Colon blockage

[GJ65]

I am writing for my husband who is in the ER at this time. He has been diagnosed with a distal colonic blockage. The doctor will do a sigmoid colonoscopy to determine what is causing the blockage and how to treat it. He had a his RP in December of 2021 and 38 sessions of radiation. I’m wondering if anyone else in the forum has had a similar experience? Is it possible that the cancer has metastasized to the bowel (I realize this is not a common experience) or could this be damage from the radiation? What to expect?

[Kentucky1]

I'm not sure if my situation is exactly the same , but I developed radiation enteritis following pallative radiation to my pelvis.It damaged my intestine to the point of needing surgery for a perforated colon and have ended up with a colostomy. I've been in the hospital for over 2 weeks getting antibiotics to deal with infection. No one warned me about this potential issue and it is rare,but would have been nice to know. The radiation has also damaged my leg resulting in what they call RILP, which is even rarer, but can happen anywhere from weeks to years following radiation treatment. I hope that they figure out what is wrong with your husband and that things turn out well for him. Bottom line is that radiation is far from risk free.

[Gl448 in reply to Kentucky1]

Did you have a spaceoar hydrogel implanted to protect the colon/rectum before the radiation?

Colon damage is definitely a risk of pelvic radiation that the RO I consulted with mentioned. Several times.

And yes, I know there are smart people here who thinks that a space or is not a good idea because it might lead to not hitting all of the cancer near the gel

[Kentucky1 in reply to Gl448]

No, my radiation wasn't to my prostate ,but to my femur heads and pelvic girdle to alleviate pain. Looks like our radiation treatments were not the same, but hats off to your RO for giving you the possible negatives of radiation treatment. Mine never mentioned it.

[Gl448 in reply to Kentucky1]

RO was at City of Hope (a satellite office)…they are fantastic in giving you all the options and risks.

I haven’t had radiation, yet. I opted for triplet therapy first.

I’d be happy to zap my bone mets with high doses…I’m not sure about pelvic after the chemo. Sounds awful going 40x. I know some here do both. I’ll see what my MO recommends.

[Kaliber]

I dunno if your husband is taking pain meds but I have to juggle opiate pain meds and laxatives, all the time, to prevent awful , ugly, sepsis producing bowel - digestive blockages. It’s very tricky and difficult and sepsis from a blockage is an emergency room visit if it goes too long. Just a thought, … this is a daily issue and demands close attention. Sepsis is the ugliest illness I’ve ever had.

❤️❤️❤️

[Spyder54]

all of this ADT2 can have the side effect of severe constipation. I too had SABR/SBRT TO THE PROSTATE. I was told that the instrumentation of a colonoscopy could be hard on the colon after Radation as the tissue is more fragile. I once had to go to a Lavage Center which emptied me out at about the 35 minute mark. Was told I was severely impacted. This was a gravity fed machine (not pressurized), which is very important for us with Radiation in our past. Mike

[NecessarilySo]

Your husband had RP and 38 sessions of RT. I had 38 sessions of RT in lieu of RP in 2008. I did subsequenty have a 30 cm cancerous colon polyp in 2019, which was probably unrelated to PC. My metastasis in rectum started more than three years after the biopsy, in the rectum, in the location of the biopsy. I suspect that your husband's blockage is from something other than a metastasis, unless he already had metastases when he had the RP.