Recommendations for managing rectal bleeding?

Hi Scientist44 

So sorry to read of your husbands worsening issues and I hope that he can start treatment soon.

Not cancer related  but my sister has severe continence issues (bladder and bowel). I've been ordering pads and bed protectors from the Age UK website which seem.reasonably priced and work well. I notice that they also have male pads too. It might be worth a look as a starting point. Sorry that I can't be more help.

Hopefully you can find a solution that will help ease this particular issue.

Take care.

Hi Scientist44 You’ve had a great reply from Blue Blue. You could also look online for childrens waterproof bed mats? I’ve also heard people suggest puppy training sheets which can be picked up quite cheaply on the high street but these are disposable. Your colorectal support nurse might have some ideas too.

I was passing blood when I went to the toilet but this stopped after the tumour shrank during my chemoradiotherapy so hopefully your hubby will have a similar response.

Take care

Karen x

Hello Scientist44,

The chemoradiotherapy experience for a large rectal tumour involved five weeks of five weekdays, with each session taking less than an hour from arrival to departure (and parking for cancer patients was free!). It involved using the lavatory on arrival then drinking three cups of plain water before being called-in. Apparently the water helps separate the internal organs and makes targeting the tumour more accurate. Given your husband's spontaneous bleeding you might discuss this with the radiotherapy team, or his oncologist, prior to the first visit. They should have experience of this and be able to suggest a temporary remedy to mitigate the leak if it happens during the appointment. It might be that shrinking the tumour reduces the bleeding. The radiotherapy teams works to a tight daily timetable from my experience and will probably issue a programme scheduling all of your husband's appointments - to the minute - beforehand. I don't recall suffering from any significant side effects, although I had a loop ileostomy carried out a few weeks prior because the oncologist said I wouldn't make the 40 mile round trip without suffering a bout of severe diarrhoea mid-journey. Two and a half years later I still have the ileostomy and it works a treat!

Dulac

Thanks Dulac. Always helpful to hear a first hand experience and I’m really hoping his side effects will be as minimal as yours!

My husband will also being getting 5 weeks of 5 days of week starting on the 24th June. He has his radiation planning appointment tomorrow morning so hopefully he’ll get chance to talk to someone about the bleeding then.

Thanks for the tip BlueBlue. I’ll check out their website. 

Hoping you are your husband are well. I come across your post as my mother has recently received a diagnosis of anal cancer. She has been been rushed into hospital twice in 10 days due to severe bleeding and almost lost her life the first time.

Her treatment is booked for the 7th April but I am so scared the bleeding will continue on and off until then and she won’t be strong enough for treatment. She is currently in hospital and I have asked they speak with her oncologist for a plan before discharge this time as it is almost another month until any treatment. Sorry for the long winded message I was just wondering if your husband’s treatment helped with the bleeding and comfort as my mother is in constant severe pain. 

Hi JLB16,

So sorry to hear about your mum. The waiting between diagnosis and getting started on treatment is such a hard time. My husband had 2 large-ish bleeds one not long before the start of radiotherapy and I think the second was early on in treatment. Although he did continue to have some slight bleeding on and off the whole time until he went in for surgery 8 months later he never had the same level of bleeding again. It did cause some issues with anemia so he was on iron tablets and they can give an iron infusion too or even a blood transfusion if necessary. It is worth pushing to make sure she gets any treatment for anemia she needs as it will only make the tiredness from treatment worse and keeping as active as possible during treatment really helps so anything they can do to help her have a bit more energy will be helpful.

What is her treatment plan? Hopefully her oncology team are keeping up with what is currently going on with the bleeding. In our experience all the teams that have been involved in my husbands care have been fantastic but there does sometimes seem to be some communication issues between the different teams. Don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to them about the current issues and your concerns.

Hope she gets the care she needs in hospital and the treatment is successful.

virtual hugs x