Some alternatives to try: Take Metamucil or ground psyllium seed (a bulk product at many nutrition centers.) One teaspoon after breakfast and after dinner helped reduce fragmentation and reduce frequency. It wasn't a cure but provided some improvement. Ask for a defecography study and also measureme...

After dealing with LAR syndrome for five years, I have a new doc who is much more engaged. He ordered MRI defecography and it looks like it is providing some guidance. The report indicates inability to relax the puborectalis muscle and clustering from a lack of emptying the upper portion of the neor...

19 is very young for cancer, but not impossibly so. You do need a colonoscopy to be sure. Black spots can indicate clotted blood. You can also get a fecal occult blood test that will screen for this and it's cheap and easy to do. That should happen right away. Red can be blood, but it can also be fo...

After reading some reports here, I decided to try Metamucil again for LAR syndrome. It's not a miracle, but it did provide some help. My primary complaint is long BM times and it didn't do much for that. But it seems to have reduced the number of times per day from three down to two. It also increas...

Try your choice of hand cream or skin moisturizer (I used Aquaphor and Bag Balm) with cotton gloves at night. That way, you can apply it thickly but it won't get on everything. During the day, I didn't need to wear them. I have also heard that putting a bit of water onto your hands after applying th...

For a while it was mostly dry. Five years after treatment, there is some ejaculate but not anywhere what it used to be :( Varying opinions from doctors ranging from nerve trauma to scar tissue from radiation. It is a common consequence of treatment, unfortunately. We're alive, but not in the lives w...

Very likely he experienced a false negative colonoscopy where cancer was present but not detected. This happens in about 6 to 15 percent of cases. It happened to me. Whether it calls for malpractice or not will require consulting with a lawyer. If he didn't have any symptoms after the first exam, th...

This from someone I trust on SS disability: If you are denied a disability claim, you should definitely go through the appeals process. But you should not go through the appeals process alone. There are literally thousands of attorneys out there that specialize in disability claims. They actually do...

A malpractice lawsuit might help with your primary care doctor's awareness of early colo-rectal cancer. Unfortunately, in Oregon there is a 2-year statute of limitations for malpractice. Many states have a similar time limit. With cancer, we often don't know if malpractice is warranted until much l...

I had my 5-year CT yesterday and just got the results: "Since 6/25/15, no interval change seen to suggest recurrent malignancy in the chest, abdomen or pelvis." :D I made it to 5 years! We all know CRC is a cruel lottery and being NED or not isn't a reason for credit or blame. But I do fee...

Yes, get scoped. See my post on how to get a good colonoscopy: http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51653 My story was I had rectal bleeding at age 48, the first colonoscopy indicated hemorrhoid and two precancerous polyps, which were removed. But the polyps were in the tr...

Another take on this whole controversy. Much of the research surrounding this is not very good science. A recent discussion with review of the actual studies and their flaws may be found here: There is a lot more supposition in these studies than sound cause and effect. In statistics - correlation ...

Welcome, mate. I've been to Oz twice. Great country, and great people. I hope to get there again someday. Keep us posted and we'll help out any way we can. I'm having my last CT scan in two days and if it's clear, will be declared cured. Other than the nasty LAR syndrome, things are doing pretty wel...

The other ointment I forgot is Aquaphor. It's available at most drugstores. It's a bit greasy like the Bag Balm but may be less irritating. In a couple of weeks you'll start to feel a lot better and I'm glad you've reached the end of the chemo. It's a major hurdle.

I would ask for a CT. The following article may be of help in justifying it: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/survei ... -resection

At least a pelvic CT. That would be the smallest radiation exposure and likely would catch any spread.