Hospitalized

mp327 said:

Update

I got a call from my oncologist's office yesterday and he is canceling the scan for Monday.  Apparently, both abdomen and pelvis were scanned in the ER the other night, which would only leave the chest unscanned.  He is still going to see me on Wednesday and decide whether anything else needs to be looked at.  I don't have the report from the scan, so don't know exactly what it says, but Dr. Mac will be bringing me a copy of it.  I do know, however, that there is nothinig on it to indicate a recurrence or metastasis.  All good news.

 

I am feeling okay this morning, but am very tired, most likely from lack of sleep.  Being awakened every 2 hours in the hospital for vitals, etc. makes it impossible to get any rest.  I ate some canned potato soup for dinner last evening (after I used the potato masher to mush up the chunks) and so far, so good with that.  I will eat some yogurt for breakfast, I guess.

 

Thank you to everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Wishing you a speedy recovery and that, in hindsight, this will be nothing more than a blip on the radar.  Best wishes....

mp327 said:

Update

I got a call from my oncologist's office yesterday and he is canceling the scan for Monday.  Apparently, both abdomen and pelvis were scanned in the ER the other night, which would only leave the chest unscanned.  He is still going to see me on Wednesday and decide whether anything else needs to be looked at.  I don't have the report from the scan, so don't know exactly what it says, but Dr. Mac will be bringing me a copy of it.  I do know, however, that there is nothinig on it to indicate a recurrence or metastasis.  All good news.

 

I am feeling okay this morning, but am very tired, most likely from lack of sleep.  Being awakened every 2 hours in the hospital for vitals, etc. makes it impossible to get any rest.  I ate some canned potato soup for dinner last evening (after I used the potato masher to mush up the chunks) and so far, so good with that.  I will eat some yogurt for breakfast, I guess.

 

Thank you to everyone for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Glad you're home and feeling better!

mp327 said:

Hi Sandy--

You are very sweet and I thank you for your concern.  I hope you are doing well.  As for me, I am feeling much better, but am still on a liquid/soft diet.  I am having to get pretty creative with my cooking to get some veggies!  I had to crawl way back in the cabinet to pull out my seldom-used blender!  I wanted everyone to know about this because with pelvic radiation, adhesions/scar tissue and potential blockage are always concerns.  Anyone who experiences excruciating abdominal pain with or without vomiting needs to get themselves to the ER ASAP.  I am very lucky that I did not have a ruptured intestine.  I would not wish this condition on anyone--very painful!  To answer your question, I have diverticulosis, which was found on a colonoscopy, but this is the first blockage I've had.  I will be seeing my med onc tomorrow and my colorectal surgeon on Thursday.  I hope they both give me an A+ on my report card!

 

Thanks again for your kind words and please do not worry about me.  I am doing well!

 

Love,

Martha

Hi MP327,

Was a blockage definitively diagnosed?  Was the norovirus ruled out?  If it was a blackage, was it in your small or large bowel? (if you don't mind).  I'm just trying to make heads or tails about all possibilities for myself.  No need to caution me about thinking positively.  I am.  I don't believe that thinking positively and knowing the possibilities are mutually exclusive.  In any case, I'm glad that you're feeling better. I understand about the diet limitations; I've lived on toast, eggs and apple sauce for eight weeks and it's become absolutely revolting (I don't even like eggs and never have. The problem isn't with what goes in but with what comes out and those things give me the least pain, and "least" is a word of comparison; I'm still talking about screaming pain when I "go"). 

mp327 said:

LaCh

I got a copy of my scan results today when I had my 6-month follow-up with my oncologist and the impression is as follows:

"Abnormal findings, most consistent with small bowel obstruction.  Numerous dilated fluid-filled loops are noted, which are decompressed distally.  A single discrete transition is not localized.  The stomach is distended.  The gastric antrum is decompressed with mild enhancement, which is probably due to its decompressed state.  No evidence of perforation or loculated collection.  Obstruction may be mechanical, possibly from adhesions, or secondary to an enteritis." 

Please don't ask me what all this means, as I don't know.  However, I am focusing on the part which states "most consistent with small bowel obstruction."  As for the possibility of the Noro virus, I never ran a fever and it was ruled out almost immediately, along with a heart attack.  This scan was read by my friend and next door neighbor who was the radiologist on duty that night.  I totally trust his opinion on this and the next time I see him, will ask him to decifer all of this.  My med onc has ordered another scan for me in 4 months and will see me a couple days later.  I was hoping to not have to see him for at least 6 months, but due to this latest issue, he insists on 4 months.

