Recurrent diarrhea

[missk]

Hi. This is my first post. I was diagnosed a year ago with Stage II rectal cancer (tumor was located at the sigmoid-rectal junction). I have since had a bowel resection to remove the tumor, chemotherapy (4 sessions of 5 daily doses of 5-Fu and leukovorin) and radiation (25 doses). My last treatment was in February. I am now experiencing recurrent diarrhea that is really impacting my quality of life (I depend on "Depends" and am always on the look-out for the closest washroom). Has anyone else had difficulty with diarrhea once treatment has finished? How was it treated (Immodium is not working anymore for me)? What was the cause - was it due to the radiation or was it a recurrence? I look forward to hearing your experiences. Thanks.
Krista

[Joy]

Hi Krist:

I'm jumpong in on your post in the hope that I can also get some advice.

I'm in the throws of continuous chemo/radiation at the moment 10 out of 30 tratments completed. I'm up to 8 immodium per day and the "urge" to go to the washroom is overpowering.

The quality of my life is definitely impacted because I can't go more than 1 hour without visiting a washroom.....I had hoped that this would resolve itself at the end of the treatment.....now your post has me worried.

I have an appointment with a dietician to-day with the hope that I can handle this problem.

Any advice from anyone who has gone through this would be appreciated.

[bill]

my father gets "bouts" of it. While he was on chemo he ended up in the hospital 3 times due to severe diahrea. He was stage 3 colon cancer in the recto-sigmoid. He would have been stage 1 but there was 1 lymph node that had cancer cells. He only received about 2 months of chemo but did receive all his radiation. It has been a year and 2 months since diagnosed. It is getting better but somedays he goes like crazy. My advice is to stay away from Peppers because the have an enzyme that will make you watery. (dont mean to be sick) The lower parts of the colon take water out of waste. When you take some of it out obviously you dont get as much water taken out. It should get better. Over time your body adjusts to this and the colon heals. Radiation can also hurt your colon so give it time to heal. You can also go to GNC and get some supplements that may help with this.
I would tell you to make a log book and write down the foods that dont make you have diarhea and the ones that do. This way you can track what may cause it.