Rectal Bleeding

[M.]

I'm a 31-year-old female with no known family history of colon cancer. I've been experiencing bright red rectal bleeding with bowel movements, but not consistently. I could go 1 or more months in between episodes. Sometimes it's just a little blood, and sometimes it's a substantial amount. Actually, I can remember having this happen when I was even a teenager, intermitently. With all the publicity being given to colon cancer, I'm really scared that I may have it. It seems every time I turn around there's another news story about this cancer. What are the risk factors for someone my age for colorectal cancer? Should I see my family doctor, or should I make an appointment right away for a colonoscopy?

[Cathy]

my story continues... By the grace of God, we both survived. I had weighed 103 when I got married and 96 the day I had my baby and 63 the next day. They diagnosed me with ulcerative colitis and sent me home after two months with taking 28 pills a day. My older brother has colitis. That's where they diagnosed that, along with doing exploratory surgery when they took my baby.I was ok for almost a year. I never could gain much of my weight back and still bled a little,was always very weak and under alot of stress. In October, the following year I had to have surgery. They gave me a temporary iliostomy. It never worked and I was always in the hospital. This lasted for another year. I had another surgery to remove it and they had built a J-pouch previously for me to see if that would help. I always had to be near a bathroom and was tube fed because of nutrition needs. I had to go so much I had to have a bedside commode. I wound up sleeping on it with my head laying on the bed. That's how bad it got.I was still bleeding, clots so big they looked liked pancakes. They then put me in a so called halfway mental ward because I was too sick to go home but not sick enough to be on a regular floor. They said I was anorexic because I couln't keep my food down. Boy, did that make me mad!! Had to sign a contract that said if I ate 10 bites of food and kept it down I could interact with other patients. Three days later I was in Intensive care. To make a very long story shorter, I wound up having 5 surgeries and have an iliostomy. I have only 6 feet of small intestines and after my last surgery I was finally diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I went through so many tests that it was not funny. MRI's (5 or6),Proctoscopes, CATSCANS, I even had a disease specialist to test me nuclearly for any unknown diseases. Upper and Lower GI's any kind of tests you can think of but nothing showed up. I was in the hospital 1 1/2 years out of three. It has taken a long time, 16 years later I have finally gained 10 pounds and kept it on. I BEG ALL OF YOU TO BE TESTED AND DON'T GIVE UP UNTIL YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE.

[Cathy]

To anyone out there who is bleeding, it is imperative that you see a Dr. immediately. If you don't have insurance, there are hospitals with clinics for those who can't afford to pay.
I have had Chron's disease for 17 years now. Mine started out with my stools having a lot of mucus in it and having to go to the bathroom after I ate. I then noticed a couple of times that it looked like a chewed up apple with blood in it. I went to the doctor and he didn't want to give me the kind of examination I needed because he thought I was too young. He said I had a small cut on the inside of my rectum and gave me some steroid cream to insert. That seemed to help a little. I got married and became pregnant three months later. I had the flu early on and I became really weak. Three months after I became pregnant, I started bleeding again and having abdominal cramps. Went to dr's many times and they sent me home and said to eat plenty of milk and vegetables and that it was just hemmoroids. I was really constipated at that time and they put me on every kind of laxative there was. My stools were black and I would almost pass out from loosing so much blood. I would also run a fever of 105 every evening at the same time and could only find releif from pain from  being on my hands and knees and rocking back and forth. My mother would give me tylenol and take me to the hospital and they would send me back home. I didn't have a fever when I got there. One day I was in so much pain and my fever was high that my mom called the dr and he said not to give me any pain medicine and to bring me in. I fought like a tiger! I was not going back to the emergency and wait for hours and they send me back home again. My husband had to literally drag me to the car. I got there and my fever was 106. I had lost so much blood that my baby didn't have enough oxygen to breath. I was given 2 or 3 pints that night and then I started having diarhea really bad and couldn't hold it. They admitted me and I was in there two months. They had to finally take my baby at 27 weeks so they could treat me. Only one of us had a 50/50 chance of making it.

[Bert Nosnum]

Can eating tomatoes give your stool the appearance of having blood in it?  I ate a sandwich last night with tomatoes on it and my stool this morning had red spots in it.  It wasn't streaked through it but appeared almost like chunks within the stool.  I have diverticulosis and have always feared getting cancer.  Any ideas?

[lori]

Water, Water, Water. Drink it.Lots of it. Cut the junk food and eat lots of fiber.Most of you will feel better. Good Luck.

[MY Jenkins]

I am 35 years old and have had the same type of problem over the last 4-6 months.  I just had a colonoscopy to ensure that this was not colon cancer.  I was diagnosed with internal hemmorhoids and told to eat alot of fresh fruits and veggies and keep my stool soft.  I was glad to hear that, but still have problems with seeing this bleeding from time to time especially because I've always kept my stool soft.  I am not sure if you've seen a doctor, but I definitely recommend getting a colonoscopy.  My aunt, actually my father's aunt, died of colon cancer because she did not check out her rectal bleeding.  Better safe than sorry and if you tell the doctor that you have history of cancer in your family, the insurance will definitely cover it.  Hopefully, the insurance will cover it anyway.  Good luck.

[Kamont]

i am a teenage male,experiancing rectal bleeding. This just started, but one week before this starting I had a hard time getting a stool out. This may have caused some strain on me, could that be a cuse of this? Te rectal bleeding started when I had a bowel movement,but I could not go. I had a feeling of pain and then bleeding as I tried to stop the stool from exiting me. Again, just as last week the stool is hard and painful, but this time bleeding occurs before it even leaves my body. And it hasn't left. What could be the cause of this?