My radiation oncologist and my medical oncologist have both told me that this may never happen again.  Just to be safe, in the short term, I am going to be more careful about what I eat.  I am becoming a 5-star chef when it comes to making creamed soups!  Tonight's soup du jour is creamy potato/kale.

Hang in there.  The painful BM's should subside soon.

Hey Mp

I'd love to hear some of your recipies....  Creamy potato kale sounds great.  Truth is, I'd love a list of foods that won't drive me to the edge when it comes time to go to the bathroom.  I never want to see another egg for the rest of my life, but think that I'm stuck with them for the time being. As for the painful bm's... I have no idea what the cause is. My gastroenterologist (a saint if ever there was one) thinks it's either a fissure, a tear or an exposed nerve.  I don't really care much what it is, I just need relief. I keep my "screaming towel" close at hand and have since the second week of treatment. I can't imagine how whatever it is can heal if I keep "going," whether it's watery or water...  and I can't imagine remaining like this for months on end.  The external burns are feeling somewhat better, with the aquaphor and oxycodone and the difference in my mood is greater than the actual improvments to the tissue might warrant.  That said, I don't care, having a lighter mood is a gift.  I actually sound human again.  It sounds like you dodged a bullet with the obstruction that resolved without surgical intervention. Hopefully it was a one-time thing.  Without going too crazy, can you give a brief overview of how you prepare your soups and what ingrediants you use?  If it's too much trouble, don't worry about it; I don't want to burden you.  Glad that you're doing well; may it always be so....

mp327 said:

LaCh

I'm not really a cook who uses recipes, unless I'm preparing something I can't wing on my own.  The soups are easy to make if you have chicken stock (I used store-bought stock, not broth) and veggies.  You could also use vegetable stock if you prefer.  I start with a little olive oil and saute onion, carrot and celery (all finely chopped) with a bay leaf until the veggies are soft.  Then I add the cut up sweet potato, potato, kale or whatever I'm using and add the stock, along with some garlic.  Cook on medium until the potato is soft, remove bay leaf, then put in a blender a little at a time and blend on low until smooth and creamy.  You can add milk if it's too thick, but I have been trying not to add milk, as it tends to bloat me up.  Finish with just a tablespoon of butter.  The kale turned the soup a beautiful green color and it tasted really good--and healthy too.  Making these soups has allowed me to get plenty of veggies while I'm on this special diet.  I am a veggie lover.  I also eat a lot of protein, normally, but haven't had any meat in over a week for obvious reasons.  I have been drinking protein drinks to get at least some protein.

As for what you can eat to avoid painful BM's, I'm sure you already know that anything too fibrous is not good.  I have not had one painful BM since I have been on this soft/liquid diet, so perhaps that's a clue that food choices, such as yogurt, pudding, applesauce, creamy soups and protein drinks can help in that regard.  I would have expected a BM to be painful since I am not having them as regularly right now, but that has not been the case.  Of course, if you do have a fissure, tear or nerve damage, diet changes may not make a difference.  Have you tried applying Lidocaine to numb things up prior to a BM?  I never tried that, but many have with good results. 

I think your pain is quite normal after this treatment.  I had painful BM's for at least a couple of weeks after I finished.  Even after things improved, I would still have the occasional painful BM, sometimes even accompanied by bleeding.  Most times I connected it to a bout with constipation, which resulted in very hard stools when things did move again, causing tearing.  The skin in that area is very friable, both inside and outside and easily damaged, and healing may take some time.  The unfortunate part about all of this is that we are talking about a body part that is in constant use, unlike breast tissue after radiation that can be somewhat left alone to heal.

I hear your frustration and can sympathize.  Time can definitely heal, but sometimes it just doesn't pass quickly enough.  Hang in there and keep us posted. 

