Connect
Rectal Radiation and Nutrition: Anyone have plant-based diet advice?
Hello,
Long story short, I had a large polyp discovered and resected from the rectum at age 41 last year. After finding 2 cancers (main worrisome one being a tiny Neuroendocrine Carcinoma) , I went through 5 weeks of pelvic and rectal radiation plus 4 rounds of chemotherapy. Radiation plus the resected area has left me with quite a lot of pain/dietary issues etc. 12 weeks later and I’m still unable to eat much fiber with severe ulcerations and narrowing of the rectum. Anyone else going through anything similar and anyone have dietary advice? I really wanted to follow a whole food/plant based diet to help my body fight any possible remaining cancer but now I can’t since hardly any fiber seems to tear me up and cause so much pain! A bland soft diet is almost all I can handle. Help and thank you!
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Colorectal Cancer Support Group.
Connect
Welcome to my world, have been of soft diet many years and am now on liquid diet bc I have chronic radiation enteritis for radiation treatment for Ovarian Cancer. Seem that you may have actor radiation enteritis, which I had early on after radiation. Keeping a diet journal is essential as is a powerful blender, hand held immersion blender and maybe even a juicer (which I have but no longer use. If you are going plant based you should try to keep track of protein and try to get enough to stay healthy and heal. Can get pea protein from amazon and add to smoothies, also tofu and avocado and bananas can be added to smoothies to make then high calorie but not high fiber.
Suggest consulting a dietitian. When I had acute RE my dietitian was aghast at how much celery and grapefruit I ate, when I was supposed to be low fiber, I had to learn the difference between soluble fiber (like in rice) and insoluble fiber, as in celery. Insoluble fiber can cause lots of problems.
Let me know how you get on. I remember how much diarrhea I had back then.