Black Stool

YoungTurkNYC

Dear All,

I am posting here on behalf of my mother who has been living with metastatic breast cancer for the past 18 years. We recently learned that she now has liver involvement. Although she responded well to the treatment of the liver lesions, the treatment had to be stopped due to a surgery she had to have as a result of side effects of having been treated for bone metastases for over 18 years. She also ended up getting an infection which caused pneumonia. She was hospitalized for over a month, and as we were becoming hopeful that she may soon be discharged, she starting having black stools for the past 3 days. Although tests will be performed to determine the cause, we were wondering if anyone has experienced this, and what may have been the cause. Thank you so much for listening.

blainejennifer

The usual gastric problem with liver mets is that one's stool gets very light, because of bilirubin problems. Black, or tarry stools, can mean one of two things (that I know of, and I'm not a medical professional).

The first is that you have taken something with Bismuth in it, like Pepto-Bismol. It can also coat your tongue with a funky black film.

The second is that you are bleeding into the bowel somewhere, and the blood is being digested, turning the stool quite dark. That is of immediate concern, so it is good she's had all the tests.

For pure curiosity's sake, could you tell us what kind of surgery would be needed as a result of bone mets treatment for 18 years? These lists function as an ongoing database for current and future MBC patients, so all the information can be helpful.

Tell your Mom we are all pulling for her.

Jennifer

YoungTurkNYC

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you so much for responding to my post and for pulling for her. It means so much. My mother had multiple surgeries replacing bone with titanium rods (including femur) and also to put screws in her entire backbone structure to strengthen her backbone. She actually had to have multiple backbone surgeries. (She lives in Istanbul, Turkey where doctors are willing to take more risks in the treatment of patients, than here in the US. Some of these neurosurgeries were high risk lasting many hours.) Recently, a few of the screws started protruding through the skin and causing immense discomfort. This protrusion had started prior to being treated with Taxol for the liver lesions, which was very effective on the liver lesions; however, not only the protrusion worsened but the skin opened up and a major wound opened over a large area on her back. In this particular surgery, the protruding screws, along with a portion of the skin were removed. The neurosurgeon and the oncologist made a decision together that she could take a break from the chemo to undergo this surgery, as they could not risk leaving these screws in which had also moved and pressing on nerves.

Lynnwood1960

Is your Mom on iron supplements? They can also cause black stools.

YoungTurkNYC

Dear Lynn, Jennifer,

Thank you so much for responding. After the tests, it turned out to be a heavily bleeding stomach ulcer, and the doctors intervened to stop the bleeding. Thank you so much again for all the information and support. We are now hopeful that she may be discharged from the hospital within the next couple of days.

All my best,

YoungTurk

blainejennifer

Young Turk,

I am very glad they caught the stomach ulcer before it caused big trouble. If she hasn't got a history of ulcers, definitely bring this up with her medical oncologist. He'll need to be on the lookout for a low red blood cell count.

Normally, when low reds are seen, we all blame it on the chemo. In your Mom's case, every time she runs a low RBC, and her stools are dark, she should probably get a fecal occult blood stool test. Super easy and cheap. Nobody wants her to be responding well to treatment, then have a traumatic bleed from an ulcer! Doctors tend to forget that things can go wrong with us, other than cancer.

Give her a hug from us.

Jennifer