postsurgical adhesion and bowel obstruction

Shayenne said:

Hi there!
Welcome to the board Troy!

I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon cancer with a tumor in the liver in January of this year. I had never been sick, no signs or symptoms, except a "hardness" above my belly area to the left, and alot of fluid that was swelling me up, I gained like alot of weight, and was uncomfortable even tying my shoes, which brought me to the ER room because of the discomfort, and that's when they ran the scans and saw I had a thick mass on my colon with a tumor in my liver, and being anemic, I was way down in the levels...they then transferred me in an ambulance to the James Cancer Research Center in Columbus, where I been going ever since.

My doctor is a specialist in the colon, and her plan was to start me on Folfiri with Avastin, which I've been on ever since. Now, in March, I had a couple setbacks, I had an absessed wisdom tooth which caused me to be hospitalized with an infection, and then 2 weeks later, I had gotten a colon perforation, which led to emergency surgery..my bowels were going into my belly, and I had to get a colostomy, which saved my life actually, I was in ICU for a couple days, and then the hospital for 2 weeks, sent home with a wound vac for my incision, and ever since that, I been doing well, they had to stop chemo till I was able to recuperate from the surgery..

I had my first CT scan last month, and my doctor was happy to say that the chemo has killed most of my cancer! she told me she gets good results with the folfiri treatment. I feel so much better then I did before I started chemo, no more fluid, I lost over 20 lbs, but that was good for me, since the weight gain was due to the cancer. My tumors are shrinking, and she was eager to get me back on the chemo right away, now that my incision is healed, and colostomy working as it should. I have finished 5 treatments of it, out of 12 that I have to do...

You will experience alot of hair thinning (she told me I wouldn't lose my hair on it, but I am, alot is coming out, but I'm not bald yet), nausea is the worse, but they have great anti-nausea meds, since I been taking Emend and Dexamethasone, I have not had any nausea or vomiting...I go in every other Wednesday, and have a pump connected to me for 46 hours, till Friday, when a home health nurse will come and disconnect me, and it's such a nice relief to get the pump off, but then you will feel totally wiped out for a few days, but dont worry! you will bounce back to your old self! you will feel like a zombie, and that's ok, it's only temporary, just lay in bed, take it easy, and once your energy comes back, you'll see you'll be able to do this! if I can do it, you can do it!

Drink lots of water! especially during the chemo, it will flush it out faster, so you can feel better, but anyway, Folfiri is working for me, and hope it shrinks my tumors to nothing, and I hope it does well for you!

Hugssss!
~Donna

Shayenne said:

I thought...
...the Avastin caused my colon perforation, but it didn't. I was losing blood from somewhere in my body, they just couldn't find where...well, we found it, it was leaking from my sigmoid area, and that's where my coloscopy was, they took out the sigmoid part, cleaned all my intestines out, and it took 11 liters of sea water they used to clean out my belly area of the bowels.

She was debating whether to take me off the Avastin, thinking if it was the cause, but decided no, it wasn't, because I was going into my 4th treatment at the time, when my the perforation happened, and if anything, I would have had an earlier reaction to the Avastin then. She said the avastin is something she wants to keep me on since that's what is good for the diseased liver, so we stayed with it, I finished treatments 4 and 5 since the colostomy, and knock on wood, everything has been ok! I was worried about them taking the Avastin away as well, as I wanted this drug, which showed alot of promise in killing the tumors, starving them and not letting anymore grow, so we are going on with it. If it was to give me some colon perforation, she said it would have happened in the 1st or 2nd round, sooner not later.

NO, my surgery lasted a few hours, and I had the chief surgeon on staff do me. It was late too, and my wound was totally opened, with some wet/dry dressing, they later put the sponges in there and taped it down with a wound vac, since it's supposed to cut the time of the healing time in half, with less risk of infection. It was painful, especially when it got time to change the dressings, but you get used to it, I learned to take the pain killers before the nurses came to my house to change it, and also a xanex, to calm me down while they did it, lol....

I'd tell your doctor to keep you on the Avastin, it is highly unlikely mine said that it wouldn't cause any colon perforations unless it was very early when used, not when it was down the road already somewhere. It's a very useful drug in the cancer field, my doctor really likes it, and it has done very well in the shrinkage of my tumors.

Hugssss!
~Donna

PhillieG said:

Similar but not as bad experience
After my initial operation in Sept 04 for a tumor on my colon and a liver resection and a few other "un-needed parts" taken out, I did OK for about2 months. Then one day I got hit with the bowel obstruction. It hit like a ton of bricks. I was in the hospital with the NG tube down the nose and all. One of the most unpleasant things I ever had done to me. The were able to correct the blockage by removing the scar tissue and ever since then I have been OK.
As far as what chemo to do, I think I went on FUDR and CPT11. I have been dealing with lung mets since then, 3 plus years.
I hope this is of some help Troy
-p

PS: I did Avastin and had very good results with it. I think I did that with the FOLFOX.
I am currently on Erbitux

PhillieG said:

I think someone mentioned it here
I did a RFA (radio frequency ablation) once and that was a walk in the park. Needle in tumor, it heats up, fries it, go home next day. The Erbitux has been keeping things in check.

Who knows, since I am no longer able to have a regular lung op due to scar tissue, maybe a cyber-knife is in my future.
-p