Hi Lorra, 

my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer which had spread to the liver in may 2018. He had the same fortnightly regime and did encounter a few hospitals stays during the course of his chemo. 
 

The first point of action during every hospital visit was antibiotics, whether there was a fever or not. This is a precautionary thing I believe to treat for any underlying infection or sepsis whilst they are waiting for results to come back. 
 

one of the hospital stays with my dad was he has an infection possibly in his prostate, but he had no fever, however his bloods were showing there was an infection somewhere in the body but the doctors couldn't find where. 
 

My dad was admitted with severe vomiting and diharrhea about 4 times during his second round of chemo, again not with a fever every time but they still treated him with antibiotics and replacements of electrolytes. It is common for them to treat him for an infection even if he doesn't have a fever. 
 

I send you, your dad and your family lots of best wishes and hope he is home soon! x 

Hello Lorra and thank you for posting a question. 

It is fair to say that people often have a raised temperature when they have an infection but this is not always the case. So, I don't think that you can rule out infection completely just because your dad is reasonably well. But as one of our other forum members suggested, doctors don't like to take any chances when someone is on chemotherapy, so antibiotics may be given if someone has diarrhoea. This is can be aimed and preventing a serious infection, rather than treating one that someone already has.

Chemotherapy can cause inflammation in the gut, leading to diarrhoea. To put it in very simple terms, when this happens, bacteria can leak from the gut and cause an infection in the body. When people have a suppressed immune system, due to chemotherapy this type of infection could be potentially serious. Giving antibiotics can reduce the risk of this developing.

So your dad could be having antibiotics to treat an infection that he already has, or he may be having them as precaution while his gut recovers from chemotherapy induced diarrhoea. But as I am not involved in his care I don't know specifically why they have been prescribed in his individual case. If he has any concerns about why he is having antibiotics your dad should ask a member of his heath care team.

Please get back to us if you have any other questions.  If you wold like to telephone the number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

Kind Regards,

Jean

Thank you for replying and I'm sorry to hear you've been through similar with your dad. I'm guessing with the prostrate infection aside the other times your dad was admitted for severe diahrroea and vomiting was it "just" put down to a side effect from the chemo? It's the first time my dads ended up in A&E and knowing he has such a poor prognosis it's a terrifying reality jolt to see him suddenly so poorly. 
Thank you for your best wishes and I send the same back to you x

Thank you so much for your reply. It's incredibly helpful to understand that antibiotics can be given as a precaution to prevent an infection that could be caused by the chemo induced diarrhoea, I hadn't really thought of that and of course it makes complete sense why they would be cautious. Thank you. 

My dad was admitted with vomiting/diharrhea approx 3 times and then once with the prostate infection and another time with pneumonia. Each time was different but every admission was put down to a side effect from the chemo, even the infections, because if he wasn't undergoing the chemo the likelihood is that he wouldn't have contracted the infections, it is likely the infections came on because his immune system was so low. 
 

the chemo can be a really rough time for them and it can be really hard. My dad was told he would have approximately 6 months without chemo and some years with, it has been 21 months now and the chemo has now stopped working and the cancer has begun to spread so he has been passed to palliative care. He does however have a much better quality of life now he's not on the chemo, although not much time left. the chemo is great at giving more time if it is not causing too many problems.

i hope your dad gets home and out of the hospital soon x