Partial Blockage- a little graphic, any thoughts?

There are foods which can help cause the problem...bread (particularly toasted), rice, bananas, applesauce, cheese.  You might also want to keep a food diary for a while and see which others can contribute to it.

It also helps to keep track of output...not literally, but just as a "went twice yesterday"..."no output today"...kinda thing.  When I know I have over done the "bad" stuff, I will drink a cup of very hot water.  This works to loosen things up, without the side effects of a laxative.

If you find that you are having frequent issues, perhaps a stool softener on a semi-regular basis.

Of course the liquid input is important, and there are things there to avoid too when you suspect a blockage in the making...avoid anything with caffine...coffee, tea, sodas, as they act as a diauretic and deplete the liquid available to the gut.

Hope you are feeling well enough to enjoy your company and the party.

Marie who loves kitties

JanJan63 said:

Thanks for the responses.

Thanks for the responses. John, every time I get it I never have an infection, they can find no evidence of it. That's the weird thing. But I get a fever every time. It makes no sense. And Marie, I have an illeostomy, I didn't mention that, sorry. Good reminder about caffiene products, thanks.

Let me give you a short analogy.....

I suffered from chills and shakes so bad I was actually convulsing at times. I too thought my teeth would crack. I sat in our living room in front of an electric space heater and a blanket over me and the heater in an attempt to stop the violent shaking. This happened every time I would begin my IV PICC hydration.

My gastro doc suggested warming the hydration. Didn't work. She suggested starting it, stopping it, and restarting it. Didn't work. Blood tests came back OK, slightly high white count, but otherwise OK. I suffered almost a year like that.

After some reading, I found that bacteremia, a blood infection. Blood tests won't indicate anything, it requires a culture and it takes about a week for the results. The sample has to be taken at the time of suffering.

She ordered the PICC removed and a Culture taken. It came back positive. I refused antibiotics and used TCM instead. The bacteremia was gone in two days. I'm sure the antibiotic would have worked, but I refuse Cipro or Levaquin  and both have new recent FDA warnings applied.

Most bacterial infections require a culture to identify the problem. After the initial immune response (about 45 minutes) you're fine again. Until the next flare up.

Maybe you don't have an intestinal infection, but you're not going to know it without the proper test. From the way you're describing the symptoms, it certainly sounds like an Bacterial infection!

Best hopes,

John

I went through the same thing Jan. One negative test after another. The slightly high white count never went away; still high. For me? Normal.

A "flare up" can be very temporary if your immune system is working A+! And the actual problem will be gone as quick as it arrived. Rotting food inside the intestine is common with blockages and bacterial counts can rise rapidly. It is not unusual. It's not that the bacteria stays in the system (as in bacteremia, my case), but it develops from the rotting food. It's there, and gone again.

I won't dwell on it; if your satisfied with the physician's analysis, great! I hate to see people suffer; it's just me..

Obstructions from adhesions are a major problem. They do not go away by themselves and there's really nothing you can do to change that. Limiting diet, chewing well, etc will help, but if the adhesion continues to grow, as they all do, eventually you will have a total obstruction.

IF....<big if>... you start vomiting with the increased pain, and feel very weak, get to the ER and tell them what you feel it's from. A total obstruction is nothing to fool with. You do not want to experience a ruptured intestine!

I wish I could type some encouraging script here, but I can't find anything.

Make a visit to the UOAA Forum. You'll find loads of individuals that can tell you about adhesions and obstructions. You may even find some encouraging words there!

Best hopes,

John

  I'm sitting here cringing at what you and John have to go thru. My cancer surgery was the long cut , sternum to groin. I don't think any of us ever get out of it without some form of colon restriction. I have gone thru nearly three years of hell because some well meaning idiot of a doctor decided to subject me to 80mg daily of targin. (80 mg oxycodone and 40 mg naloxone) I have enough trouble staying regular at the best of times and with my damaged plumbing opiate induced constipation was nearly the death of me. I was in serious trouble and called into a chemist one night in desperation. The chemist was a young guy from Florida working in Australia for a few years. He understood my problem straight off having tended to quite a few addicts during his training. He told me never to take a targin without also taking two dulcolax and two coloxyl stool softeners. I asked about laxative dependancy. He said it is a theory not fact, my nephrologist agrees. Eventually the targin started to cause more pain than it stopped (hypo-algesia) . I had to go off it. Took 34 weeks to wean off it. Since then I have had some serious problems with a flare of my auto-immune kidney disease. I take cyclosporine twice a day to control protein loss thru my kidneys ( over seven grams a day untreated). I am now suffering badly from oedeema. My legs have been filling up past my knees and my lungs were starting to fill up. My nephrologist did scans of my heart ,liver ,panceas and kidneys. He could not find a cause so he put me on a litre of fluid a day restrictions and doubled my diuretics. That is now playing merry hell with my constipation. I need more fluid but if I take it I cannot breathe at night when I lay down. I am once again living on dulcolax and coloxyl and always have mini enemas on hand. I know the moment that I am starting to block up and act straight away. I drink extra fluid with the laxatives and take an extra lasik. I don't bother the doctors with it . My Nephrologists knows what I am doing to get by. He told me that the drug he prescribes most often other than kidney drugs are laxatives. Hugs ron.

