Hello, I am one of the enquiry nurses and have been asked to take a look at your post by our moderator, Steph. 

I am very sorry to learn about your brother and can understand that this is a difficult time.

Once diagnosed, bowel cancer is usually treated fairly quickly. In addition, if there is a concern about bowel obstruction the surgeons may be wanting to get on and get your brother fully assessed so they can sort this out too. The obstruction could be the main cause of the pain. The scan will help the doctors to decide on the extent (stage) of the cancer. I don’t think anyone can second guess the stage of your brothers cancer at the moment.  

I’m afraid this is almost inevitably a worrying time. Until the doctors have assessed your brother fully, they can’t tell him what treatment would be best or how successful it may be. So it is usually a question of trying to hold your nerve and coping as best you can until the doctors are able to provide a better picture. There may not be that much you can do yourself other than offer support to your brother and find some support for yourself too. Your brother needs to let his doctors know about the pain. I am not sure if he is in hospital or at home. But tell him to either let the GP or the hospital know so that they can re-assess his pain medication to try and better control the pain.

Your brother’s doctors will be able to shed the most light on his situation. It isn’t always useful to look things up but if you want to, you could use our website .

Please do get back to us if you have any more questions. If you would like a chat, call us on 0808 800 4040. We are here from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Best wishes,

Julia