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Dealing with Diarrhea
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Dealing with Diarrhea

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Dealing with Diarrhea

  • Post
    • July 1, 2017 at 2:46 pm
    RitysMom
    Participant

      Hi all,

      Kristine has had diarrhea for about 5 days now. I didn't know about the first two days because my son-in-law was caring for her and didn't mention it til he left for Alabama on Wed. He thought it might be related to an antibiotic she was taking for a UTI, Levofloxacin. However, she finished that on Wed.  

      I called her dr on Wed and he recommended Imodium. Yesterday was her first day taking the max daily dose of Imodium recommended by her doctor, 16 mg. For the past two days, I've tried having her on as bland a diet as I can, stopped all fast food, fried & spicy foods, soda, raw veggies, and nuts. Also began a probiotic yesterday.

      Any other recommendations?

      Do I need to give it a few more days to see improvement?

      I assumed the Imodium would knock it out immediately, so am concerned that it's continuing. I'm feeling this is more a side effect of the ipi/nivo rather than the antibiotic. She does have an appt on Mon, so I was planning to just continue with what I'm doing til then.

      This issue has also brought up another one…how do you balance restricting your loved one's food choices with allowing them to have something they enjoy? Kristine is suffering through enough with this disease…she should be able to eat what she wants…but I also know that if she doesn't improve, she may not be able to have her 2nd dose of ipi/nivo…and that scares me. She's not demanding, but she does want some chocolate and I read she shouldn't have foods high in sugar. I just don't want to say no when she wants something…within reason, obviously.

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        • July 1, 2017 at 3:36 pm
        Clwilcop
        Participant

          …you may want to ask her doctor about giving her a probiotic that contains Saccharomyces boulardii (actually a yeast that behaves like a probiotic) as it has been studied to treat acute and chronic diarrhea. Jarrow makes a good one but there are plenty of other choices too.  Hope she finds relief soon…

            • July 2, 2017 at 6:05 am
            RitysMom
            Participant

              Thanks for the suggestion…I will ask at her appt on Monday. Today was better than yesterday, so maybe the Imodium is kicking in.

            • July 1, 2017 at 7:07 pm
            adriana cooper
            Participant

              Although Adriana's wad radiation induced it took immodium (an opiate we found out) 8x/day for a few days to finally get it under control. Wish ( I think) we had some back right now (going on 2 weeks since last BM which can't be comfortable)

              https://www.melanoma.org/find-support/patient-community/mpip-melanoma-patients-information-page/diarrhea

              Rob

                • July 2, 2017 at 6:27 am
                RitysMom
                Participant

                  It's actually possible that hers is radiation induced also…she finished wbrt on 5/24 and had a high dose of radiation to her spine on 6/9. I thought it seemed early to have a reaction after the 1st ipi/nivo dose, but who knows…anything is possible. Hoping for some relief for Adriana in that regard!

                • July 1, 2017 at 10:14 pm
                ed williams
                Participant

                  Hi Cindy, I am not a doctor but when it comes to diarrhea I won't wait to contact her Oncologist who gave her the Immunotherapy drugs or the team that works for the Oncologist. I do have a link from two of the leading Melanoma Immunotherapy Oncologist explaining how to handle Immune related adverse events. Best Wishes!!!Ed   https://www.uptodate.com/contents/toxicities-associated-with-checkpoint-inhibitor-immunotherapy

                    • July 1, 2017 at 10:15 pm
                    ed williams
                    Participant

                      sorry for the mistake " comes to diarrhea, I would not wait"

                      • July 2, 2017 at 6:15 am
                      RitysMom
                      Participant

                        Ed, thank you so much for the link! I contacted her oncologist Wed morning and he said to start Imodium and is having her come in on Monday. Based on the link you provided, she's probably a grade 1/borderline grade 2. She has shown improvement today, so I'm thinking I'll just stay the course. Thanks again!

                      • July 2, 2017 at 5:34 am
                      Patina
                      Participant

                        Start by asking how bad this is.

                        My Mom had it while she was taking ipi. By the time I found out how bad it was she had colitis and it was bad. She had to stop ipi for some time ad when she got her 3rd dose she got it again…. 

                        She was had it up to 15X per day (she told her doctor on a Tuesday), while the day before she told be 7-8x per day.  – He knew when I said how much he would likely stop ipi the next day. And sure enough he did. She also almost landed herself in the hospital then. – Her colitis did get worse and she did end up in the hostital a few weeks later, but she was also very low on potasium the first time…

                        Be careful and make sure you know exactly how bad it is and that you get it under contro. – enamas were the only thing that really worked for my Mom. They were easy and very fast.

                         

                          • July 2, 2017 at 6:23 am
                          RitysMom
                          Participant

                            Thank you for your response, Patina. Yesterday was the worst thus far and it was 4-5x, today was only 3x, so we're making progress. I have ulcerative colitis myself, so I was very worried about her developing colitis…especially when she has no mobility from the waist down. I can't imagine her having 15x per day, so I will definitely stay on top of it. 

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