Small bowel obstruction

[Ghazarian]

Hi ladies my mum has recurrence ovarian cancer on chemo carbo/Caelyx only second cycle and she had small bowel obstruction. She has NG tube now 6 days she’s not passing any wind or opening her bowel any advise or anyone had similar complications? She has no pain and feels ok but doctors said can’t do her next cycle if she doesn’t open her bowels.

Thanks

[Irisisme]

Hi G,

Bowel obstructions are horrid and The concentration must be on getting the bowels moving to avoid the need for surgery. What has your Mum been prescribed for it? Is she allowed to eat? There isn’t much you can do other than hand-holding, except make sure the hospital staff are focusing on her condition and getting it sorted out.

Please let us know what they are doing for your Mum, then we might be able to let you know whether or not you should praise them or be making a fuss for them to do more.

A break in chemo treatment I don’t think makes any difference as long as it doesn’t run into more than a couple of months.

Good Luck to you both,

Iris x

[Ghazarian in reply to Irisisme]

Hi Iris thank you she’s on steroid to get the inflammation down and NG Tube no eating and drinking from last Thursday not tomorrow hopefully they will try to get to drink clear fluids to see if throngs will go down hoping will get this sorted so she can have treatment

xx

[Caroles1 in reply to Ghazarian]

Lots of fluid, ( don’t know if this is allowed, please check) but if I can’t go (never had bowel obstruction) I take one tab of Senokot in the evening and jobs a good ‘un’.

Talk to your team though. This may be not the way to go in this case xx

[27-359]

Hi. When this happened to me, I needed an op to shift the blockage. They tried nil by mouth and a NG tube for about a week first.

Hope things get moving for her soon.

Jenny

[abhijeet9388]

My mom too had small bowel obstruction in feb this year n pretty much similar case (ovarian cancer). She had too much pain due to bowel obstruction, finally doctor decided to do surgery (loop ileostomy), after that she is fine and continuing chemo cycles now

[DianesK]

Hi

I’ve suffered with repeated small bowel obstruction since July last year. I have multiple obstructions.

What works for me is Gastrografin put down my NG tube and within a couple of hours, things started to move again.

Obviously you need to be guided by the specialists, see what they have to say

Good luck to your mum xxx

[WoodyB]

Very sorry to hear about your mum. My wife Suzanne has had two small bowel obstructions and they are very unpleasant. First thing is that your mum should NOT have Senokot as it contains fibre. Fibre causes bulking up, good for most of us, but not if you have an obstruction. Diane mentions Gastrografin - I don't know anything about this but worth discussing with your mum's oncologist.

In Suzanne's case the obstructions were caused by the tumours constricting her bowel, and they cleared as a result of chemo shrinking the tumours, so this seems different from what your mum has been told.

When Suzanne was in hospital, we found that many of the junior doctors did not understand bowel obstructions and it was only when her gynae oncologist got involved that things began to move (in every respect!). Sending very best wishes to you and your mum.

[Ghazarian in reply to WoodyB]

Thank you. Yes they said tumors causing the blockage she only had second chemo. She hasn’t open her bowel for 6 days NG tube is out today so I’m hoping and praying something will happen. How did they solve your wife’s obstruction?

Thanks

Ani

[WoodyB in reply to Ghazarian]

Hi Ani, Suzanne's obstructions cleared both times after chemo shrunk the tumours.