Partial Lower Bowel Obstruction

I had my 4th Round of Chemo on October 20th. I enjoyed my usual two to three days of feeling good from one of the pre-meds they give me prior to chemo. However about Thursday I started having trouble going to the bath room and starting have fairly intense cramps. This worsened throughout the weekend until my belly was distended and I was encountering quite severe pain. I had no appetite and really did not eat much at all. I did try to eat and forced myself, but the minute food touch my stomach I would start these intense, hard cramps.

Finally Tuesday, Oct 28 I told my wife I couldn't take it any more and we needed to go to the ER. I was admitted that morning with a partial lower bowel obstruction. While I was relieved that an NG tube would not be of much help, I then learned the treatment is no food or water, nothing until it worked its way out. I went four days with nothing to eat or nothing to drink. One of the drugs in my chemo regime is Oxyplatin, which causes and intense reaction to cold. So even when I was able to suck on the ice chips I couldn't. I could not stand the reaction to cold.

I started to pass gas along about Thursday, heavy rumbling sounds that were almost as painful as relief. Finally Saturday, Nov. 1 I was put on a clear liquid diet. This meant juice, broth, water, etc. However my taste was all balled up and not much tasted good so I was getting much of my fluids through an IV.

In the meantime on Friday a x-ray revealed a pneumonia. That started an intense round of anti-biotics. Now my bowels have very little going on because of the blockage and then they come along with Round-Up and kill all the bacteria.

My stool looks like sludge, it is uncontrollable and comes frequently. Nurses are having to change my bed several times a shift, I am soiling myself several times and hour and wearing these hospital briefs to contain the output. Its a hell of a mess. I am not feeling any better and my wife is helping as much as she can, which is a lot.

By now, after four days we've established a good repartee with the staff and nurses. I don't know how they can work in the situation I offered them but they seem very professional and take it like just part of what goes on. In the meantime my modesty and embarrassment have fled like a fart in a windstorm.

I start feeling a little better on Saturday evening and Sunday but still I go and go. A Dr. comes in and says he believed if I kept pooping and passing gas and eating I could go home Monday. By Sunday it seemed like I was having a reversal, not in the blockage, but I just started to feel worse and worse.

Monday comes and the Dr.'s nurse comes in to check up and I tell her about feeling worse. She says it is a well known fact that if you stay in a hospital too long it will make you sick. Long story short, I was released on Monday and went home. I felt sick and weak and tired. However, I am getting better, In fact, I'd say I feel about as good as I have in a month. You see chemo colors all. I have know sense of blockage, but chemo just makes you tired, worn out and lethargic. That is where I'm at now having spent six days in the hospital and 8 days out. I'd call that about normal.

Next week a couple of tests, a PET Scan and an MRI with Contrast, then an evaluation of the situation by the Dr. in Little Rock and hopefully surgery in Mid-December. At least that is my hope, we shall see what the outcome will be.