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Strange Bowel Movements

Karolinamoon
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Hi, 

Im hoping for a bit of guidance, and just support really I suppose.  I have been experiencing contipation since the birth of my second child about 6 years ago.     The bowel movements sometimes has mucous in it/over it. Other symptoms are occasionally gassy.    I put all this down to constipation, and possibly caused by stress (I so have alot of ongoing stress in my life).  More recently however, I have experienced hard bowel movements, followed by softer movement, within the same bowel movement if you know what I mean.  The other day, I experienced a single bout of diarreah that sent me runnoing to  the toilet, and noticed a trace of bright red blood.  I went to a & e as it scared me so much, and the doctor did a rectal exam, felt my stomach, and also suggested that it could be covid related??!!  She also said it might be internal haemorrhoids.....I do know I have a 'bulge' that comes out when passing bowel movements and sometimes there feels like there is a cut on the skin (it stings etc).  But she didnt think it was anything sinister but to keep an eye on it, and sent me on my way.  Today, I had a bowel movement, covered in mucous....I looked and noticed a very very small streak of what I thought might be red blood in the mucous.  This was not on the outside of the stool, which makes me even more worried.  I cant be 100% certain that it was blood, as there was a lot of red food matter in my stool as well.   This was again followed by softer stool, which had a very bad smell (almost sicky type smell), and quite alot of undigested food.    I did a home stool test for occult blood a few days ago (  to try and calm my nerves), and it came ouit negative.  The other thing on my mind is that I have two cousins who both have ulcerative colitis.  Im lost as to what to do, and my gp surgery are not seeing people but only doing consultations over the phone.  What is the best thing to do - watch and wait? 

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    hi Karolinamoon.

    I am not a doctor and I have no medical qualifications.

    The symptoms you describe (apart from blood) could be indicative of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (blood isn't an IBS symptom). I've had the mixed diarhoea and hard stool, and food passing through undigested, and sometimes a smell so bad it could strip the paint off the bathroom wall :shocked:

    You've taken some very wise steps and it's also clear that you're thinking rationally about this. I think the next sensible option is to discuss all your symptoms with your GP.  I'd also lay off eating any red coloured foods for a while so that you won't mistake a tomato skin for blood.

    This might be simple IBS with the blood being from a pile, but you don't want to risk that it might be something more serious.

  • Offline in reply to telemando

    Thanks for replying, it is much appreciated.  I spoke to my gp, and she had given me some suppositories to take for a week (for possible haemorrhoids), and then she is ringing me next Tuesday to see how things are, and chat about what we do next.  The bleeding has stopped, but Iv had diarreah for past 2 days, and lots of stomach gurgling.   I was wondering about the mucous in stool that had a faint streak of what I think was blood....could this be food?  In the same bm, there was alot of undigested chunks of red peppers.  I was thinking maybe that is what it was, though, it looked more liquidy, but I wonder can the food colour the mucous.  There hasnt been any bleeding at all since.  Im worried that the doctor will think since the bleeding has stopped, its haemorrhoids, and maybe miss something - if it was something more serious, would bleeding continue, or can something serious still be caused by a one off small streak of blood?    IIm completely stressed by all of this, to the point I cant think of anything else.  

  • Offline in reply to Karolinamoon

    Hi.

    I remind you that I'm not a doctor.

    I can tell you're stressed out by this.  Stress can trigger Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which is a harmless condition that can cause a wide variety of digestive and bowel discomfort and pain, plus the problems with the stools that you describe, including the passage of mucus.  It also gets you into a vicious circle where the stress triggers bowel symptoms, and the symptoms create even more stress, which makes the symptoms worse...

    However IBS doesn't cause blood, and we don't know where that's coming from.  It could simply be a pile or tear which might heal up in the next few weeks.

    You could discuss with your doctor having FIT stool test in a month's time to see whether there is any blood in your stool.  You can do this at home, although it's not the most pleasant thing to do.  If the FIT test is clear then you've probably got nothing to worry about.  If the test isn't clear, then your GP might refer you on to a hospital for a colonoscopy.

     

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