Uncontrollable bowels

Hi....my friend finished his 3 round of chemo last week  for stage !V esophageal cancer and ended up in the hospital with dehydration.  He's had really bad diarrhea since the middle of the last round and they can not get it controlled.  It nothing for him to have 15 bouts of diarrhea per day and it's water!!  Last night his blood pressure plunged for the 3rd time to a dangerous level (60/42) and he was really lethargic.   Also, his renal function is starting to decrease.  They are pushing fluids and they gave him bolus fluids last night to try and help with the pressure.   My question is what is going to happen if they can't get this diarrhea under control?  He's saying he doesn't want them to do any more to him including no more fluids.  What can I/we expect next.  I have too tell you too that he has no family which is why I'm here taking care of him.  Need to know what to expect.

They will get it under control, but it takes time sometimes. No more fluids is not an option...unless they prefer death. The human body CANNOT function without fluid and electrolytes. We had weeks of severe diarrhea with one of the chemo regimens, Nothing would stop it.

Now I start medicating heavily at first sign of it (loose), and stay on top of it and have found we were able to manage it. Add fluid to compensate for the loss that goes with violent diarrhea, and they could be almost normal.

I posted recently about how little discussion there is here about fluid, and how crucial it is to keeping the patient in good condition. If you can keep up with it, the side effects tend to be less intense. The fluid is also helping to remove the toxins and dead cells that are making them sick.

Hi,

My husband started having diarrea but we also started to notice a pattern.  Because he has swallowing difficulties and cannot physically vomit, about the first night after chemo he would start to dry heave.  This would start to bring on the diarrea because when your stomach is upset and you cant vomit, it has to come out somewhere.  So as soon as the second day arrives with or without nausea, I crush up 2 immodium pills really well, add water to it and flush it through his jtube line.  Then every two to four hours I flush in 1/2 gator ade with 1/2 part water (water that contain electrolytes).  So atleast every 4 hours he gets 8ozs. If after a couple of hours he still has loose stools, I add another immodium This has worked well.  Then when this passes, I add benefiber to his water (2tsp once a day for day 4 and 5 and he is good to go.  Do NOt stop giving him fluids no matter what.  We did stop his enteral feedings through the line for about 6 hours then we gradually would start him back by lowering the rate of intake and also adding 1/2 water and half formula.  Then when I knew he can handle this, we give him full strength and keep upping the intake by 10ml's each hour until he gets back up to 90 mls per hour.  This has worked so well that Jim was able to gain 3 pounds in the last week.  When we jumped at it before the symptoms presents itself, we can control it, but if we wait until he is already there, it is hard to control.  Hope this helps.

Sherri

On 7/16/2009 liltrissin wrote:

Hi....my friend finished his 3 round of chemo last week  for stage !V esophageal cancer and ended up in the hospital with dehydration.  He's had really bad diarrhea since the middle of the last round and they can not get it controlled.  It nothing for him to have 15 bouts of diarrhea per day and it's water!!  Last night his blood pressure plunged for the 3rd time to a dangerous level (60/42) and he was really lethargic.   Also, his renal function is starting to decrease.  They are pushing fluids and they gave him bolus fluids last night to try and help with the pressure.   My question is what is going to happen if they can't get this diarrhea under control?  He's saying he doesn't want them to do any more to him including no more fluids.  What can I/we expect next.  I have too tell you too that he has no family which is why I'm here taking care of him.  Need to know what to expect.