hi my mother is 84 with stage 4 bowel cancer and advanced dementia. she is now in a nursing home and is physically able bodied but with her dementia we have no constant awareness of her stool movements as she is not incontinent. she was on dioctyl but was taken off it recently. she now has an apple sized very hard lump lower left side of abdomen and a low temperature yesterday. Im concerned that she may be on the way to a second perforated bowel ( she had this a few months ago and survived)my question is should she be back on the dioctyl? is it for extreme cases of constipation?
Hi and welcome to Chat Doctor. This doesn't sound like bowel peroration, but it is probably tour mass in abdominal or pelvic cavity. Bowel perforation would manifest in different way. She would have diffuse intensive pain with fever and general symptoms. It is to expect that she'll have defecating disorders and obstipation, but this all is part of her primary disease and this is not in your hands. Only colostomy could be performed for normal stool passage. Wish you good health.