas you seem to still be in a LOT of pain at this point. I know that bowel obstructions are a common complication after debulking surgery but a bowel obstruction would come with a lot of bowel sounds--like water rushing thru a pipeline.

    I think you should speak to your oncologist or at least the nurse at the oncologist's office about your level of pain. I don't think it is typical to feel this badly but I don't know your whole story or how recently you had surgery.

    Carolen
  • lindaprocopio
    lindaprocopio Member Posts: 1,980 Member
    #5
    carolenk said:

    abdominal pain after chemo
    I certainly had my share of pain post-op and after chemo, but it got better after about 3 treatments whereas you seem to still be in a LOT of pain at this point. I know that bowel obstructions are a common complication after debulking surgery but a bowel obstruction would come with a lot of bowel sounds--like water rushing thru a pipeline.

    I think you should speak to your oncologist or at least the nurse at the oncologist's office about your level of pain. I don't think it is typical to feel this badly but I don't know your whole story or how recently you had surgery.

    Carolen

    My oncologist said 'front torso' area pain most common complaint
    My torso always felt like I'd done too many sit-ups the day before; an unending dull ache, all the many many months I got chemo. I am pretty stoic about pain and don't think I feel pain as intense as some people do. When I talked with my oncologist about my constant torso ache, he said that pain and discomfort in that area is the most frequent complaint they hear from people getting chemo. He said that the digestive system has many fast-growing cells and because chemo drugs attack fast-growing cells, this ache is the rsult of 'friendly fire'. I did feel better knwing it was common and NOT a symptom of disease progression. And it did go away when I took a chemo break, so I believe he was right. ((((hugs)))

    But I do agree that you should bring this up with your oncologist. Hopefully it is just trapped gas pain, which can be excrutiating but is not serious and probably treatable with OTC medicines. But you need to put your mind at ease and you can't have real pain without getting some answers.
  • Robkel7
    Robkel7 Member Posts: 68
    #6
    lindaprocopio said:

    My oncologist said 'front torso' area pain most common complaint
    My torso always felt like I'd done too many sit-ups the day before; an unending dull ache, all the many many months I got chemo. I am pretty stoic about pain and don't think I feel pain as intense as some people do. When I talked with my oncologist about my constant torso ache, he said that pain and discomfort in that area is the most frequent complaint they hear from people getting chemo. He said that the digestive system has many fast-growing cells and because chemo drugs attack fast-growing cells, this ache is the rsult of 'friendly fire'. I did feel better knwing it was common and NOT a symptom of disease progression. And it did go away when I took a chemo break, so I believe he was right. ((((hugs)))

    But I do agree that you should bring this up with your oncologist. Hopefully it is just trapped gas pain, which can be excrutiating but is not serious and probably treatable with OTC medicines. But you need to put your mind at ease and you can't have real pain without getting some answers.

    Thanks, Linda.
    Yes...your answer makes most sense. You describe the type of pain I have perfectly. A constant ache that goes away as the chemo dissipates. I take heart that it is temporary. Thanks.
  • antcat
    antcat Member Posts: 270
    #7
    Sorry you're having pain
    I'm so sorry you're having pain, I know what it's like. Back in January of this year I had chemo and I had pain every month, sometimes it went away after a week and a half, the worst month was April, when I had it quite a bit. Then in May it went away completely and came back just once a couple of months ago. The dr. said it was as a result of the chemo. I had Vicodin, but never really wanted to take it, because when I did, it only gave me relief for about 6 hours and I didn't want to keep taking it.

    I hope you start to feel better
  • carolyn45
    carolyn45 Member Posts: 100
    #8
    antcat said:

    Sorry you're having pain
    I'm so sorry you're having pain, I know what it's like. Back in January of this year I had chemo and I had pain every month, sometimes it went away after a week and a half, the worst month was April, when I had it quite a bit. Then in May it went away completely and came back just once a couple of months ago. The dr. said it was as a result of the chemo. I had Vicodin, but never really wanted to take it, because when I did, it only gave me relief for about 6 hours and I didn't want to keep taking it.

    I hope you start to feel better

    L Glutamine
    After chemo I would feel like someone had been kicking a football around inside my torso. My naturopath had me take L Glutamine powder (an amino acid) and it stopped the pain right away and it never came back. It soothes all those areas where the chemo has killed off the rapidly dividing GOOD cells. It's also tasteless with no side effects.
  • wfisaac
    wfisaac Member Posts: 60
    #9
    My heart goes out to you!
    My heart goes out to you! I'm sorry you're feeling so discouraged but I totally understand. I worked through my treatments as well and the first couple of times I was actually able to work the day after but then took the next couple days off during the time the joint pain hit. But, then it got to where I had to take the whole week off my last couple treatments. I felt very much like you said. I was trying so hard to not let it affect my job, but of course, there's just no way to totally do that. But, if you have coworkers like I do they totally understand it.

    And to answer your question....Yes! You will feel good again! I know it seems like you never will, but you will. My last chemo was a year ago and it's been funny how every now and then I'll realize something I'm doing that I wasn't able to do very well not too long ago.

    Thinking of you!
  • kikz
    kikz Member Posts: 1,345 Member
    #10
    wfisaac said:

    My heart goes out to you!
    My heart goes out to you! I'm sorry you're feeling so discouraged but I totally understand. I worked through my treatments as well and the first couple of times I was actually able to work the day after but then took the next couple days off during the time the joint pain hit. But, then it got to where I had to take the whole week off my last couple treatments. I felt very much like you said. I was trying so hard to not let it affect my job, but of course, there's just no way to totally do that. But, if you have coworkers like I do they totally understand it.

    And to answer your question....Yes! You will feel good again! I know it seems like you never will, but you will. My last chemo was a year ago and it's been funny how every now and then I'll realize something I'm doing that I wasn't able to do very well not too long ago.

    Thinking of you!

    I had my last chemo about a year ago too
    and I am like you, realizing everyday how my life has gone back to normal (well you know what I mean). The other day my cousin, who was on the journey with me said, can you believe a year ago at this time you were so sick and look at you now. It does get better.

    Karen

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