Back in the hospital: burning hot diarrhea info

OK,so I am back in the hospital for three days, getting my third cycle of chemotherapy. This place is starting to feel like a second home. With each visit, I grow more familiar with the clamor of the oncology ward corridors, the cheerfullness of my preferred nurse (she always remembers when I am coming and she requests that I be assigned to her), the acrid taste of the hospital water and the abject lack of taste of the hospital food, the bland and sterile appearance of my hospital room, and the disconcerting fact that the bathroom door doesn't really lock. Yet, here I am and it's beginning to feel almost homey in a rather perverse way. If a home can be a place where there is no room for modesty and caring people pump toxins into your body, then ... well, yeah, I guess I'm right at home!

For those of you that have read my posts about boiling hot diarrhea, I finally had this explained by a friend who is a nurse that works on research for anti-cancer drug clinical trials (although she doesn't work with colon cancer trials). She told me that chemotherapy drugs attack not only cancer cells but also rapidly dividing cells in the digestive track. I already know this, but I was not really aware that the intestines, all the way down to the anus, are lined with a protective layer of mucus producing membranes. With the chemotherapy drugs, these cells are often the first to be attacked and, in some unlucky patients, this layer of cells is completely obliterated. I'm one of these unlucky patients, which leaves my poor, poor anus with no protection from acids that are excreted. I think that there is a lack of nerves inside the intestinal track until you get to the anus, so this is where the discomfort happens. And when you combine that discomfort with an anal fissure, then you are in for more fun. Oh my god, that is sheer hell. The "fortunate" thing about this situation is that the cells along the digestive track replicates quickly, so that the healing process might take two or three days. For me it's more like three or four days, but I now know the story so I have a better understanding.

Is there any solution to the problem? I considered spraying the anal area with orajel or some kind of novocaine, but I fear that there is probably some kind of detrimental effect from that. But there is a new drug coming out possibly soon called a Keratinocyte Growth Factor being produced by a company call Amgen. This supposedly bulks up the protective coating of the digestive track, and should hopefully alleviate this unfortunate side effect of chemo. I intend to ask my oncologist when he does rounds tomorrow.

I'll let you know his response.

Thanks,
Rodney