Tag: Adhesions

The adhesion develops when the body’s repair mechanisms respond to any tissue disturbance, such as surgery, infection, trauma, or radiation, resulting in inflammation. Although adhesions can occur anywhere, the most common locations are within the abdominal cavity, the pelvis, and the heart.

Abdominal adhesions: Abdominal adhesions are a common complication of surgery, occurring in up to 93% of people who undergo abdominal or pelvic surgery. Abdominal adhesions also occur in about 10% of people who have never had surgery.

- Most adhesions are painless and do not cause complications. However, adhesions cause about 60% of small bowel obstructions in adults and are believed to contribute to the development of chronic pelvic pain.
- Adhesions typically begin to form within the first few days after surgery, but they may not produce symptoms for months or even years. As scar tissue begins to restrict motion of the small intestines, passing food through the digestive system becomes progressively more difficult. The bowel may become blocked.
- In extreme cases, adhesions may form fibrous bands around a segment of an intestine. This constricts blood flow and leads to tissue death.

25Jan 2017 by Ronny Allan 5 Comments

Road ahead closed – Bowel Obstructions

Diet and Nutrition, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, Treatment

OK - we've gone through diagnosis; we've gone through treatment and now we need to live with the consequences of cancer and its treatment. Not a day goes by when I don't feel some twinge or some minor pain, and I think 'what was that?'. Fortunately, many things can just be day-to-day niggles or in my case, the perils of getting older! The natural tendency is to think your cancer is causing these things.... easy to say, but very often not easy to prove. However, for Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) patients who have had surgery, anything that seems like a bowel obstruction is quite a scary thought (I suspect this is also an issue for other cancer types). In fact, even before diagnosis, a bowel obstruction can be how the condition is…

12Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 12 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – my liver surgery

Treatment

Laparoscopic Surgery ("Keyhole") From day 1 of my diagnosis, I knew my liver was going to need some attention, but I had always known that total removal of all tumours would not be possible - the diagnostic scan confirmed I had an incurable disease. This critical organ did in fact produce the biopsy confirming Neuroendocrine Cancer. The early scans indicated multiple liver lesions and an Octreotide scan reported several with quite avid isotope activity.However, as you can see from my clinical history, they first stabilised my syndrome via daily Octreotide so my tumours were subdued ready for major surgery which took place Nov 2010 - I wrote about this as Part 1 and Part 2 stories. As we are talking about my liver, it's worth noting that a bland Liver…

Summary May produced the best statistics in 2023, mainly due to your support for my blog post on Maria Menounos whose announcement headlined as “Pancreatic Cancer” caused a storm within the Neuroendocrine Cancer community. Below, I’ll list the top performing blog posts in May and no secret which one is listed first. Repeat after me: […]

Getting back in the saddle

Those who follow my Facebook page Ronny Allan may remember my cycling faux pas in April causing me to bruise or fracture a rib (here if you missed it). I was told it may take up to 6 weeks to heal, it took 5. During that painful period, I looked ahead and wondered how I […]

Clinical Trial: Phase 1/2a Study of 23ME-00610 in Patients With Advanced Solid Malignancies (incl Neuroendocrine Neoplasms)

Who are 23andMe? I personally had not heard of 23andMe but many people in North America might have. When you first look at what they do, you can be excused for thinking they are just another ‘Ancestry’ company, but they are more than that. They also get involved in genetics and health. To quote their […]

A spotlight on Chromogranin A

What is Chromogranin A? Chromogranin A (CgA) is an acidic protein released along with catecholamines from chromaffin cells and nerve terminals. This statement alone might explain why it’s a good marker to use with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms. It is said to be a measure of tumour bulk. Depending on the test kit being used, you may […]

Neuroendocrine Cancer: Catch them early, not late!

Diagnosing Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). It’s no secret that Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs) can be difficult to diagnose, particularly well differentiated slow growing types (NETs) which can sometimes be difficult to see. Plus, many patients present with relatively routine day to day symptoms suggesting a myriad of day-to-day illnesses seen daily in every GP/PCP practice. But conversely, […]