Diarrhea caused from pancreatic problems

@granite, I also added your question to the Cancer: Managing Symptoms support group. I believe that @greglynch7 may have had a plexus nerve block for pain in the pelvic region related to prostate cancer.

In the meantime, you can learn more in this helpful article
– Celiac Plexus Block: What It Is, Risks & Benefits: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/16853-celiac-plexus-block

Have you had the nerve block or will this be happening soon?

Yes! It seemed to take about a week for the before and after became noticeable, but my husband, stage 4 inoperable pancreatic cancer, no longer takes any pain medication. I must Tell you, however, that all through Folfirinox and radiation treatments, he never had pain. Pain only started about 2 1/2 months after stopping all treatment because he didn’t want any more chemo. Then he took 2 Hydrocodones every 6 hours with Ibuprofen for breakthrough pain. After the plexus block, he has no pain. He is, however, now in home hospice for about two weeks , for a week now everything has gone downhill, he can no longer leave his bed and no longer eats. He will probably leave us in the next few days, but he has no pain.

I must admit to two things about the hospice we have gotten at home: 1. We have had a terrible experience with home hospice and
2. We still choose it over in-hospital care for my husband’s end of life.
I see “we” because without my daughter and son-in-laws support, I would not be able to care for him by myself. I am 5’5” and he is 5’10”. Even though he only weighs about 10 pounds more than I do at this stage (his 142 to my 132), I don’t have the strength or leverage to change his soiled disposable underwear and clean him properly without our daughter. There must always be two responsible adults in the house. We are on around the clock shifts for his care. I would not want it any other way, but the nurses who came (1 intake, 2nd for weekly visits bordered on negligence in their lack of care. We see a new nurse tomorrow. It is only because We are medical nerds that we have been able to advocate for ourselves. For example, we are now treating a urinary tract infection that was simply ignored by the nurse’s lack of concern. We insisted on a paracentesis procedure being done as an outpatient in the hospital day after tomorrow for the enormous fluid retention in my husband’s abdomen. We are now getting genuine medical help only because my daughter and I thought, finally, this simply cannot be normal end of life experiences. So, in short, you must be prepared to be able to “do it on your own” despite all the “you won’t be alone” promises made by various medical personnel. Good luck and all the best. Our experience with our hospital, however, has been outstandingly good.

My husband was hospitalized for the tremendous pain from pancreatic cancer tumors last month. He had tried opioids but nothing was helping the pain. He did the celiac plexus block and it did bring the pain down a few notches, not to a zero but enough that he can manage now on meds and was able to start chemo. We were told he received a numbing blocker but could go back for permanent block (I believe with alcohol) but there could be permanent side effects, chronic diarrhea. He’s hoping the chemo will reduce the tumor sizes and that will reduce the pain.