Re: Small bowel involvement questions

[Guest guest]

Please see Message #1232. 's primary tumor was also in the

area where the large and small intestine join, and he also later had

reoccurance in the small intestine described in #1232. was the

founder of this board, and is identified as " Altman23 " . Leading up

to #1232, are messages 352, 581, 646, 663, 801, 937, 1086, 1168

Hope this will be of help.

Best,

Ed

[Guest guest]

Please see Message #1232. 's primary tumor was also in the

area where the large and small intestine join, and he also later had

reoccurance in the small intestine described in #1232. was the

founder of this board, and is identified as " Altman23 " . Leading up

to #1232, are messages 352, 581, 646, 663, 801, 937, 1086, 1168

Hope this will be of help.

Best,

Ed

[Guest guest]

During my last resection (had two) cancer was found in my small

intestine. In addition it had metastisized to my liver. The liver

tumors were too deep to remove. The cancer in my small intestine was

removed.

I returned home after my obligatory few days in the hospital and

brown fluid started coming out of my abdomen. Mild panic set in and

back to the hospital I went. I had a fistula. It is a pathway from

the small intestine to the surface of my abdomen. I was promptly put

on TPN, the theory being if no food passed by the fistula it might

heal. One surgeon told me this could take over three years. More

panic.

After about four weeks of this my doctor told me he would allow me

to get my nutrition through Ensures, and certain soft food that

would be digested before it reached the fistula. I had to prove I

could ingest 2000 calories per day. Believe it or not that was very

difficult. 2000 calories, at one time in my life, was lunch. I did

it and was able to discontinue the TPN.

You are feeling overwhelmed right now. I know what you are going

through. During the time I was told my liver mets were inoperable

and I might have to continue TPN for years, I almost gave up. I am

not a quitter but during that period of my life I almost did.

Hang in there and fight, pray, meditate, and anything else that will

get you through this. It will pass. Believe your husband will

recover. Make him believe it with every fiber of his existance.

After my fistula healed (yeah!) I enrolled in a clinical trial at

Stanford. The bottom line is after a rather rough 12 cycles of chemo

the liver tumors had gone from 4 inoperable tumors to 1 that was

removed 5 weeks ago with Radio Frequency Ablation. By all modern

imaging technologies I am tumor free.

Although it is likely the tumors will pop up again and I will need

to go through more chemo (the port is still in my chest), for now I

am living life as a normal person. So will your husband.

Best,

Wendell

> Has anyone had the cancer travel to the small bowel area? My

husband

> was diagnosed at stage 3, had a bowel resection in Jan. 2003. The

> tumor was almost where the small and large intestines joined. He

had

> a lot of seeding in the abominal area. He had 6 months of

> 5FU/camptasar/ leukavorian(sp?). Then life looked good until he

had

> major emergenccy surgery because of multiple blockages of the

small

> intestine. He now has about 3 feet of small intestine which is

hooked

> to what was left of his colon. He is now on TPN for food. We

visited

> the oncologist this morning and chemo will require another port or

a

> different kind of port because of the TPN. I guess my question is

> has anyone out there with similiar problems managed to go ahead

with

> chemo and did they ever get off the TPN system? I'm feeling very

> overwhelmed today.