› Forums › General Melanoma Community › small intestinal mets and surgery
- This topic has 6 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 5 months ago by
Rebecca and Bob.
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- December 2, 2011 at 10:14 pm
I've lost two posts now and I'm ready to scream!! Ctrl+C, Ctrl+C….
Anyway, my question has to do with small intestinal mets and surgery. my mom had mets to brain (removed with SRS & a craniotomy), lungs, and a lymph node. worst of all, she has a met or mets to her small intestine. for months now, it's been bleeding and she needed biweekly transfusions of 2 units. the surgeon said the mass was resectable, but that if "all" she was needing was 2 units every 2 weeks, to stick with that because the surgery would be a rough one.
I've lost two posts now and I'm ready to scream!! Ctrl+C, Ctrl+C….
Anyway, my question has to do with small intestinal mets and surgery. my mom had mets to brain (removed with SRS & a craniotomy), lungs, and a lymph node. worst of all, she has a met or mets to her small intestine. for months now, it's been bleeding and she needed biweekly transfusions of 2 units. the surgeon said the mass was resectable, but that if "all" she was needing was 2 units every 2 weeks, to stick with that because the surgery would be a rough one.
now, she needs 2 units every week. it seems like the met is progressing, which is totally depressing since my mom's been on ipi. she was supposed to see the melanoma specialist yesterday to talk about her first post-ipi scan, but that had to be postponed to mid-december because on Tuesday my mom had a craniotomy for her second brain tumor (the first was 100% eliminated with SRS, and the surgeon said she got all of the second one but wants to do radiation anyway). i almost don't want to know what the PET scan says – i think none of us think it will be good news. how can it possibly be when she developed a second brain met, has worsening blood loss and the lymph node is still there, all at 20 weeks??
anyway, i feel like this intestinal met is robbing my mom of her will to live and that all of the symptoms she's having are related to it. since she's anemic all the time she's constantly fatigued. in the past month she's pretty much lost her appetite. she has severe gas/burping and abdominal pain when eating certain foods. prior to the craniotomy she did not have nausea and vomiting, but now she does. she doesn't wretch, it just "comes up" like her body is rejecting all nutrition. it's so scary.
maybe it's stupid but i feel like this intestinal surgery would be the magic bullet. if she's not bleeding all the time and anemic, she won't be tired, and if her abdominal symptoms resolve she won't be so miserable. apparently it would be a bad surgery, though. it's can't be done laparascopically, so she would have to stay in the hospital for a week and then essentially be on a three-week liquid diet. this craniotomy business made her miserable and i'm so scared she's not going to want to do the abdominal surgery. if she doesn't do the surgery, she won't feel better and get stronger and potentially want to try some other type of treatment (assuming the ipi is a wash).
anyway, this is a long post to just basically ask if anyone has small bowel mets and abdominal problems/internal bleeding, and/or if they've had small bowel surgery for mets, what it was like, etc, did the symptoms resolve, you know.
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- December 2, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Hi, my husband passed away Nov 30, 2010 to Melanoma in the intestines. He c ould not eat, very fatigued, lost muscle mass, …but he did no treatment at all other than alternative measures and did well for 4 years + 3 months, then it exploded in him…The did emergency surgery that he finally agreed too…..they could resect 1 place, but he had 12 more just like what they fixed. He was unstable during the surgery, and they could do no more for him….Of course, he had not had scans, so they only did quick X-ray and opted to do surgery..He had surgery on the 19 of Nov 2010,, and he never came home..so it really depends on whether there is one or many in that area. My husband led and active life until Sept 1st, 2010….then it went down quickly, with pain, and then the blood tranfusions 4 units every 2 weeks.
I am sorry you are having to deal with this…It is so awful…I am still in the greiving stage ..On Dec 4th, we would have been married 44 years…a lot to deal with in one week….I wish you and your mom the very best.
