Rectal Cancer

FormerMember over 5 years ago

4 replies
124 subscribers
2066 views

I have just passed the 14 day of treatment out of 25 for chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It is not going well from my prospective as i am suffering from terrible side effects.

1. I have constant diarrhoea, and have to go to the toilet up to 30 times in a 24 hour period.

2. The oncologist has given me imodium and sachets of Smecta, none of which has worked.

3. He has told me if the above does not work I will have to come off the chemo.

4. Apparently my rectum has morphed into a different shape and the space for the waste had been reduced, this required a new cat scan and adjustment to the equipment used in the radiotherapy.

5. I have been put onto a low fiber diet to try and reduce the activity inside me.

6. After 10 days into the treatment red raised blotches appeared on my head, face and back which was very itchy and painful, that has been treated with steroids and anti histamine tablets which has nearly worked.

7. My chemo treatment has been reduced from 6 500mg per day to 4 500mg per day.

8. In addition to the above my right heel has become very painful and i am now limping, although this is now starting to reduce in intensity.

I discussed all of the above with the oncologist and basically they all come under the heading of NORMAL but rare side effects.

Has anyone gone through any or all of the above, as I really down

Goslow.

Jools63 over 5 years ago

Hi Goslow

What sort of dietary advice have you been given? I had 25 days chemo tablets alongside radiotherapy. No one told me quite how strict I needed to be in terms of fibre intake. I did the obvious things like switching to white bread, pasta etc. It turned out that some of the things I was still eating contained quite a lot of fibre, or irritated my bowels! I had to cut out all salads, most vegetables and most fruits. I hope you get some help soon as I know how miserable and draining the frequent episodes are.

FormerMember over 5 years ago in reply to Jools63

Hi Jools63,

Basically I had the colonoscopy and the doctor that did it referred me to a cancer surgeon, at the meeting with the surgeon he outlined the procedure that i would be following. He told me about a low fiber diet, but said i could continue with my normal diet which consisted of huge amounts of seeds, grains, vegetable and fruits, to continued with that diet he told me to take a product called Macrogol 4000 10g twice per day. I took this product since the 22nd October until the 25th November 2019, when I had a meeting with the oncologist who told me to stop taking the product and prescribed imodium and sachets of Smecta but no mention of a low fibre diet. As i keep a diary of each day i note how I am feeling how many visits to the toilet, blood discharges etc, I noticed that the diarrhorea had become overwhelming averaging 23 per 24 hours and peaking with 30 in one 24 hour period, basically i spent 10 hours per day in the toilet.

I then had another meeting with the oncologist and he told me that it was normal side effects etc, however this time he told me to go on to a low fiber diet with no additional information.

Both my wife and I looked up the internet to find out what products I could eat and what i could not and have implemented that diet since 03.12.2019.

Thanks for your response to me as it has helped me to focus on events and realize that i should have been on the low fiber diet since the very start.

By the way lettuce is ok to eat on a low fiber diet. Naturally with nothing on it. So I will be giving it a miss.

Goslow.

Jools63 over 5 years ago in reply to FormerMember

It does make me cross how all of the information we’re given differs to such extremes! I happily switched to a low fibre/low residue diet rather than put up with the misery of frequent visits to the loo. Fingers crossed for you now.

FormerMember over 5 years ago in reply to Jools63

Thanks,

you have been a great help to me today. I do not know what the situation is in the UK but here in this part of France ( Perpignan ) the system is very fragmented. The surgeon works in a building 5 km from the oncology center, no advice on diet, essentially you are left to your own. Each thursday I do the blood tests, i get the results on line about 5 hours later and another is sent to the oncologist. We spend time looking at the results fretting about how the white cells have fallen etc.

Goslow