Blood :(

Penny,

Do you have any other symptoms besides the blood? You should try not to strain with the BM. There is a little bit of the rectal cuff left in place to connect to the j-pouch; that can get inflamed and is the most likely cause of the blood. It is caused Cuffitis and is usually easily treated with a suppository. Give your GI a call.

Many of the inflammation symptoms (pouchitis and cuffitis) that we get with J-pouches are much easier & quicker to treat than when we had UC and are usually isolated events than do not occur too often.

Penny,

If it is a 1-off thing then you might just want to wait but if you are having ongoing issues then contact your GI.

Sometimes the color of my bm changes with what I eat or drink; like if I drink a Red Gatorade then it comes out red which freaked me out the first time.

Are you going for yearly scopes of your pouch since you had cancer?

Thanks for getting back to me, Keith.

I would definitely like to get scoped yearly, too, but the system here is a bit complicated where they won't scope unless I have a symptom of some sort, but they do run blood tests and do a CT every 6 months.

I was under my GI's care while I had UC, and when he found the cancer during a colonoscopy, he had to refer me over to this hospital that had an IBD department so that they could operate on me. I've been under the surgeon's care ever since, but the hospital is a government-run one so I think they try to budget. The surgeons preferred that I just stick with them but my GI was worried so he asked to see me once in 3 months or so. He has taken very good care of me and I'm very appreciative.

I did go to the surgeon's today and as expected, none of the IBD surgeons were there so a regular colorectal surgeon saw me. I explained the situation and he said the same. It's only a one-time thing where a blood clot came out so he doesn't think it's anything that needs any urgent care, but he did check my bum and told me that the passage was very narrow. I actually have an appointment with an IBD surgeon on August 3rd so hopefully I can discuss the issue with them.

Hi Marianne :)

Thanks so much for your feedback.

Yes, I'm very positive it was a blood clot. The smear on the toilet paper was also blood. You're lucky you can handle watermelons! I llloooovveeee watermelons but every time i have some, I get pouchitis-like symptoms and the urgency just comes along with it. Love that stuff, though. I stay away from it now :(

I did see a surgeon today and he said it's not anything to worry about now but that my rectum passage was very narrow.