I’ve been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the anus, stage 2. They did think I would have to have a colostomy and then radiotherapy. However, I don’t have to have the colostomy and my anus is working, but the problem is there is a tumour there that has restricted the size of the opening, so that any motions come out a little bigger than a pencil. This means many trips to the loo rather than the usual once or twice. I’m due radiotherapy at the end of the month and I understand this makes your bum sore. Has anyone else had this with a narrowed opening ? If so how did you cope ? What did you eat ? What painkiller and creams did you use ? Most heavy duty painkillers cause constipation.
Hi Martin G68,
I know it’s difficult for you at the moment but having been through this myself & reading other people’s experiences through this diagnosis there are definitely a couple of positives in your post. 1. You’ve been diagnosed fairly early, so many people ‘slip through the net’ or go mis-diagnosed until staged much further on, I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve heard of that are not picked up until stage 3/4!… 2. You’re not having to have the extra surgery prior to treatment & then a possible reversal of that surgery with your Dr’s deciding against a colostomy.
With the chemoradiotherapy a lot of people have loose bowel movements as the bowel gets aggravated by the daily radiotherapy sessions, if that’s the case you’ll have no issues then with passing anything. Myself I swung completely the opposite way & became constipated & took stool softeners throughout & still take one every day 17 months on.
I’m sure you’ll be encouraged to eat normally throughout treatment, I had to eat high fibre (lots of veg etc.,) to help things along if you know what I mean! But play if by ear, you’ll soon realise what foods agree with you & others that don’t.
Your radiology/oncology team will supply you with creams & pain relief etc., don’t be hesitant in telling them about any discomfort you’re experiencing, I rotated ibuprofen & paracetamol 2 hourly when needed as any of the opiate based painkillers, co-codamol, morphine etc., as you say caused me to be more constipated & that wasn’t good but if you have loose bm’s then these kind of painkillers may suit you better, also you’ll be given loperamide if you find you’re going to the loo too often! I was given QV cream to begin with which is basically an aqueous cream to use daily to moisturise the area even before there was any skin reaction, then week 3 I was given Flaminal cream as I was beginning to get a little sore, Flaminal is a burns cream & I used that for the rest of treatment then once treatment had finished I was prescribed Flamazine which is again used on burns but contains silver which isn’t compatible with the radiotherapy hence having to wait until treatment had finished. But you’ll find each team prescribe slightly different creams etc.
Please don’t hesitate if you have more questions.
Nicola
You’re very welcome, that’s exactly why we’re here. I remember when I was first diagnosed I felt like the bottom (forgive the pun!) had dropped out of my world, I worried that I wouldn’t see either of my daughters next birthdays, that’s how devastating a diagnosis like this is, but hearing from people that had been diagnosed the same & gone through treatment & were through the other side & living their lives again gave me much needed hope & as you probably already know AC is still quite rare, although cases are on the rise unfortunately, so once I found this forum I no longer felt alone.
I’m sorry it wasn’t dealt with sooner! My sister ended up quite ill a few years back through exactly the same mistake, an ‘admin error’ & it’s taken her 10 years+ to get any kind of life back.
Nicola
