The Colon Club

Dear Friends,

At the end of the six-week neo-adjuvant chemorad, my husband’s typical bleeding stopped. Now, on the first free week, blood is in every stool and present regularly. Has anyone else experienced this or would you be alarmed?

Thank you - pretty concerned.

Hi SilverWedding,

Whilst I don’t know the specifics for your husband, my first thought would not be to be alarmed. Providing the bleeding isn’t excessive, my radiation oncologist told me he’d be surprised if I wasn’t bleeding, and that virtually everything that comes out of your butt during/after radiation is ‘normal’. I did have intermittent bleeding after radiation, pretty much up until I had surgery.

Of course if it’s a worrying/increasing quantity of blood, or accompanied by any increased pain, I’d be stepping up the response a bit.

Best of luck,
Rob

Rock_Robster wrote:Hi SilverWedding,

Whilst I don’t know the specifics for your husband, my first thought would not be to be alarmed. Providing the bleeding isn’t excessive, my radiation oncologist told me he’d be surprised if I wasn’t bleeding, and that virtually everything that comes out of your butt during/after radiation is ‘normal’. I did have intermittent bleeding after radiation, pretty much up until I had surgery.

Of course if it’s a worrying/increasing quantity of blood, or accompanied by any increased pain, I’d be stepping up the response a bit.

Best of luck,
Rob

Thank you, Rob! Seems so odd how it all stopped during last week of Chemoradiation. Nurse says that perhaps anti-diarrheal medicine or steroid will help. Wondering.

Helpful to know it might be normal though!

Cynthia