Hey Mp327,

Thanks for the prep instructions.  This is helpful. I can modify it to conform to my "laziest cook on the planet" mentality and probably come up with something satisfactory (to me, at least.)  I'm also a big fan of vegetables and haven't had any since this whole thing began, being very cognizant of the fact that "what goes in, must come out." As for the question of friable tissues, yes, this tissue is extremely friable and more so after bening bombarded by radiation but I suspect that I have something like a tear or a fissure. Haven't tried lidocane but I have a suppository to try as soon as the external burns heal enough for me even think of inserting it (I'm still quite a ways off from that). And yes, the problem with healing has always seemed to me focused on the fact that the injured area is in constant use. If I tear off a healing scab several times a day, how is that going to heal?  As for breast tissue, yes, I suppose that's true, I guess it's not constantly reinjured. I never really thought about it.  I'm not sure if I would quantify what I feel as impatience since I've had this pain, getting progressively worse, since the second week of radiation and the time for impatience for a resolution came and went weeks ago.  Right now, all I want is relief. The internal pain is simply unbearable.  The external pain is now just a part of the new reality.  I'm not happy with living with background pain and finding it normal but then, I'm not very "ok" with a lot of things related to this experience.  That said (and I'm sure readers will be happy to know) I won't enumerate them here.  My major aspiration for today is to try to do a load of laundry which entails walking up and down 5 flights of stairs three times (load wash, back home, put into drier, back home, collect from drier, back home).  Not looking forward to it but it's got to be done. My energy reserves are extremely low, and I suspect that I'll feel good when its done and then be unconscious on the bed for the rest of the day. But on clean sheets. Thanks for the soup info.  Yours sounds undoubtedly better than anything I'd whip up but I can make it work enough to satisfy my unsophisticated taste buds. 

mp327 said:

LaCh

I'm not really a cook who uses recipes, unless I'm preparing something I can't wing on my own.  The soups are easy to make if you have chicken stock (I used store-bought stock, not broth) and veggies.  You could also use vegetable stock if you prefer.  I start with a little olive oil and saute onion, carrot and celery (all finely chopped) with a bay leaf until the veggies are soft.  Then I add the cut up sweet potato, potato, kale or whatever I'm using and add the stock, along with some garlic.  Cook on medium until the potato is soft, remove bay leaf, then put in a blender a little at a time and blend on low until smooth and creamy.  You can add milk if it's too thick, but I have been trying not to add milk, as it tends to bloat me up.  Finish with just a tablespoon of butter.  The kale turned the soup a beautiful green color and it tasted really good--and healthy too.  Making these soups has allowed me to get plenty of veggies while I'm on this special diet.  I am a veggie lover.  I also eat a lot of protein, normally, but haven't had any meat in over a week for obvious reasons.  I have been drinking protein drinks to get at least some protein.

As for what you can eat to avoid painful BM's, I'm sure you already know that anything too fibrous is not good.  I have not had one painful BM since I have been on this soft/liquid diet, so perhaps that's a clue that food choices, such as yogurt, pudding, applesauce, creamy soups and protein drinks can help in that regard.  I would have expected a BM to be painful since I am not having them as regularly right now, but that has not been the case.  Of course, if you do have a fissure, tear or nerve damage, diet changes may not make a difference.  Have you tried applying Lidocaine to numb things up prior to a BM?  I never tried that, but many have with good results. 

I think your pain is quite normal after this treatment.  I had painful BM's for at least a couple of weeks after I finished.  Even after things improved, I would still have the occasional painful BM, sometimes even accompanied by bleeding.  Most times I connected it to a bout with constipation, which resulted in very hard stools when things did move again, causing tearing.  The skin in that area is very friable, both inside and outside and easily damaged, and healing may take some time.  The unfortunate part about all of this is that we are talking about a body part that is in constant use, unlike breast tissue after radiation that can be somewhat left alone to heal.

I hear your frustration and can sympathize.  Time can definitely heal, but sometimes it just doesn't pass quickly enough.  Hang in there and keep us posted. 

I just had to jump in here.  I finished treatment just a few days after LaCH.  I am still very stingy  and raw in the vaginal area, but also developed hemrhoids and a UTI infection so I get to deal with that along with the healing of the burns in the anal area.  I have been using the Lidocaine and it does make a difference so I would certainly give it a try LaCH.  I had one of my most painful movements yesterday, but then later in the evening had one of the most comfortable "normal" ones I've had in the long time.  It's such a back and forth thing.  I'm on Loritab every four hours right now and then I take two Iboprofen two hours after the Loritab.  My nurse said keeping the pain meds in you consistantly works best so be sure you are doing that.  I was kind of just taking it when I suspected a bowel movement which wasn't working for me.  I have been one of the "unlucky" ones I've read about who have been screaming and crying in the bathroom as well.  I'm so happy this will be behind me soon.   l'm a little better each day and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.