Bright blood in stool?

[akaimeridia]

My husband has Crohn's. He was on remicade for about 4 years, it worked wonders until a few months ago when it completely lost effectiveness. His doctor put him on Humira a month ago, and his stomach seems to be much better. He has no pain or fever, and he only has a BM about 3 times a day. He isn't running to the bathroom anymore. However, when he does go, he sees bright red blood. He has slight diarrhea (some diarrhea, some formed pieces), and usually after the stool comes out, a bunch of bright red blood follows. It's not every time he goes, but maybe 2 out of 3 times. Every once in a while he'll feel the urge to go, but no stool will come out, only blood. He did ask his doctor about it a few weeks ago, and his doctor said he's just inflamed and needs to keep letting the Humira work. But his doctor didn't ask what color the blood was, and from reading online I've learned that different colors mean different things (dark blood, bright blood). It seems he may have hemmorhoids? Does anyone have any suggestions? If it doesn't go away in a little while he will go back to the doctor. But I'm just looking for other people's opinions who may have similar symptoms. Thanks in advance!

 

[shamrock15]

Lots of possibilities for the bleeding - could be hemmorhoids, could be small ulcerations in his colon, could be broken skin around the anus. Bright blood is normally recent - near the end of the digestive tract. The further up the bowel the origin is, the darker it normally gets. It can end up looking like coffee grounds. Is your husband getting regular blood work done? I am not familiar with the protocol for Humira. For myself, I am just recently over 3 years of anemia when there was very little visible bleeding, but it was enough to knock my hemoglobin numbers down about 15 points a month. My recommendation would be for your husband to keep a written journal detailing frequency of bleeding, and estimation of volume, colour, and location (free flowing, on the stools, on the paper). If it gets really bad, go to the ER. With any luck, the meds will take care of it all. My supposed Crohn's specialist took this approach with me, and after two years of him trying very little, I changed my GI doc. If you and your husband want more justification from your doctor, keep asking until you are satisfied with his/her answers.

 

[Bld]

I had similar bleeding from a fissure. No pain but quite a bit of bright red blood after a BM. There was more pain from it when it was smaller!

 

[pjtyler]

My husband has Crohn's. He was on remicade for about 4 years, it worked wonders until a few months ago when it completely lost effectiveness. His doctor put him on Humira a month ago, and his stomach seems to be much better. He has no pain or fever, and he only has a BM about 3 times a day. He isn't running to the bathroom anymore. However, when he does go, he sees bright red blood. He has slight diarrhea (some diarrhea, some formed pieces), and usually after the stool comes out, a bunch of bright red blood follows. It's not every time he goes, but maybe 2 out of 3 times. Every once in a while he'll feel the urge to go, but no stool will come out, only blood. He did ask his doctor about it a few weeks ago, and his doctor said he's just inflamed and needs to keep letting the Humira work. But his doctor didn't ask what color the blood was, and from reading online I've learned that different colors mean different things (dark blood, bright blood). It seems he may have hemmorhoids? Does anyone have any suggestions? If it doesn't go away in a little while he will go back to the doctor. But I'm just looking for other people's opinions who may have similar symptoms. Thanks in advance!

So bizarre. Almost the exact same situation for me. I was on Remicade for about 5 years and 2 months ago it completely stopped working for me. No idea why either as I haven't formed anti-bodies to it. I started having bright red blood in the stool which went away with cipro and flagyl, but now it's back again after I stopped them. I'm thinking it's probably from a fissure or fistula, but it is really concerning!

 

[Arkansas Crohny]

I was having the bleeding to just had a colonospy and Dr said I had high hemirodes. Treatment was suppositories for 7 days. I have stopped bleeding so far.