Bowel Obstruction

[mizfiesta]

I'll try and keep this as short as I can but I'm looking for a bit of medical insight.
My cousin - female, 52 years of age, was treated for cancer of the lining of the womb last year. I'm not totally sure of the staging, but I think it was about stage 3. This resulted in a full hysterectomy. They also removed the top part of vagina apparently - and lots of radiotherapy. The Docs (as far as we were aware, were happy they had caught it all).
She's never really been 'right' since as the radiotherapy did so much damage. She's been having trouble with her bowels for a while but hasn't really sought a lot of medical help. She would visit her local GP with issues. I was always at her to see her Oncology Nurse or something. But she's terrified of all things medical.
Anyway, she's been ill recently and has been in a lot of pain and vomiting. She eventually went to the hospital and they've said there's something obstructing her bowel.
She told me they've said it could be scar tissue from the radiotherapy. They're putting a tube up her nose to drain fluid from her stomach and she said they're going to 'administer a dye to see if they can budge the blockage'. They're also transferring her to the Western General in Edinburgh tonight as they said they may have to operate.
They've performed a CT scan etc. My question is - how sure will the Docs be that it's definitely scar tissue? Will the CT scan be good enough to show that? Could it be something more serious and they're just not telling her? Can they do that? She's in the local hospital with her elderly parents as she's unmarried. I'm worried for her. I don't think either she or her parents really take in all this medical information, and I'm just worried that they're not getting or realising the full picture. Or perhaps I just need to stop worrying and trust what they're reporting back! Sorry for rambling!

[Sqad]

52 year old female who has has a total hysterectomy for uterine cancer followed by radiotherapy 1 year ago develops bowel obstruction, probably large bowel obstruction.
The causes could be:
1) Recurrence of her uterine cancer.
2) Adhesions from her radiotherapy.
3) Bowel obstruction due to disease unrelated to he previous cancer.

The nasal tube and intravenous drip is standard conservative management of a bowel obstruction before investigations.

A C-T scan or an MRI scan should offer a diagnosis, but not of 100% certainty and if they are not certain then a laparotomy (abdomen opened) and a biopsy would be taken.

No point in guessing the cause of the obstruction but if I was pushed, I would say that it was either 1) or 2) above.
That is all i can say with the data given.

[mizfiesta]

Sqad, thank you. As always you're very helpful and I really appreciate your input.
At the moment they're trying to get a tube up her nose and down to her stomach to drain fluid, but as she's so tense they can't get it in. Four times they've tried.
She said they're going to put some kind of dye through her to possibly dissolve the blockage? I haven't heard of anything like this so I'm totally flummoxed.

[Theland]

Best wishes. If only I could shed some light, but this is out of my league.
So sorry.
Hope all turns out well. X

[237SJ]

I have always said with cancer that you should expect the unexpected. My Aunty had breast cancer and when it came back it manifested itself as a lump and blockage in her peritoneum which is very rare. I`m not saying that is the problem with your cousin. The scans will reveal the problem though and the hospital will tell her the truth.

[mizfiesta]

Thanks for all your responses. Very much appreciated.