In the summer I suffered a pseudo bowel obstruction was admitted to critical care & had a lapratomy operation. The surgeons opinion prior to the operation at the start of July was that I had Crohn's disease (based on a scan) but this turned out not to the case. Recovery was difficult I suffered from ilieus & spent 10 days in hospital. Once home I suffered severe abdominal cramps right up to starting back at work in September. I saw my GP who thought the problem was that the operation had stripped bacteria from my gut. Things finally settled down mid September. At a similar time I noticed that when I had a bowel movement my stools initially looked normal but after a few minutes the water around the stool in the toilet would turn brown. (Not black, bright red or maroon but is this blood seeping out of my stool?). I went back to the drs (I wasn't able to see a GP but saw the practice nurse who told me the problem was a haemorrhoid (I had some symptoms which fitted this but I wasn't examined so this is unconfirmed.) Over the last week the abdominal cramping has started up again which has been persistent although it has settled down a degree yesterday & today), initially coinciding with this flare up of symptoms I was going to the toilet 6-7 times per day but this settled down once I reduced the fibre in my diet. I am worried about the cramping & the brown water indicating that something sinister is going on, my GP surgery (practice nurse) again has sent a stool sample off but I'm terrified about what the results might show.