Hi, My husband aged 80 had his rectal stump removed in March after two years of hospital admissions due to continual infections. The puss and goo still coming out of the wound is worrying even though I've been told it's normal.
How much longer is it likely to last?
Regards
Maggie
Hi Ima Fisherman,
My name is Keith and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialist
We hope you are finding the support and information from the online community helpful.
This sounds like a really worrying time you both right now.
On this platform it’s difficult to give a definite diagnosis of what the issue is with your husbands wound.
In a situation like this we would always advise contacting your husband’s treatment team to have this assessed as soon as possible. They would assess the situation and rule out any possible infection recurrences. Especially if there have been issues in the past.
The rule of thumb here is if you have the slightest concerns about any new or worsening/ continuing issues you should always discuss these issues further with your husband’s treatment team. If for nothing else to put your mind at rest
With rectal stumps a discharge is expected, but you have also mentioned this stump has been surgically removed. It may be there is still part of the stump left that may still he is producing a discharge, or it may just be the body repairing itself.
If it is a healing issue with the wound, your husband’s team may refer your husband a tissue viability nurse who can sometimes help with wound issues further. Durations of this sort of symptoms vary from person to person, dependant on the cause.
But due to the circumstances and history of issues with infections, we would always advise contacting your husband team to be on the safe side.
On this platform it can be difficult to have a two-way conversation and to fully understand what you are going through.
If you’d like further explanation or have any other questions, please feel free to recontact us. By giving us a give us a call or contact us via our web chat platform.
take care.
Keith, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist
You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.
Ref KM/EM
