The Colon Club

My DW had a small bowel obstruction on Jan 23. After spending 8 days in community hospital, where we had been told it was either due to adhesion or peritoneal mets, she was transferred to her cancer center and had surgery. It turned out to be an internal hernia into the descending mesocolon, a complication that rarely occurs after low anterior resection. Unfortunately due to the 8 days wait, she had to have 120cm jejunum removed. Hopefully that won't hurt her ability to get nutrition, but I am worried about that. At the community hospital, all they would offer was a palliative care or hospice referral, despite having a ECOG Performance Status of 0-1. It made me so angry. Even if she can't be cured, she has a lot of living to do!

I hope your DW recovers soon. It's a shame she spend time at the local hospital. Is there a reason she was not transferred sooner?

Talk to a nutritionist regarding diet for your DW.

Unless the cancer center is talking about hospice, assume she's not there yet. Sometimes local hospital are not always up on the latest cancer treatment plans.

Keep us posted,

Lee

It was an issue with coordination of benefits. She is on 3 different insurance and they couldn't figure out who would pay what.

I hope your wife's recovery goes well!*hugs*

She is having some post-surgical ascites. They are planning to use interventional radiology to run a line to drain them off. They say this is temporary.

risto wrote:It was an issue with coordination of benefits. She is on 3 different insurance and they couldn't figure out who would pay what.

Regarding " insurance issues " ...

Maia had provided this info a while back :

you can ask Laurie Todd to help you: https://www.statnews.com/2016/04/25/insurance-warrior/
She's a fellow of us in Colontown; post your problem and tag her in Downtown, she's a member there too: https://www.facebook.com/laurie.j.todd

... and I had also flagged this with different contacts :

A while back, in regards to appeals, folks had discussed this person, Laurie Todd :
The Insurance Warrior

Healthwise Publications • 12617 N.E. 130th Way, #E301 • Kirkland, WA 98034
email: laurie (at) theinsurancewarrior (dot) com

Best wishes
CRguy

Met with the surgeon and he said that the radiologist noticed something on the CT scanner during the procedure. He said she has Superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS), where the duodenum gets stuck or trapped between the aorta and the superior mesenteric artery, causing blockage of the duodenum. This condition is even more rare than the internal hernia, presenting in about .3% of post surgical cases. They seem to think it will become untrapped after a while, so it's more watching and waiting. She has been in the hospital more than 3 weeks now, so the anxiety is building up.

Has your wife lost a lot of weight? Loss of mesenteric fat can cause SMA syndrome. Hopefully putting some weight back will help.

Take care!

risto wrote:My DW had a small bowel obstruction on Jan 23. After spending 8 days in community hospital, where we had been told it was either due to adhesion or peritoneal mets, she was transferred to her cancer center and had surgery. It turned out to be an internal hernia into the descending mesocolon, a complication that rarely occurs after low anterior resection. Unfortunately due to the 8 days wait, she had to have 120cm jejunum removed. Hopefully that won't hurt her ability to get nutrition, but I am worried about that. At the community hospital, all they would offer was a palliative care or hospice referral, despite having a ECOG Performance Status of 0-1. It made me so angry. Even if she can't be cured, she has a lot of living to do!

Hi I just wana ask you that when they opened ur wife, did they do debulking too?

No, they didn't do any debulking, only took some biopsies. They tested positive for PC but there was not much of it there, apparently because the chemo has been working.