Hi there,
My name is Renee. I have been reading & searching this site for answers for a while but now I feel like I'm in over my head & need to post.
My husband, Ryan, was diagnosed with stage III (T3 N1) rectal cancer on August 15, 2016. He was 42 at the time. He'd had blood in his stool for a few months, was sent for a colonoscopy thinking it was ulcerative colitis and came out with rectal cancer.
He finished up his xeloda/radiation on October 14 and had his resection done up at Stanford on December 2nd. He ended up staying in the hospital for 9 days because of an Ileus. So much has gone wrong since then that I don't think I can even write it all out! After an abscess & quite a few other bumps in the road, he finally had a port placed and started folfox on January 19th.
Ryan has completed 3 folfox treatments and was set to have his 4th treatment last Monday, March 6th. Unfortunately, his belly started to cramp up on Sunday night and the output from his ileostomy slowed way down. After vomiting Monday morning, he postponed his chemo treatment and we headed to the ER for a possible blockage. He had a CT scan and they found small (possible) obstruction. An NG tube was placed & we were admitted to the hospital for observation.
On Tuesday morning, all hell broke loose. He was having trouble breathing, his blood pressure dropped and his heart rate was 170...he was dying right before my eyes!! He was in the ICU for 6 days with septic shock. His team of 6 doctors still don't know what went wrong...and they all have a different guess/theory! He's been scoped, scanned & poked but we have no solid answers. He is still in the hospital but is improving daily.
Anyhow, his oncologist came by this morning to have a talk with us about what's next. He's not convinced that this isn't chemo related. Ryan has had every weird reaction to folfox and, if this happens again, it won't end this well. His onc. is worried that he could lose all of his small intestine (TPN for life!) or worse. Within the next few weeks, we have to decide whether or not we want to continue treatments.
Have any of you experienced anything like this? Did you stop folfox? If he only has three treatments, does his long-term survival rate go way down? If it were you, what would you do? We have three kids and they need their dad. Help!! For the first time since diagnosis, we are both freaking out at the same time...usually, one of us is strong while the other loses it!
Sorry that this was so long and thank you if you read all the way to the end.