Carcinoid Cancer Early Symptoms

Please Bookmark:

Carcinoid cancer is considered rare and not a lot is known as to the treatment for it. When my husband was told he had cancer I was filled with dread and imagined him leaving me within weeks or just a few months, I cried myself to sleep most nights and found it hard to cope with.

His next appointment at the hospital was to find out how far the cancer had gone and how long we could expect to be together.

The consultant didn’t look as grim as I suspected he would be and his first words had us both thinking.

He said “I have some good news and some bad news for you, first of all the bad news, you do have cancer” this of course we already knew so what could the good news be!

He then explained that the good news was that it was a very rare type of cancer and a slow growing one. My relief was immense just to know he would be with me for much longer than a matter of months.

Carcinoid cancer can be in the body for years before showing any symptoms and it is hard to detect in the early stages, it is only in the later stages that you begin to notice any symptoms and even then many doctors do not know what they are dealing with.

Johns symptoms began at least eight or nine years before they found out what was causing them.

The very first symptoms were hot flushes which occurred now and again, these effected his face and upper chest, as time went on they got worse but only occurred after eating a meal.

Even a cup of coffee affects him but we have managed to solve that problem by changing to decaffeinated coffee, evidently the caffeine must have been bad for him.

Other problems were the onset of diarrhoea, the doctor decided he had irritable bowel syndrome and he had tablets to control it. As time went on he began to get extreme pain in intervals of about every 3 months, these would last for about a week during which he had terrible diarrhoea and sickness, it was thought that it was gastro enteritis.

Finally the doctor sent him to see a consultant but it was months later after a full scan that they diagnosed the cancer.

It has been found that chemotherapy etc does not really help with carcinoid cancer so no real treatment is available, but he does have a monthly injection that helps to control the hot flushes.

He has had extreme weight loss and suffers with his breathing, this was put down to bronchitis but we have found out it is a symptom of carcinoid.

He sleeps a lot and always goes up to bed around 5.30pm each day, he finds it easier to have his meals in the bedroom then he can lie down and relax after.

He will not be treated as an invalid and in the mornings he likes to potter about and do odd jobs if he can manage them.

John has carcinoid cancer in the lower bowel but it has spread to the liver, he had an operation on the tubes leading to the lower bowel where they found that the cancer had almost blocked it, this was the reason for the extreme pain and other problems he was suffering, since the operation where they removed the obstruction the pains have abated but he still gets days where he feels extremely unwell.

If anyone you know has this cancer I would be interested to know of any other ways to improve the patient’s daily life.