Continuous bleeding - pls advise

[Prixy_J19]

Hi. My mother was in sept 2019 diagnosed with stage 4 oesophageal cancer, location is at the joint to the stomach, we did chemo, dnt help much bt at the end of the treatment she developed bad ulcers and started losing blood a lot...seemed to run out of ideas and placed a stent... ofcourse we are doing palliative care but up until now she’s too anemic, transfusions are more less weekly which is not sustainable.

How can we go about her condition...she’s so depressed, lost a lot of weight, so much pain in the chest area and the back...😢this covid ain’t making it any easier. Anyone Please advise. Thanks

[Mauser1905]

Hi there, sorry to know of your mother's diagnosis and ongoing difficulties.

The drs and specialists team should be able to resolve the ongoing issues as they are directly involved in her care.

Having said that you mentioned palliative care, the focus should be on relieving as much pain from her issues as much possible.

Continuous bleeding, anaemia and ulcers. Suggest trying gaviscon double action liquid to reduce the acid burn on the areas, and also the strong medicines will not be helping the bleeding. If safe please ask staff to offer her this medication.

Drinking very cold water may help soothe chest pain. Also the gaviscon double action.

There should be a proactive approach on using stronger pain medicines in her case. My view.

Good luck.

[Prixy_J19 in reply to Mauser1905]

Thank you Mauser for the quick response...will ask the Drs. about the medicine.

[Mcfurry]

Sorry to hear of your situation 😓 my brother was exactly the same😓 they gave him tranexamic acid (there’s oral and tablet), which stops bleeding. This helps a bit when the transfusions are no longer an option. Also omeprazole dispersible can help with reflux and baclofen . Speak to doctor about these as they are prescribed. Unfortunately my brother lost his battle on Thursday 😓 take care x

[Prixy_J19 in reply to Mcfurry]

Hello Mcfurry,

Sorry to hear about your brother, may his soul RIP and may God strengthen you as a family. Just thinking about the fact that we are headed for the same makes me tremble bt well it’s inevitable at some point!

Thanks for the advice too, we tried tranexamic several times unfortunately it wasn’t effective at all, the cancer bleeds at a high rate😰 we had tried omeprazole oral but it also stopped working then we are doing Rabeprazole currently, at some point we wd do the IV. All trial and error bt currently we are relying on transfusions🥺 for the blood issue!