Rectum Cancer Leakage

Hi

I am sorry to hear this and I have suffered myself from minor leakage following rectal cancer treatment but I think you need to get the experts involved in this. There might be a number of different approaches you can take, but they need to be specific and appropriate to your Dad and his current state of health for example:

Medication can make faeces bulkier and more solid so it is passed less often. 

Bowel washouts can wash it all out at once leaving less behind to keep oozing.

There are a variety of creams and pads to prevent and/or treat soreness and reduce smells.

Ultimately a colostomy diverts faeces into a bag so it would stop being passed completely, but it requires an operation and depending on your Dads health he might still have problems with damaged or infected areas continuing to ooze from the cancer site.

A low fibre diet will reduce the amount of faeces passed but you may risk constipation.

You may have to ask a number of different people but I would start with the GP or his hospital consultant, or a district nurse/incontinence specialist or a member of his cancer team. It may take a while to find the right expert and treatment for him but it is worth pursuing as clearly it would get anyone down, and the last thing you need with his existing problems are a sore bottom and any more discomfort than he already has.

Best wishes

Nicky

Thank you so much for your reply, my Dad did mention this to his district nurse and the reply was it’s “part of the parcel”. Surgery wouldn’t be an option either as unfortunately his too poorly. When you mentioned creams to hide the offensive odour what would you suggest? Thanks again Nicky

Hi 

Sorry you've had to join the online community and to come to us with such a delicate problem.

 has given some good advice and I'm sorry to hear that when your dad mentioned it to his district nurse she was very dismissive about the problem please don't let that attitude stop him asking other medics for help as Nicky says it's out there he just needs to find the right person to ask, however, maybe we can approach this from a different direction and help you get to the right person sooner.

If you post you question in our Ask a Nurse page one of the specialist nurses will give you some advice and possibly signpost you in the right direction to get help for your dad.

To contact the nurses just click on the green text above and this will open up the nurses question page, then click on ask a question and add yours into the box and press send and one of the nurses will come back to you with advice usually within two working days.

I hope that your dad gets this problem resolved quickly but if you do need anymore help please don't hesitate to come back and ask us anything, we are all here to help you at anytime.

Ian

Thank you so much Ian