Black Mucus/Slime ?!

I tell you. If it's not one thing it's another.

I've been having what I can only describe as black mucus intermittently over the last week or so. At first the black mucus came out by itself. Now it seems to be marbled into my stool, and then also shows up on the TP when I wipe. It's not black as in "so dark red it looks black." It is a grey-ish black. And slimy.

It's hard to describe so, as gross as it is, I took pictures. View at your own discretion.

http://imgur.com/a/GrvQc

Is this normal?? Do I need to alert my doctor? Is it just an effect of Apriso?

I'd not worry. Could be something you ate, the suppositories, etc. Interpreting stool color often leads to error and false alarms.

Are you taking any iron supplements? As those can blacken stool.

Solid black stools are suggestive of stomach ulcers, but this isn't that.

I had considered the possibility that it was the suppositories - but the first BM of the day usually doesn't have the black mucus - it's just subsequent BMs - which suggests it is not the suppositories.

I do not take iron.

Quincy - I have BMs 2-4 times a day. While softer than what is normal for me, the are almost always "solid" and formed. The consistency of the stool in the photo is typical. Sometimes it's a bit smoother and snake-like than that (on a good day!).

I'm not sure what changed. It's probably been closer to two weeks now. I've been tapering prednisone, that's all.

I started my period just today. I do think my period makes my intestinal pain a little worse, and my stools a little softer. I know that is normal (though sometimes I forget and wonder what is going on, lol).

Next time I see my doc (in 2-3 weeks) I will ask about the FOBT. I was wondering if it was something I needed to rush to the doctor over and it sounds like it's not. That's a relief. In the last 2 days I developed an anal fissure (yay), so hopefully that clears up before I have to do the test since I imagine the fresh blood from that would cause a "false" positive on the test.

It's funny - I had such a terrible time with anal fissures prior to IBD (large, hard stools). Then I got almost 3 years of relief because I never had a solid stool. Now that I'm getting better and having solid stools for the first time in years - they're back!

Started on 40mg. 30mg for about 10 days, 20 mg for about 10 days, currently on 15 mg for a week, go down to 10 mg on Thursday for a week, then down to 5 mg.

I don't have enough supps to do them twice every day, though I do occasionally do them twice in one day. Also sub in Rowasa about once a week (last time I subbed in Rowasa I actually felt quite good the next day - but with the anal fissure it was insanely painful to insert).

Hi there!

I know this is a very old post - but I just started taking mesalamine suppositories for inflammation in my rectum and have had 2 instances of stool that looks EXACLY like your picture - with black mucous/slime in the stool and sometimes on the paper when I wipe. I never had this prior to the suppositories and it scared the crap out of me.

Just wondering if you ever got to the bottom of what this was?

Thank you so much in advance!

Have the same issue, for what it’s worth, my doctor ordered a fecal cal protection test for me. The stool in which I used for the test had purple/black from mesalamine. The results of the test came back <16 or below their detectable limit. I know the test isn’t looking for blood in stool, but if it were blood I would believe inflammation would be occurring, which this test did not detect going on. Not a perfect answer here, but it helped me.