JanJan63 said:

John, I so appreciate your

John, I so appreciate your help and encouragement, thank you so much. Today I'm feeling much better with just some minor cramping. We have company coming later today for the weekend so I need to be in good shape. Last year when she came I was still recovering from the blood clot and the year before was right after my cancer surgery and I had an abcess and ended up back in the hospital before she went home. Plus was in bed and sick to my stomach the few days I was home. I am determined to enjoy her visit this year!

I'll check out that forum, thank you. The previous link you gave me for the TCM. How does that taste? Is it bad? I'm really funny about not eating things that tase at all 'off' to me and I wouldn't keep it up if it tastes yucky. Also, any idea about how much it costs to start it up?

I'll get back to my chewing well. Ironic because I've always been the slowest to eat in our family. I took small bites and chewed well even before all of this cancer crap. I am now finding some chunks of what looks like a fruit or veggie in my bag so that mush be what was stuck. Funny, I'd eaten popcorn and figured it had to be that. But my surgeon said he's found that the number one culprit is oranges.

A couple of things I find odd about having an ostomy. Fruits and veggies do not break down or digest on any way. They all come out looking the way they went in other than chewed. So how do we get nutrition out of them? And, if everything goes through me so fast, why do I have a weight issue? How does my body manage to pluck whatever calories it can out of what I eat while just going through the small intestine? I don't eat as much as I used to and I never eat processed foods or snack foods like chips, I hate dougnuts, I don't eat baked goods, I rarely eat meat, this is ridiculous. My family doctor thinks it's from being malnourished when I was so sick last year with the blood clot and that it's messed up my metabolism. It makes me angry. At least I seem to have levelled off and am not huge but I'm not the weight I'd like to be. Very frustrating when I'm still not able physically to do much for exercise. Okay, rant over. I just felt like out of all the horror of having the blood clot and being paralyzed from it that the one thing I got out of it was being slim. But nope, can't even have that.

Thank you!

Jan

The herbal broths can be disgusting, or not-so-bad, it depends on the herbs. But considering the benefits, I preferred to tackle the taste, than the side effects of remedies that don't do anything to solve the actual problem.

That said, since I only have 1/2 of my small intestines and no large intestine, my absorption is limited. I require IV (PICC) hydration at 2~2.5 liters per day. My system will not absorb enough to replace what I displace. Various vitamins and minerals may or may not be absorbed via oral intake (I take IV magnesium, and B12 shots). The oral intake of any medication is tricky at best, since there's no way for any physician to know what chemical in the medicine will be absorbed and what will not. That complicates the entire chemical formula that's compounded for a normal digestive system. And of course, there's no way to predict how much of any medication will be absorbed. They recommend IV administration rather than oral for any medication.

My problem now, is that although the herbal formula I took in 2006~2008 worked well, I had a complete small intestine (missing the large intestine, however) at that time; absorption wasn't a problem. With only 1/2 of the small intestine now, the ingestion of liquids should be limited to 2 cups per day, with more via IV. Liquid intake will flush through very quickly and can actually cause dehydration at a faster rate. It will also flush any food out quickly causing malnutrition. In China, they use the herbal formulas intravenously or inject it directly into the tumor. We don't do that here. So I have no way to know if the formulas will work for me anymore due to the lack of a normal digestive tract.

Instead of the liquid herbal broth that can taste terrible, my TCM doc has been using a powdered, raw version of the formula and putting it into capsules for me. So far the capsule version has worked well. It's resolved my problem of kidney stones, bacteremia, DVT, Liver functioning... more... So apparently the TCM formulas can be used in that manner with success. If you manage to locate a TCM practitioner, you should ask about what I just typed. I am considering having my TCM doc grind the herbs I used and put it into capsules for me. But as I said ( and for anyone with less small intestines that came with the body), what once was absorbed well, may not be absorbed any longer. It's a problem. And most physicians, including gastroenterologists, are not familiar with the "short bowel" syndrome; they do not see that many patients (if any at all) with a short bowel.

Too many operations to resolve adhesions can put you exactly where I am in condition. Each time they resect (remove) a section to resolve the adhesion, it leaves you with less intestine. And a major resection with a relocation of a stoma can leave you with a lot less intestine that's kind to your life.

