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1137771 tn?1260746272

vomiting bile after caner of the bowel operation

Hi! My 64 year old dad went into hospital because he has cancer of the bowel which has possibly been there for 1 year. In the first opperation (Key hold surgery) he has part of his bowel removed to remove the cancer, but after 10 days of no food, or food on a drip, my dads bowels had not started working and his stomach was very very swollan and he was also very exhaused. They a did a second operation and found his intestine has been twisted during the first operation, so they has to cut his whole stomach open to fix the proplem. After the operation, my dad was put on a food drip, but 6 days later he is not getting any better. He often gets hot and clammy and then vomits up lots of green bile. He does have a tube from his nose for this, but 3-4 times a day he vomits up to 2 bowls of the green bile. For 6 days he has been feeling so ill and feels like heis going to die every time he is sick. He is starting to lose hope and the doctors and nurses dont seem to be bothered that he is not showing any signs of recovery. Can anyone tell mr if this is a good sign that he is vomiting bile or what he can do to get better. He was originally told he could be out of hospital after 5 day, but its now been 3 weeks he is so unwell.
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Avatar universal
My brother just had a colonectomy due to cancer(Lynch syndrome).  Today it's been a week, still in hospital, he has been going to the bathroom a lot (not even eating food yet and weird stuff coming out?), but so sore due to prior surgery and scar tissue the surgery took over 5 hours.  He is swelled so badly and bruised.  Last night they finally inserted tube in stomach to drain bile.  This morning a total of 4 gallons since yesterday.   What can he expect going forward?  Dr has scheduled a cat scan today and wants him to walk but he's in severe pain.
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Avatar universal
Hey Simmo my father is very sick as well. He also had a 2nd surgery for intestinal twisting that was also taken out his is his 5th day since his second surgery and is trowing up again. I'm so worried can you please tell me when your father started to improve and what helped him. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Avatar universal

Hi - I underwent a total colectomy about five years ago for torrential diverticular bleeding.  Although it was estimated that I would require a hospital stay of ~8 days in fact I had to remain there for ~12 days.  Everything regarding the operation went well but the onset of the ileus delayed my discharge.  I recall the approx timetable as follows:-

- day 1 - the operation
- days ~2-5 recovering, I.V. nutrition
- day 6 tried simple food intake but feeling nauseous/vomited>>>nasal gastric tube because of ileus
- day 7-10 nasal gastric tube continued I.V nutrition (I believe with sugars/protein and
a fluid called "Kabby" or similar)
- day 10 less nausea, tried very simple food intake which not vomited back up
- days11-12 continued with light food intake and discharged.

I think you should ask for an urgent meeting with the responsible doctor and ask:-

- why is the nasal gastric tube not being aspirated? Why does my father have to endure avoidable vomiting?
- is there a targetted I.V. feeding regime that will supply the necessary nutrients to aid recovery
- what can you do to accelerate solving the ileus problem?  In my opinion there should have been more active intervention if this has lasted as long as 7 days.

Good luck and I hope that your Dad is soon fit and well again

regards
Morecambe

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1137771 tn?1260746272
Hi! thanks for replying. Yes my dad has a nasal/gastric tube and the nurses are suppose to suringe this every 4 hours. But they are so short staffed that this does not get done. My dad knows that he is going to vommit about 10 minutes before, as he gets hot and clammy and feels sick, but again the nurses are so busy that by the time they come over he has vommited two bowls full.

May i ask how many days you were vommiting and how long before you felt well again and ready to leave hospital. Also, do you know if this is normal to be vommiting for so many days after his operation, he has been vomitting now for 7 days and the doctors and nurses have not said if this is normal or not.
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Avatar universal

There is a condition known as "ileus" whereby the bowels become inactive following their manipulation during surgery.  I suggest that you ask the surgeon about this and whether there are any drugs that can be administered to speed up the re-start of the intestines.

I believe that there are nutritional preparations (protein/sugar/vitamin etc etc) that can be administered via an I.V. tube to aid recovery.  This is what happened to me following a total colectomy.

If your father has a nasal/gastric tube then the nurses should surely be sucking out of his stomach 4-6 times per day the stomach contents including the bile juice so that these fluids are extracted before any nausea sensations following by vomiting.  Likewise after my own operation I had a nasal gastric tube inserted and with frequent extraction of the stomach contents until the ileus passed.

regards
Morecambe
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