Rectal Cancer Diagnosis

Hi WeezeM and good to hear that your hubby is coming home. The food in hospital isn’t great and it’s also exhausting with everything that goes on around you.

The scans will check that the tumour hadn’t spread to any other organs and then the MDT (multi disciplinary team) will meet to decide on a treatment plan. Often tor rectal cancer the treatment is a course of chemoradiotherapy to shrink the tumour as much as possible before surgery. 
As the consultant has said it is a case of getting him as fit as possible and with some weight on before treatment starts. They generally recommend a low residue diet which is pretty much a beige diet of foods that won’t aggravate the tumour. I’ve attached a link to some suggestions below 

 Low Residue Diet 

If he’s really struggling then you could ask his GP to prescribe some build up drinks calked Ensure which are about the size of a hottie of Actimel but contain about 250 calories- some flavours are better than others! There’s some more information in the link below too

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/building-up-diet

Hope he continues to improve and then he can start treatment and get this tumour in the bin

Take care

Karen x

I'm sorry your husband is going through this. 

From my own experience, the low residue diet, as recommended by Kareno62, is a good idea since it limits the amount of waste that must pass through the bowels and rectum. I ate a lot of rice with gravy, pasta, etc. The Ensure is great if he struggles to eat enough. I wish I had done more with that. 

Emphasize protein since it is critical for healing and he will need it for whatever treatment course is recommended. Also keep up on exercise as much as he can tolerate. 

WeezeM,

I found that eating fruit flavoured jelly, topped with yogurt and ice cream, was easy to digest and rich in protein. Also pasta in the form of filled tortellini (cheese) cooked until soft then drizzled with tomato sauce - not ketchup - and sprinkled with parmesan was substantial, That and plenty of drinking water every day kept me going in the lead-up to surgery. Tea and coffee as usual, but with Rich Tea biscuits because they are made from fine flour rather than more granular ingredients. None of it did me any harm and I kept this as a regime for some months until surgery and its effects were completed. Once that is over a near normal diet can be resumed. Mentally, I thought in terms of a drainpipe partially blocked with a lump of concrete and what might, or might not, pass through the small gap that was left!

Best

Dulac

Hello WeezeM,

My husband had rectal cancer (all clear now), at the beginning before he started chemo he was losing weight the nurse advised protein shakes (100ml) I requested these from the doctors,  they come in a few favours, and they are 300+ calories per drink, get the smallest ones 100ml if possible.  I added a little cream, just a bit, to make them taste a little more like milk shakes.  He also tried the low residual diet, though he did have some things he likes.  Anything to keep the weight up.  Another thing we tried was powdered milk, it has a lot of calories and doesn’t increase the volume. 

Regarding Exercise, we walked everyday and he did some stretches to keep him supple as we knew once the treatment started he wouldn’t feel like doing much.

I hope this helps.

Take one day at a time, you are both stronger than you think.

Tam

Thank you everyone for your words of advice. He’s been home for a few days and seems to be keeping food down much better. Having the low residue diet but only managing a couple of small meals a day so might ask for some of the shakes to replace some of his nutrients. Just waiting for our treatment plan now x