Chronic nausea and diarrhea history of cancer

[Rebekah89]

My husband has been going to the doctor for 6 months trying to find out hwy he has nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pain.  He has had a colonoscopy in June (prior history of colon cancer only has smal intestine left), no signs of cancer removed a coupe of polyps.  In July he had a Endoscopy which showed a carpet of hyperlastic polyps the biopsy came back no cancerous.  He continued to have the nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pain.  Went for a 2nd opinion and they sent him to have a EUS, this test showed not hundreds but thousands of polyps, not cancer, but the doctor who performed this test recommended total gastroectomy.  Whent back to the doctor today and and we were told that the EUS showed the polyps not cancer at this time but need to watch it.  Do not want to do surgery at this time.  Now the doctor has told us that he wants to try a couple of things that he does not feel that the nausea, diarrhea is caused from the polyps in the stomach.  He feels that because of the 6 surgeries that my husband has already had for colon cancer, colon perforation and colon obstructions that his intestine is not functioning properly and it could be caused from nerve damage due to the numerous surgeries.  The dr. is now trying him on a regement of Florastor and Aligin to replace the good antibotics in his intestine.  I ask the dr. also about Familial Polyposis and he said he did not think that was what my husband had.  But he did say the EUS report showed something with the APC gene.  He said Non-hereditary polyposis.   My husband has been dealing with this for 14 months now since his last surgery in Oct 07.  We seem to keep trying more medicines and doing more test to no avail.  Do you have any suggestions.

[kak21]

Sorry hun. I know that's gotta be hard. Surgery really is the best thing at this time. The longer he waits, the higher the risk becomes for the polyps developing cancerous cells and ravishing his immune system.

[Rebekah89]

What is your thoughts on this update.

[kak21]

To me, it sounds like Ulcerative Colitis. It is a condition that causes bleeding and polyps. I would need to know a little more about his medical history. If it's not UC, it could be something triggered by the immune system. Ask the gastroenterologist to perform a CARD15/NOD32 Test and an Immunoglobulin E & Immunoglobulin G Blood Serum Test.That will better help to determine the cause of his illness.

[CalGal]

Rebekah, I think the suggestions about the Align and the Florastor are excellent ones. And I'd actually (in my own mind) give him high marks for suggesting those products. It is a very good possibility that his system is way out of whack following the surgeries. When the bacteria/yeast is skewed because of illness or medications it can cause a LOT of problems. So it's something very positive to try. It won't help overnight, but do give it a try.

And polyposis sounds right - familial or not. The doc evidently did some further testing on the biopsy he took and screened it, that's where the APC came from. So at least now it appears that you know what you're dealing with.