Retching after a stent fitted

Sorry I wrote all that that fast I’m not sure it makes sense, I trekked to phone his GP this morning and couldn’t get through I also phone the Macmillan nurses on the GI ward at our hospital and had to leave a message. I don’t know who else to contact to find out if this is normal. 

I'm not sure what happens when one is fit but you could try ringing 111 somebody might be able to help.  

Hi Moo,

I'm really surprised he was sent home with no information in terms of after-care or what to expect!  My partner had a stent fitted and we built up food slowly - liquid, then yoghurt/soup etc, before trying any solids.

Try calling the department at the hospital he had it fitted at - they should be able to give you some advice. I hope someone at Macmillan gets back to you too, and most GP's have some kind of out of hours service if you can't get hold of them now and need urgent advice- or call 111 as someone else suggested if not.

When you say retching - do you mean as in he felt acid reflux was coming up? This can be quite scary (and painful) and leaves you coughing a lot until it subsides.  First thing I would say is get some Omeprazole or similar - you can buy it over the counter at a chemist, and your doctor/gp should be able to give you a prescription also going forward, it really helped us with the reflux when my husband had his stent fitted.   Secondly, at night try propping up with pillows rather than lying flat - this also really helps to keep the reflux down.  

Hope this helps somewhat and you manage to get the help you need.  

x 

Hi Moo 23,

My mother had the same trouble after the stent was fitted. She found it very painful to even take drinks initially. If you go back to Yani 10's reply, Omeprazole is the go to anti acid for reflux prevention. It may be a good idea to use an anti sickness med to stop the sickness. We were given a product called Levomepromazine, & after weeks of sickness (even before the stent was fitted), this med stopped the sickness within 48 hours. I kid you not. And it is still working, no sickness at all. Finally, the common practice of sleeping with the upper body at around 45 degrees from horizontal. The bile then has to climb & that will stop it to a certain extent. So get those 2 med's asap, raise the upper body, & you may have some success. And make sure that you ask for Levomepromazine, it's in a different league to other sickness meds.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Graeme.

I'm really sorry I haven't been back on the forum but things have been so hectic and hard over the last few week.

so basically we were left with no help for two week while Andy could not eat or drink anything, he lost 3 stone. We had not seen an oncologist when he had his stent fitted so even the paramedics could not help us much (not through lack of trying). After seeing the onocogist and him being surprised at how week Andy was he was sent for another swallow test. We then found out that his lymph nodes in his neck were also swollen and this was obviously adding to him not being able to swallow.

He was taken in to a hospital to have a rig fitted and he is now getting two bags of feed a day through that attached to a pump, he has put half a stone back on. When we were sent home from the hospital with all the medications for the district nurses to administer they couldn't do so as the relevant paper work hadn't been filled in, I want to let people know this as it caused so much hassle, the nurses were brilliant and phoned 111 to get a gp out to do the paperwork (was about 2am by this time and Andy had been left without pain relief and anti secreation medication for 12 hour).

don't get me wrong the district nurses, Macmillan and the palliative care doctors have been amazing both with myself and Andy. The main hassle we have had is when he has been discharged from hospitals and sorting his medication and paperwork out especially been as he can't swallow anything everything has to go down his rig. I feel like for the last few week I have been running around and smacking my head against a wall.

Hopefully now things have settled a bit, he had his first lot of iv chemo in hospital on Thursday which went well, we have got into a routine doing his feed before I go to work and when I come hone from work, his chemo tablets are a pain as the take ages to dissolve in warm water but I'm doing that and the anti sickness before and after work and then Andy can manage his other meds throughout the day.

I just wonder what happens to people out there that don't have someone to run round to different chemists/hospitals trying to sort meds and papaerwork. Plus make all the phone calls to sort stuff, cancel and re arrange appointments if they get admitted especially when in one hospital you can't get a signal at all. I told them he was booked in for an echocardiogram at the same hospital and they didn't even take him for that which meant the start of his treatment nearly ended up getting delayed. I'm absolutely shattered and I'm not even ill.

I really feel for anyone that feels like they don't have someone close enough to rely on and fight for them x

My father had a stent fitted a few weeks ago. He has found that he has to sleep propped up as as soon as he tries to lay down the retching starts. He was also advised to have lemonade to help food go down and prevent the stent getting blocked. I hope this helps, and that you have been able to access more information. 

Take care.