Food after bowel surgery

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Posting for traffic - a friend’s wife has been diagnosed with bowel cancer and needs to have surgery, they have two small children and I live too far away to be any practical help. I’m going to put together a list of my fav liquid/mushy food recipes (ongoing dental work means I’m used to not being able to eat solids) as he says that’s what she’ll be eating for the next 6-8weeks.

Has anyone gone through bowel cancer surgery and can advise what food you can definately eat and definately not eat (is dairy/spices off limits for example!)

I was thinking of getting them an instapot to make his life easier to make nutritious and quick food for his wife but I know from experience they take some getting used so that might not be as helpful as I think it is?

Also I was going to send a care package, a ton of children’s meals from cook so again he has things ready to go for the children so he can focus more time and effort in his wife.

I dunno, just feeling so useless and helpless and it’s awful, any other ideas of things I can do or help with from several thousand miles away?

That's so kind! I have had bowel resection for Crohns not cancer but I had to stay on a really grim liquid diet that was prescribed. So that might be a thing?

For the care package.. what does she like doing? You could get her something from here ? They're designed by cancer patients for cancer patients

www.treatmentbag.co.uk

She loves to read but I know she has a stack of books ready and I imagine after a few weeks that’ll be a bit dull!

Am sending cook meals this week, thought next week I could send a package of quiet easy stuff for the kids to do/play with that stops them crawling all over mummy? The maybe a care package for both of the parents?

Your friend’s wife will need to drink plenty of fluids, yet limit the amount of caffeine she consumes as caffeine can stimulate the bowel and make diarrhoea worse. It would be a nice gesture to send some nice herbal teas/decaf coffee or a water bottle with a fruit infuser.

She’ll also need to eat a low fibre diet, so lots of white pasta and bread, cream crackers, rich tea biscuits, cornflakes and veg that is well cooked.

That’s really helpful, thankyou

Perhaps this is something you could pass along to them:

bladderbowel.gov.au/assets/doc/ImproveBowelAfterSurgery.html

It has a section on food, but the other info will probably be helpful and may give her back a sense of control to know all the ways she can manage any difficulties. Rather than flailing around in the dark with vague assurances from medical staff about things getting better.

There are plenty of similar resources online but this one is particularly comprehensive without being scary so not a bad place to start.

Will she be having radiotherapy / chemo after surgery? As that will have an impact. As will the part of her bowel being removed and how much is taken.

Unfortunately chocolate is also not a good idea, although one day she might be able to tolerate it even if only in small quantities.

Sorry for multiple posts.

The thing on foods to avoid does depend a bit on which kind of bowel function problems she's faced with after surgery, so the source I linked to before and the one below have multiple lists of foods to avoid/introduce. Although as a rule it is usually low residue/low fibre for the first six weeks at least.

This one is less detailed but isn't a bad overview: www.pat.nhs.uk/downloads/patient-information-leaflets/colorectal/824%20Returning%20home%20following%20your%20bowel%20cancer%20operation.pdf

In terms of how you help, you've got good ideas and you're offering help with specific things which is great. Informing yourself so you have a better idea what they might be facing will help too.

When someone is going through something like this that's so valuable - receiving well meaning "let me know if there's anything I can do" type offers is kind, but it can be so hard to work out what to ask or to have the energy to contact people to ask. If people say "would it help if I do xyz?" that can make such a massive difference.

As is people being consistently present as support over the long term and not forgetting about you because the last "dramatic" part of treatment was two months ago but your life is still upside down.

It might be hard to focus on books in the early weeks after surgery... Does she have an audible or Netflix subscription? Could you gift one or an audiobook? Or boxset?

It might sound silly but a delivery of flowers or a nice/encouraging/thoughtful card can help, although maybe be tactical with timing if that's something she might be bombarded with and send them a month into recovery say when a wave of depression might be hitting?

You might not be close enough for the practical support you'd like to offer, but you can still provide emotional support and that is so important.

I actually direct audiobooks and I know they have a CD player so I have a pile to send them!