Take Care,
Sherron, wife to Jim FOREVER
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- December 2, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Hi, my husband passed away Nov 30, 2010 to Melanoma in the intestines. He c ould not eat, very fatigued, lost muscle mass, …but he did no treatment at all other than alternative measures and did well for 4 years + 3 months, then it exploded in him…The did emergency surgery that he finally agreed too…..they could resect 1 place, but he had 12 more just like what they fixed. He was unstable during the surgery, and they could do no more for him….Of course, he had not had scans, so they only did quick X-ray and opted to do surgery..He had surgery on the 19 of Nov 2010,, and he never came home..so it really depends on whether there is one or many in that area. My husband led and active life until Sept 1st, 2010….then it went down quickly, with pain, and then the blood tranfusions 4 units every 2 weeks.
I am sorry you are having to deal with this…It is so awful…I am still in the greiving stage ..On Dec 4th, we would have been married 44 years…a lot to deal with in one week….I wish you and your mom the very best.
Take Care,
Sherron, wife to Jim FOREVER
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- December 2, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Hi, my husband passed away Nov 30, 2010 to Melanoma in the intestines. He c ould not eat, very fatigued, lost muscle mass, …but he did no treatment at all other than alternative measures and did well for 4 years + 3 months, then it exploded in him…The did emergency surgery that he finally agreed too…..they could resect 1 place, but he had 12 more just like what they fixed. He was unstable during the surgery, and they could do no more for him….Of course, he had not had scans, so they only did quick X-ray and opted to do surgery..He had surgery on the 19 of Nov 2010,, and he never came home..so it really depends on whether there is one or many in that area. My husband led and active life until Sept 1st, 2010….then it went down quickly, with pain, and then the blood tranfusions 4 units every 2 weeks.
I am sorry you are having to deal with this…It is so awful…I am still in the greiving stage ..On Dec 4th, we would have been married 44 years…a lot to deal with in one week….I wish you and your mom the very best.
Take Care,
Sherron, wife to Jim FOREVER
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- December 3, 2011 at 8:20 pm
My husband had 3 small intestinal mets. One was causing blockage which caused cramping, nausea and he was looking anemic so the doctors ordered a PETSCAN and found 3 tumors. He had all three removed, two complete resections of his small bowel. He was in the hospital for a week until passing gas, then released. He could not eat during until probably the 4th day in the hospital and it was liquid diet. It was rough and the incision was from his belly button down about 4 inches (enough for the surgeon to go in). He previously had mets to his lungs and did IL-2 (you can read the profile). He did get a complete resection of those tumors and has been disease free for over 2 years. We are actually going back in for scans this month. Sorry your mother is going through this, it's rough but best to be as agressive as you can to stay ahead of it.
Good luck and if you have any more questions just post,
Rebecca
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- December 3, 2011 at 8:20 pm
My husband had 3 small intestinal mets. One was causing blockage which caused cramping, nausea and he was looking anemic so the doctors ordered a PETSCAN and found 3 tumors. He had all three removed, two complete resections of his small bowel. He was in the hospital for a week until passing gas, then released. He could not eat during until probably the 4th day in the hospital and it was liquid diet. It was rough and the incision was from his belly button down about 4 inches (enough for the surgeon to go in). He previously had mets to his lungs and did IL-2 (you can read the profile). He did get a complete resection of those tumors and has been disease free for over 2 years. We are actually going back in for scans this month. Sorry your mother is going through this, it's rough but best to be as agressive as you can to stay ahead of it.
Good luck and if you have any more questions just post,
Rebecca
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- December 3, 2011 at 8:20 pm
My husband had 3 small intestinal mets. One was causing blockage which caused cramping, nausea and he was looking anemic so the doctors ordered a PETSCAN and found 3 tumors. He had all three removed, two complete resections of his small bowel. He was in the hospital for a week until passing gas, then released. He could not eat during until probably the 4th day in the hospital and it was liquid diet. It was rough and the incision was from his belly button down about 4 inches (enough for the surgeon to go in). He previously had mets to his lungs and did IL-2 (you can read the profile). He did get a complete resection of those tumors and has been disease free for over 2 years. We are actually going back in for scans this month. Sorry your mother is going through this, it's rough but best to be as agressive as you can to stay ahead of it.
Good luck and if you have any more questions just post,
Rebecca
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