Sudden onset bloody stool

I am a 35 y/o male.
I had a sudden onset of bloody stools.  The blood is bright red, and seems to partialy cover the feces.  There seems to be a fairly good amount of blood on the stool and on the toilet paper.  I have no pain, and have not been constipated.  I have no cramping, no feelings of incomplete voiding, and can pass flatulence.  I am rather worried since I work in the medical field and a little medical knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  I also dont want to be a hypercondriac. Please advise.

[teacher_lady]

If you have bloody stool, call your doctor now. You may need to go to the ER.

[Morecambe]

I agree with the previous posting - rectal bleeding is never normal and should always be investigated.  You could type in rectal bleeding to google/yahoo etc and you will find numerous postings that describe the causes/symptoms/treatment of rectal bleeding so that you are better informed when you discuss the matter with your doctor.

As teacher-lady suggests, if the bleeding is severe (more than ~ 200 mls on one occasion) then I suggest you regard this as an emergency.

regards
Morecambe

[dragojeff]

I had similar experience a month ago. It most likely was a Ceasar salad and not the steak from Outback! Only difference is I had pain and waves of cramps in lower stomach that kept getting worse each day..and on the 7th day I was in hospital. Although e-coli was not confirmed, doctor said it was most likely food poisoning. I hope you have made it to emergency...as I became quickly dehydrated and was passing more and more blood and became weak and worn out trying to fight things on my own. THANK GOD, the anti-biotics-(cipro) cleared up the bleeding in 4 days, but the doctor would not let me take them any longer (I assume because they are concerned that overuse of antibiotics will stregthen this particular bacteria.)

It has taken me 4 weeks to recover my strength, and I still have to be gentle with my digestive system. I'm eating applesauce, rice, soups and yogurt and taking enzymes for the last month. Between the food poisoning and the anti-biotics my digestive system had shut down. You have to restart it...sort of like my compost pile:)..and unfortunately the docs do not give you alot of advice on how to do this sort of thing effectively.