Still have Blood in stool after Bowel Resection

[Clairegard1979]

Hi

I had an illecocal resection 6.5 weeks ago. I am still having occasional bleeding when opening my bowels. I have mentioned this to the hospital and no one seems that concerned and said its possible a pile causing this but it's still worrying to see it as I was expecting bleeding symptoms to stop after the op. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks

 

[ronroush7]

Not me. How about someone else?

 

[Clairegard1979]

Yep anyone else? It's worrying each time it happens!

 

[Jennifer]

Your GI doctor could do a rectal exam to rule out hemorrhoids. I'm not a fan of, "could be this or that" coming from any doctor without doing any tests especially when it's concerning blood loss. It's not normal after a resection unless they left a portion in that was inflamed but I don't think that that's common. If they thought it might be hemorrhoids then they could easily check for that. As much fun as they aren't, request a rectal exam for at least peace of mind. If there's no sign of hemorrhoids then they can go from there to figure out where the blood is actually coming from.

Are you still eating a soft, easy to digest bland diet (the low residue diet)? If not then you may want to switch to one for a little bit to see if that helps at all. Increase your fluid intake as well in case it is hemorrhoids.

Keep us posted. I altered your thread title a bit to draw some more replies.

 

[Clairegard1979]

Thanks Jennifer. I'm used to rectal exams now but no they're never nice! I have an appointment with my gp on Thursday so I will ask then, would like to get it sorted and have a definite answer! When I had a scan 2.5 weeks after my op, they said the bowel was inflamed but said they would expect that after surgery?..
What is the low residue diet? The doctor told me to eat what I like, including high fibre food.

 

[Jennifer]

I haven't heard people on the forum mention inflammation after a resection and I wasn't told that I had any after mine. It takes a while for our outer abdomen to heal but the intestines themselves heal rather quickly just like our mouths do. After 2.5 weeks I can't imagine there being significant inflammation. There have been cases where not all of the affected portion was removed because they felt it was salvageable etc but people mentioned flaring up pretty soon after.

This is the low residue diet: http://www.crohnsforum.com/wiki/Low-Residue-Diet If the blood is from active inflammation this or especially a liquid diet will help with some of the inflammation and may help stop or slow down the blood loss. After surgery it's best to slowly introduce food and eat things that are soft and easy to digest. Ideally you should be able to eat anything at this point after a resection (everyone is different though) but since you have visible blood loss you may want to change your diet until you figure out the cause.