I hate to hear anyone having to go through this hell, and I wish I had some encouraging words or remedy.... Adhesions are formed by your body doing it's thing to heal a wounded, bruised area. Like a callous on a knuckle or foot, it forms around the intestine, or attaches it to some other organ. It can strangle the intestine, or get it tangled. Any lack of flexibility can cause a blockage. Hey.....too tight clothing can cause an obstruction! We take our bodies for granted!

So if you're worried about the taste of the herbal broths, you can ask/demand it be ground into a flour and put into capsules. If the doc can't put the powder into a capsules (not everyone has the equipment), you can take a tablespoon of the powder mixed with food or drink. I did that until my Doc got the capsule machine. The raw herbs are sold in full, natural form, or in a powder. I bought the full leaves, etc, because I wanted to make sure I was getting what I ordered (compare pictures of the herbs to what's in the bag). Locating a TCM practitioner that uses raw herbs in practice and has the ability to grind, etc. can complicate the use of TCM. Buying in powder form is easier.

Each herbal formula is developed by the TCM practitioner for that specific patient. It's not like western pharmaceuticals that are generic and cannot be reformulated to "tweak" the individual ingredients. A TCM practitioner provides each patient with what that specific patient requires to remedy the specific problem. They do not simply remove a symptom; when the problem is cured, the symptom goes away. It takes longer than a western medicine pill, but it causes your body to fix what's wrong and resolves the problem the correct way.

As far as cost? The herbs are usually very inexpensive. I paid an average of $6 per pound for what I used. A pound can last 1.5 to 6 months, depending on the herb. It had cost me less than $100 per month for all of it. The powdered version can cost more than the raw full plant, but unless you have a grain/flour grinder or know someone that does, you're limited. The cost difference isn't that much anyway. The TCM practitioner is going to charge a lot more than a supplier for the herbs. You have to keep in mind however, that unlike western pharmaceuticals, you do not take the herbal remedy for any great duration of time. Usually a few months, or less than a year is all that's needed to get your body to do the job it was intended to do. Once it's working correctly, you no longer need the herbs. I took herbs to resolve my Atrial Fibrillation in 2001 (or2). It took about 6 months to resolve the AF and I haven't needed to take anything since. The herbs get the body to dissolve kidney or gall stones in around 24~48 hours, and after taking it for a week or so, you may never need to take it again. And yes, it works (did for me).

So the "cost" of using TCM only depends on the practitioner you locate. Some charge less than 1/2 of any western physician's visit, others may charge the same, and what they charge for the herbal remedies can vary greatly. The TCM doc I go to is fantastic, but he -charges- for the herbal mixes and can be expensive. The upside of course, is that the cost is usually only for a short duration. Still, when I see a patient paying over two or three hundred for a week's worth of herbs, it rattles me. I paid around $50 per week for the Bacteremia capsules, but only needed it for one week. I still have the nearly full bottle of capsules and they don't "go bad", so if/when I have any problem with what I think might be due to an infection, I have my remedy. (used it once since, and it worked 100%). I still have the bottles of capsules for Blood clots, kidney stones, etc in the med cabinet for future use. So the initial $$ was well worth the insurance.

Sorry to type so much about it; hate to hog the forum.... TCM has proven itself to me and others that have had a good TCM practitioner treating them. It's an amazing modality! It's not "3 thousand years old", as if it's an archaic practice; it's been practiced, documented, and developed for over three thousand years. That's a lot of studying and developing compared to the less than 200 years of western pharmaceuticals. TCM is used today in the finest Asian hospitals, and it's even used here in the States in many facilities.

Some links for those interested: http://csn.cancer.org/node/200670

I hope that offers some help Jan?

Be well,

John

Jan, if you are susceptible to IBS and suffered from IBS, eggs are a known trigger food; you may want to reconsider gobbling them down.

The yolks are high in cholesterol, while the whites contain nearly all the protein without the fat and are said to digest easier. For me, the cooked whites didn't appear to dissolve well at all, but we're all different and your mileage may vary....

The thought of setting off an IBS attack may not be all that desirable, especially with all the other problems you're presently experiencing.

Just a thought here from the peanut gallery..

John

That's the point Jan! You want to be careful not to "set it off" again.

All best hopes,

John

A quick note, JanJan..

I just spent the last 3 days (Aug 23~26) suffering from a blockage. Total at first, with all the pain you know well..... And finally clearing to what is now a very partial blockage.

Scary to consider it might be another adhesion, since any more loss of intestine will put me on TPN.

Warm clear liquids, massage, and limited walking helps clear things....sometimes....

Just to let you know, none of us are exempt from adhesions after intensive abdominal surgery. Sooner or later, it usually happens.

Be well, willya'?

John