Trase & Joyce

[Guest guest]

Trase and Joyce. Thank you for sharing with all of us. Best to you both! Prayers

for all~

~Deb from KS

Trase wrote:

Dear Joyce,

Thank you for responding to my post & sharing your moving & personal account

of what you & your husband went through searching for answers to his unbearable

pain. I am so sorry for the loss of your husband. I can not imagine the pain

of loosing ones partner & best friend. You must look at life in a completely

different way now. Your life will never be the same & you may always long for

what you lost. As time passes you will not forget or get over the loss, but you

will be able to look back & smile remembering that you were very blessed to have

shared your lives together for whatever length of time it was. The love you

shared lives on & you must honor it by living your life to the fullest. It is

because of that love that you have become who you are today. I know that it

would be so easy to just give in to despair & withdraw from the world, but you

have not chosen to do that. You have turned that pain around and are using it

to help others on this journey. God bless you.

Sincerely,

Trase

Joyce wrote:

Trace,

My husband had a similar pain as your father in law. He complained constantly

and we could not get anyone to pay a lot of attention to him.

The surgeon had advised a colostomy at the time of the original surgery to

remove the tumor. , refused and paid the price for 3 years. He finally

got so sick and the pain was uncontrollable even with morphine and the pain

patch. It finally got so bad that on Thanksgiving Day we had to help him to my

car and lay him down to get him to the hospital. He almost died and had to have

transfusions and finally the dreaded colostomy.

He sailed along for a few months and we thought we had the pain licked. We were

wrong, it was back with a vengance.

He had to be admitted again and this time they found what was causing the pain.

He had developed a fistula and a abscess.

He battled the fistula for two more years until his death.

The only real relief he got was to use a sitz bath and he would do that day and

night. The problem was that once he got off the sitz the paid was immedately

back.

I am going to make a long story short, after several admissions, the radiologist

went in and guided a tube into the badly abscessed part and put a tube in so

that it could drain it and relieve the pressure. He had a tube about 12 " long

and a bulb hanging off of that. They taught me how to empty the bulb and inject

saline water up into the fistula to clean it out. We did this four times a day.

We had to go to the hospital every 2 weeks and they would put him out for about

five minutes and replace the tube.

We did this for about 9 months. We were there so much they called us frequent

fliers.

They finally got it to a point where it quit draining and he got it removed. I

felt so sorry for him because he could not get comfortable. His colostomy was

on the left side and the drain and bulb on the right side. There was just not a

good way for him to lay down and get a good nights sleep.

Unfortunately we lost him two months after the drain was removed.

This may not be your FIL's problem but I would insist that his doctor talk to

the Radiologist and run some test's to see if this is what he may have going on.

I don't know if you have ever had a boil, but they fill up and hurt until you

get them lanced. The fistula is very similar, except that they can form many

tunnels off of each other.

Long story short, the drain was a pain in the neck, but at least it relieved the

pressure.

I don't know if I am making any sense right now because this is my first

Christmas without my Best Friend and Husband and I am not dealing with it as

well as I thought I would.

I would be happy to answer any question you might have. It may not even be a

abscess of fistula but it is worth asking his doctors about.

Best Wishes,

Joyce

>

> I have a question regarding colon cancer & pain. My father-in-law is stage 4

& was diagnosed approx. four months ago. My sister-in-law said his doctor told

her that colon cancer is very painful. I would like to know is it the colon

tumor itself that causes the pain

or is it from met's to the bone that is so painful? He also has involvement in

the abdomen, lungs & liver. The only pain he has is a severe burning coming

from the rectum. It started on the day he had his colonoscopy & has not gone

away since. It has not gotten any better or worse since the day it started four

months ago. The week following the test he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon

cancer.

His colon tumor at that time was approx. 2-21/2 cm. His colon was not blocked

as he could still pass stool, but doctor recommended a colostomy be put in as a

preventive. Do you think a tumor of this size could be the cause of the severe

burning? He no longer passes

stool past the tumor yet the burning remains even after

> the colostomy surgery. I explained in an earlier post that my father-in-law

believes that a nerve was damaged during the colonoscopy test as he felt pain

during the test & tried to pull away. He has not been the same since that day &

has become depressed because the doctors keep telling him the pain is from the

tumor not nerve damage. I have since found a support group on line of other

people with the same burning pain & all the same triggers for the pain that my

FIL has & they do not have cancer. They have a condition called PNE pundendal

nerve entrapement. If anyone knows if this type of pain is to be expected from

colon cancer or not I would appreciate hearing from you. It would help FIL

accept that his doctor is right & he needs to find a way to cope. On the other

hand if this is not common for colon cancer, it would be valuable information

for FIL to be able to demand they search further for the cause of this

unbearable burning. Thanks to all for any info you can

> provide us.

> Strongs,

> Trase

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