A relative of mine had an esophagectomy 7 years ago.
He’s had problems with diarrhoea since. At the moment, it’s worse than ever.
He’s just spent 12 hours in hospital on a drip due to severe dehydration. He was going to the toilet constantly for a number of hours. He kept passing out, was an awful colour in his face, his blood pressure dropped dramatically to 40/50.
Does anyone else on here have these issues?
I’m hoping to find a way forward for him and his family.
Hi did they not do any tests at time. It could be a number of other things not connected to the op or he may just have a bug. I was tested for Bacterial overgrowth which is a breath test also lactose intolerance. I would suggest he goes to his GP or if still under the hospital his consultant/dietician. I also take creon tablets which help.
Good Luck
Debbie
Thank you for your reply. The only test that was done was blood gases.
He’s been in touch with our local surgery and they’ve told him to drink plenty and eat dry toast and biscuits.
Maybe we are reading too much into it but it has been getting progressively worse since his surgery.
He’s certainly not the person he was but at least he’s alive.
Pauline.
Sounds like they think he has a bug. Try Imodium to see if that helps for a while. Don’t leave it too long if it doesn’t ease up.
I would try and speak to someone at the hospital who knows the way our new plumbing works. It may involve more tests like a stool test/bacterial overgrowth etc.
Debbie
It does sound like small intestine bacterial overgrowth. The problem is the lack of stomach acid affecting the balance of natural bacteria in the gut. I know somebody whose case was resolved by three months on three different antibiotics cyclically ciprofloxacin, doxycycline and erythromycin, with probiotics VSL3 for the final month and then a FODMAP diet. But this needs to be under the supervision of an experienced gastroenterologist and there may be other medication that might help..
Thank you for your input. I found it very interesting and certainly worth looking into.
I haven’t heard of FODMAP. I will research it now.
It is very concerning that he is going downhill after so long a post-op period as 7 years and is definitely unusual. This needs investigating pronto.
Was his gallbladder removed in the original Ivor Lewis procedure?
Is he taking a PPI?
Thank you for your response.
No, his gall bladder was not removed and he doesn’t take anything at the moment.
He had a routine check up yesterday with his oncologist. Overall he was pleased with him and wasn’t too concerned about his diarrhoea issues.
The oncologist took bloods and gave him the number of a support group. Told him to phone them and attend meetings.
Good, in that there appears to be nothing clinically major wrong.
But I am continually astonished at the ability of some senior medical personnel to turn a blind eye to issues, albeit not life-threatening, but which nevertheless ruin the quality of life.
I have suffered with Diarrhea for 26 years since my Ivor Lewis and was house-bound until one of the many MDs in my family suggested Questran. This is not appropriate for your friend since he has not had a Cholecystectomy (Gallbladder removal). However I recently was hospitalized with Flu+Reflux induced pneumonia, I was prescribed a 10 day course of Amoxicillin antibiotic. This fixed the lung in short order but to my very pleasant surprise has also produced a marked improvement in my bowel condition, which has persisted for more than 3 months thus far.
Conclusion? Bugs (Ileo-cecal overgrowth) were implicated despite the fact that I eat very carefully,take probiotics etc. As suggested above there is every likelihood that this is a factor in your friend's case.
Rather than faff around and delay any further with samples, cultures, assays etc; if he has a compliant GP why not try a similar course - it can hardly do any harm?
Yes, I agree. This does ruin your quality of life.
It gets to the point where you hardly dare to risk going out. They have stopped going on holidays because of it.
I will pass this information on. It won’t hurt to ask our gp.
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I sincerely hope you continue to improve.
Very best wishes.
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