Rectal bleeding, a d tears

VascodaGama said:

Courage

Mike

You have and are a fighter and now you may be in need of some courage to pass this other chapter on your journey. The colonoscopy will not kill you. The results will help you in diagnosing your symptoms. Just get an experienced practitioner in whom you trust.

 

Best wishes for the test and good results.

 

Peace to you

VG

Mike

   Life is what we give to it and I know you will give your best!

God Bless

Ralph

dw055 said:

AndyC5, same thing here

Andy,

Are things better? You are having almost exactly the same response I have to IMRT. What machine you on, just curious. Im getting 81 grays total, decided to stop half way through because of fear, like you, of what it will mean for my future if its this bad now. Long story short, my Dr. adjusted the beam away from rectal more, and Im on steroid suppositories with liticane. Its helping some, but mostly he was able to put my fears at ease, and told me this will clear up after treatment stops. There is always concern about later, like years later, but I hope to offset that with healthy living. The more accurate machines are supposed to limit damage. Time will tell. take care,   David

Reporting back in case someone actually reads this stuff. I had extreme bowel movement pain starting mid-way through 45 treatments. Clenched fist kind of pain. Some relief after beam/dosage adjust, then more pain during last 15 'boost' treatments that target just the prostate (vs seminal ves.) Steroid suppositories, soft diet, stool softeners only helped a little. Fasting helped, but its not smart during cancer treatment.. Well, 8 days after treatments ended, I had my first 'normal' bowel movement without pain, and its been 3 good days. So in my case, once the source of irritation stopped (radiation) things started to heal up. Still some weak stream, on Flomax for that, hopefully it will heal up also with time. Hope this helps someone.

--update / edit. I spoke too soon. The pain during bowel movements comes and goes. seems related to what i eat and how large/hard the stool is. So apparently, the lining is still sensitive and easily damaged/irritated. I go several days ok, then back to pain until it heals up. To get it to heal is a soft diet and lots of water. Im 3 weeks out from treatment. Also, I am alternating flowmax and a Pygeum supplement because I dont like prescription drug dependence. Flowmax about every 3 or 4 days, Pygeum the rest of the time - this controls weak stream/night time frequency for me.

--update 2
1 month out from radiation, Im pretty much back to normal bowel function. I also added meat to my previous vegan-ish diet, which is helping me heal I think. Im completely off flowmax, just using the Pygeum/SwPameto/Nettle supplement now.

dw055 said:

Help for painful bowel movements

Hang in there Mike, there is always hope or some new thing that might come along to help us all out, regardless of our stage or condition. I agree getting this young sucks, it started at 47 for me.. 

I wanted to mention I found something that helps when the rectal bleeding occurs (mine starts up about every 4 or 5 weeks it seems)  Its called Henry's Internal Cleanse. It sounds harsh and I was reluctant to try it, but its not. Its gentle, works like a stool softener, makes things soft, amaller, lubricated and easy to pass. But unlike stool softeners, its all natural and doesnt have negative effects on your system.  Anyway, wanted to pass this on, in case it helps someone. The other things mentioned earlier in this thread, that Dr. Datoli uses (Sucraflate?) sounds like a good option too, which I may ask my dr about if and when things get bad.

I had radiation treatments and like Mike about 2-3 years the same issue cropped up. My GI Doctor gave me a picture and it was a radiation burn in the rectum. He prescribed a suppository name Canasa and everthing improved in a short amount of time. I keep these on hand.