Bowel obstruction?

Posted by breemichelle26 @breemichelle26, Mar 9 9:28am

Hi- I had to take my Dad to the ER early Friday morning for extreme pain, nausea and vomiting. They did. cat scan said he has a bowel obstruction. They tried an NG tube but it didn’t help any so it was removed last night. He’s not healthy/ strong enough for surgery. The dr said it MIGHT clear up on its own but so far 48 hours with no food or liquids by mouth and there’s been no improvement. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen next? Does anyone have experience with that? Is this the end of line for him? He was fine before this happened. But now he’s on every 4 hours of morphine and he’s very out it (from the pain meds) and just keeps saying, this is too much, and that he can’t live like this. 🙁

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vector | @vector | Mar 10 12:08pm

My wife had a similar situation. A lot of high pain and they messed around for four days while we kept saying strangulated bowel. Finally, I insisted they go in laproscopically to check. The surgeon came out after it was done and said, "You were right." They did a 6" resection on the small bowel. Took the appendix while they were in there.

markymarkfl | @markymarkfl | Mar 10 2:49pm

My obstruction was at the gastric outlet (where stomach empties into duodenum, or in my case, the post-Whipple jejunum that was attached there).

They tried to put in a stent, but it wouldn't even expand enough to get one started. As a result, I was given a feeding tube (TPN thru a "central" line) for input and a stomach drain tube and bag for output of whatever liquid comfort foods I wanted to swallow.

After I persisted about getting more treatment, they relented and did 5 rounds of radiation on my blockage and resumed my chemo. About 6 weeks later, the blockage had shrunk a bit; they tried again with the stent and were successful, so now I can consume a modest diet of soft, well-chewed foods. I still have the TPN port for primary nutrition and the stomach drain as a backup in case something clogs the stent.

With all that said, it may depend on exactly where your Dad's blockage is. My stent was done by the IR (Interventional Radiology) team, so it didn't require open surgery. My radiation side effects were minimal. I'm just wondering if radiation and/or a stent might relieve your dad's blockage.

Good luck; wishing you the best!