My wonderful partner was diagnosed with bowel cancer in July 2009 (aged 45), a week before our daughter was born. He had a sub-total colectomy (no stoma needed) and distal pancreatectomy, followed by XELOX/CAPOX for 8 cycles, a small liver metastasis was removed along with his gall bladder in Feb 2010. We were then told the cancer had gone and only a very slim chance of it returning.
When he went for follow up scans in July 2010 his pancreas was glowing and his CEA and CA19-9 had gone up, so more tests were done and finally he had a third op in October 2010 a partial gastrectomy, a splenectomy and part of one kidney removed for good measure. We were told after that they thought they had probably left some behind and sure enough in January 2010 his CEA and CA19-9 were rising again and he had a 4th op on 19 February. This time another partial gastrectomy, some cancer removed from his abdominal wall, however again it wasn't possible to remove it all and although he came out of hospital a week after the op, he had to go to A&E a week later as he couldn't stop vomiting.
Geoff is now stable again and coming home today, we are seeing the oncologist on Friday and the intention is to start him on FOLFIRI as soon as possible in order to shrink the remaining tumour and his surgeon wants to operate again once this has happened.
The symptoms Geoff has now are similar as I understand it to people who have stomach cancer, a lot of wind and burping which are disturbing and some stomach cramps which can be painful, but generally Geoff doesn't need pain killers and just takes a sleeping pill so his stomach grumbling doesn't keep him awake at night.
My mission apart from supporting my lovely man, getting him as fit as I can and making sure I try and help alleviate his symptoms. I'm searching for anyone who has had stomach/bowel cancer in the stomach who has had these wind/cramp problems and tips on how we can reduce them a bit or even a lot. Geoff can't eat very much in one go because of the 2 stomach ops, so he isn't over eating. He also has to avoid bulky food such as bread because he also has a slight bowel blockage following his surgery which may sort itself out in time.
Getting him home today. Thank you for reading.
