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Bowel cancer treatment and side effects

You can find lots of useful information about bowel cancer treatment on our website. You can also get information and support from our Ask the nurse service.

steveessex

Mucus after surgery

Hi My first post here and wondering if someone could advise. 2 weeks ago I had surgery to remove the sigmoid section of bowel due to cancer. Sent home ater day 4 of hospital and had my first hard bowel movement after taking senacote. Unfortunately I got two infections and had a further week stay in hospital on IV antibiotic drip. I then had further constipation and started to produce excessive yellow mucus, the type that you cannot hold which just leaks out. I am now home and still experiencing constipation and this mucus material. Having to change underwear every hour is draining. I am wondering if its the oral antibiotics I am still taking or is this something longer term I have to deal with. Anyone any experience of this whould be most helpful.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Liz Blakelands

@steveessex Hi Steve and a warm welcome to the forum, I hope you find us a friendly and supportive group. You and your bowel have really been through it with the op and then the infections and the antibiotics. Obviously I'm not medically qualified but all of these will have an effect on the bowel.

Have you been given any advice from the medical team re the constipation and mucus? I would contact one of the colorectal nurses as they will know about your specific treatment and should be able to advise you.

Re the mucus until sorted it may be more comfortable to get some 'tenor men' knickers, all the big supermarkets sell them and chemists.

I don't have experience of your type of op but I'm sure someone will be along who has.

Hope you things start to improve soon, let us know how it goes

Liz :x::x:

Jane39

Hi @steveessex
Welcome to the forum.
Sorry that you have had a difficult recovery following surgery with an infection.
I had a similar operation initially. I didn’t experience the issues that you are describing.
Is your team aware of the ongoing problems and how difficult this is for you?

If you feel things are getting worse and your team isn’t aware of the issues then please seek some medical advice. Could you ring the ward where you had your surgery? If not it would be appropriate to call 111 over the bank holiday weekend.

Take care
Jane :x::x::x:

steveessex

Hi Thanks for your kind response. I had the surgery in ipswich hospital and after admitted to colchester hospital for the infection, who were pretty hopeless in identifying what the mucus was. It seems my consultant in ipswich is presently away on leave at the moment so no help there. I think I will try the team in ipswich and see what the nurses can deduce. ty

stevejl

hi @steveessex I went through the same op myself back in 2021 but avoided infections linked to the operation as my trust had the cancer nurse ring me once a week for a month after the op to check everything was ok, so hopefully you have managed to get hold of your team at Ipswich(Easter permitting).
Hopefully it can be sorted with medicine rather than further surgery.
I presume you had a resection.My surgeon did advise that constipation might cause the resection to tear slightly until it had healed properly.
Wishing you all the best to get this sorted asap.
take care
:x::x::x::x::x:

steveessex

Update. It seems that mucus was an indication that I was constipated. Unfortunately that led to a further leak in the bowel joint so now back in hospital after another infection. The plan is to starve me of food to allow the chance of the leak to heal. Dam this illness is tough!

Lirio345

Really sorry to hear this @steveessex, that is so frustrating. I really hope that this is resolved soon. Take care, Kim :x::x::x:

Liz Blakelands

@steveessex Oh how frustrating to end up back in hospital. You are right it is a tough illness, lots of ups ad downs. Hopefully the infection will be sorted and the joint resealed before too long. All the best Liz :x::x:

Jane39

Sorry to hear that your are in hospital @steveessex.
Hopefully now they know what the cause is, they can manage the situation and get you on the mend asap.
Take care
Jane :x:

steveessex

Further update. After another week in hospital with a blood count over 500, it seems the mucus was in fact puss from a abcess around the joint which goes into my bowel wall in the pelvis. They say they cant drain it due to the bone in the way. So not many options available. The consultant thinks it will heal in 6 months to a year. So fed up with this now. Thanks all for your kind thoughts

colourmesurprised

Hi, @steveessex. Just joining the discussion here to offer my empathy and I am sorry your surgery has not been straight forward. I had most of my sigmoid removed last July and it took time for the bowel to settle, even without the complications you are experiencing. My surgeon explained it to me by saying that the remaining bowel "learns" how to do the job of the piece they took away. That made sense to me, but it was still such a hard job to be patient while that happened. All best wishes, :x:

Liz Blakelands

Hi @steveessex I am not surprised that you are feed up. How frustrating. Having a section of your bowel removed is a complex op and problems round the joint do happen.

Before you are discharged ask the consultant what you can do to help the bowel heal, get advice on diet and what to do it start getting constipated. Also who should you contact if you think you have a problem. You should just get all this advice but sometimes you don't.

Treatment is full of up and downs, 2 steps forward, one back, hope you start to feel a lot better soon,

All the best
Liz :x::x:

Jane39

Sorry to hear this @steveessex
How frustrating for you.
I hope things settle down and you can get home soon.
Take care
Jane :x:

stevejl

Hi @steveessex so sorry to hear you had to go back in to hospital & that although they have diagnosed the problem you have to face up to 6-12 months of recovery for it to heal.:(
Take care
:x::x::x::x::x: