endoscope while getting chemo?
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:34 am
Hey there,
My husband had rectal cancer first diagnosed in 12/2016 and in 6/2018 a routine follow up ct scan found three small tumors in rt. lung and also some cancer at his original tumor spot. He did end up with a colostomy from the first surgery and had been doing great with no problems at all so this was quite a shock to us.
To make a long story short, around the time that we found out about the new cancer he started having some digestive issues such as bloating, little out put, etc. Ct scans, pet scan and x ray's later they could not find anything causing the constipation and cramping so they began chemo. He is on Folfiri.
He ended up in the hosptial three days after the first two treatments with what they are saying was a small bowel blockage. He has had four treatments now and we managed to keep him out of the hospital but continues to have these digestive issues that they are saying are due to adhesions. While in the hospital, GI was consulted but they did not agree to doing any type of scope because they felt the risk outweighed the reward as they likely would not be able to see what was causing the issue. His surgeon who did the initial surgery does not want to do any other surgery to find adhesions due to risk of causing more adhesions. His oncologist gave us a name of a surgeon that may be more willing to do a miminally invasive surgery for adhesions. We would like to rule out anything else that may be causing this before looking at doing that.
My question is has anyone had either an endoscopy or colonoscopy while doing chemo? In my lay person brain I don't understand why they cannot do scopes to see if they can see anything causing this. Are scopes that difficult on the body? My husband is pretty miserable and according to our oncologist his tumor load is not that great so I feel that whatever time he has left should be in best quality of life that he can and I don't feel it is right now.
Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide. This is such a confusing ride and for a control freak such as myself, not having answers to what is causing this is maddening.
My husband had rectal cancer first diagnosed in 12/2016 and in 6/2018 a routine follow up ct scan found three small tumors in rt. lung and also some cancer at his original tumor spot. He did end up with a colostomy from the first surgery and had been doing great with no problems at all so this was quite a shock to us.
To make a long story short, around the time that we found out about the new cancer he started having some digestive issues such as bloating, little out put, etc. Ct scans, pet scan and x ray's later they could not find anything causing the constipation and cramping so they began chemo. He is on Folfiri.
He ended up in the hosptial three days after the first two treatments with what they are saying was a small bowel blockage. He has had four treatments now and we managed to keep him out of the hospital but continues to have these digestive issues that they are saying are due to adhesions. While in the hospital, GI was consulted but they did not agree to doing any type of scope because they felt the risk outweighed the reward as they likely would not be able to see what was causing the issue. His surgeon who did the initial surgery does not want to do any other surgery to find adhesions due to risk of causing more adhesions. His oncologist gave us a name of a surgeon that may be more willing to do a miminally invasive surgery for adhesions. We would like to rule out anything else that may be causing this before looking at doing that.
My question is has anyone had either an endoscopy or colonoscopy while doing chemo? In my lay person brain I don't understand why they cannot do scopes to see if they can see anything causing this. Are scopes that difficult on the body? My husband is pretty miserable and according to our oncologist his tumor load is not that great so I feel that whatever time he has left should be in best quality of life that he can and I don't feel it is right now.
Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide. This is such a confusing ride and for a control freak such as myself, not having answers to what is causing this is maddening.