“Do you all understand what is going on? Do you know what is causing the gut blockage?”

“Is it to do with the illness? The cancer?”

“Yes, that’s right. Cancer which goes to the tummy can slow down the gut, that’s why the poos had slowed down. If there is enough cancer there it can cause a blockage, which is like a blocked pipe. Whatever goes down the pipe can’t pass through the blockage and then comes back up as vomit.”

“Can you pass another pipe through?”

“If there was only one blockage they could’ve tried to do that in the hospital, but the problem is there is more than one blockage and the re-piping wouldn’t work.”

“Could you give IV fluids, would that help?”

“IV fluids is done all the time for patients with bowel blockage in hospitals. What we have found is that the fluids can actually make things worse for the person. The fluid through the vein will lead to more gut juices being made which would increase the vomiting. Also when you are so unwell the body can’t handle the extra fluid. It ends up causing painful swelling and might make the breathing worse. We don’t want to make things worse. If I thought that giving fluids would help I would do so, but I think it would make things harder, so I won’t be doing that.”

“The cancer can cause swelling right? Is there anything you can do for that?”

“Cancer can cause swelling around it which could be leading to the blockage. We can try a steroid medication to see if it would help. We’d give it three days’ worth to see if it helped, or not. Would you like to try?”

“Yeah, I’d like to try that.”

“Okay, we’ll try that. We’ll also try another medication to dry up the gut juices, to see if it would make you vomit less.”

“You all have been asking good questions. Do you have any more questions?”

“No doctor, you’ve answered them all. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We’ll take things one day at a time, and we’ll always keep trying to make you comfortable.”