Stool Shape Size ... What R the Chances?

[cath1024]

Posted 18 January 2007 11:37 AM
Hi everyone,

Im brand new to this board and was wondering if some of you could put my wondering/worrying mind to ease some.

My history in short ... I am 37 and was diagnosed with CD about 20 yrs ago, been off all meds for past 9 yrs until this past summer when i had a nasty flare. Currently taking Cipro, Flagyl and 6mp. and weaned off pred.

3 Ct scans in the summer showed active colitis and multiple fistuals. The dr also told me i have a fissure but i never had any pain and didnt even know i had one.

The past few months i have this worry that I have developed the terrible big "C" because my stool are flat, soft and thin ... does anyone else have this and is it normal for us?

I did have a colonoscopy last Oct 2005 and the 3 CT scans this past summer ... would somehting bad like "C" have shown up then if i had it?

I am taking anxiety pills because i always get myself worked up over every little thing and i always diagnose myself with Cancer of some type.

I have bowel movements about 5-6 times daily never constipated and they are always soft flaky and flat/thin, not paper thin but not cylinder/sausage shape.

I started taking fiber last sunday and i have noticed my stool is a bit more bulkier but still fairly soft and still kind of flat and thin.

am i worrying for nothing? Would it be very unlikely i had cancer of the rectum/colon if i had a colonscopy last year that only showed active colitis?

Thank you so much for any replies!

 

[Nancy Lee]

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you,
but perhaps others will.

We all have some form of bowel disease here, and
I am sure someone will have heard of what
different shaped movements mean.

I'm a worry wart and get worked up as well.
So I know how you must be feeling.
We have to learn to think it may be nothing at all,
especially with your more recent tests,
but best to have things checked out.

Again, welcome to the forum.
Hugs~Nancy

 

[Kev]

Hey cath1024

I can't offer an opinion on your health from the size/shape of your stool... Sounds like a job for your GI.. But maybe I can help with your anxiety over the big C showing up.

When I was a very young fellow (6 going on 7) my mother was diagnosed with the Big C.. And in those days everyone equated it with an automatic death sentence. (I am a real old fart).. In fact, local dr's said they gave my mom less than 6 months

Mom was simply not the worrying type... one of the best que sera, sera attitudes I've ever seen. I don't know if it helped, but over 40 years later she's still going & has outlived at least 2 of the dr's who told her she wasn't going to last the year..

My father on the other hand was a natural born worrier.. Maybe it was due to his being a depression era child.. His father died young (very early 60's) due to the big C.. My Dad never really got over it.. From that point on cancer was his focus.. He read the obits every day, and noted those who died from cancer.. Otherwise he was a barrel of laughs.. but his fear of cancer ate at him on a clearly palpable level. He finally died of it.. Cancer hit and took him in 6 short months.. But that was AFTER he had fixated and worried about it for over 40 years. 40 wasted years of worry... Literally a year to the day after he first became ill, I too became ill. And my symptoms mirrored his to a tee. I began to fixate on cancer myself. Wrote out my will, pre-arranged my funeral, made my baby sister my childrens guardian. Even gave my employer a 'heads up' that I may not be long for this world, just in case.. Then I recalled my moms battle with cancer, and I forced myself to adopt her same attitude.. Way easier said than done.. But I did.. Finally my doctors got the 'right' diagnosis.. Turns out my cancer scare wasn't cancer, it was crohns. Que sera, ...

 

[Dekar]

i've had big C for a LONG LONG time.. used to it. colonoscopy shows no signs of cancer

 

[wildewinde]

Hi,
I too have Crohns and bouts of Colitis. I have had the same thing happen to me that you are describing a couple of times since I started Remicade..I asked the doc about it, and he didn't seem worried.. So I guess it must be part of the deal here.. I kind of looked at it as a blessing, as my normal rountine has just been a lot of redish brown water, and a few floaters of undigested food, or something that looked like a scoop of mashed potatoes, or a worm size product, which disolved almost immediately for the past 10 years.. SO I SAY IF IT IS REMOTELY SOLID>>> CELEBRATE!!! Hope this helps..

 

[ruthymg]

The only thing I could think of that may affect the shape of your stool other than obvious things like the colitis, could be that you may have some narrowing of the bowel somewhere. Don't take this for gospel though. I would certainly have a chat with your doctor to try and ease any concerns you may have. Hope this helps. Oh and welcome to the forum


Ruth

 

[pb4]

I would often get that with myself having crohns-colitis (CD affecting the colon) but for me, taking fibre supplements has helped tons along with cutting out junk foods (refined sugar, processed and fast-foods)...I also found ribbon stool shapes when having proctitis (CD inflammation affecting the rectom).When I get proctitis then I usually go on cortifoam enemas until it subsides....along with proctitis is often the feeling of incomplete bowel evacuation and mucus.

Also with IBS ribbon like stools are also common and there isn't even inflammation involved in having IBS.

 

[ruthymg]

Hi PB4, I was just looking up Proctitis as I used to have the feeling of an incomplete bowel evacuation before I got my fistulas and I don't have proctitis, but just wondered if you knew that recent studies suggest it results from an intolerence to gluten.

Ruth

 

[CanadaCurt]

I get the exact same thing...I have celiac disease as well and I'm not sure what causes it exactly. I asked my GI but he didn't seem worried about it. I too try to consume more fibre and that seems to help.

 

[ruthymg]

Hi Canadacurt, the intolerance to gluten would apply to you then with Coeliacs, that may be why you have proctitis as well or symptoms that appear to mirror proctitis

Ruth

 

[CanadaCurt]

Hi Ruth. Well I don't have proctitis or those symptoms...just the flat stool that the TS was asking about. I have Crohn's in my descending colon.....I haven't seen anything linking Celiac with proctitis..woudl you happened to have a link?

 

[ruthymg]

I saw on the wikipedia site that research has linked proctitis to a gluten allergy and because coeliacs is an allergy to gluten it makes sense that if you have coeliacs you may also have or get proctitis.

Ruth

 

[Brando]

your stools may not be forming properly because the bacteria in your intestinal tract are not breaking down your food properly. i had this same problem for a long time. I started taking probiotics such as lactobacillus acidophilus and other species. It actually made it worse for about 3 days and then my stools formed up nicely and the pain subsided by about 90% within a 2 week time span.