Yellow, oily diarrhea

I am a woman, 72 yrs old.  Have had yellow, oily, diarrhea for 7 months.  Painful cramping, yellow leakage from rectum,  Yellow stools, floating.  Gallbladder removed about 15 yrs. ago.  I am taking Immodium, fiber, some cholesterol resin, but nothing is working.  What is this disorder and how can I be cured?


This discussion is related to chronic oily yellow diarrhea.

[boron]

1. Green, greenish diarrhea is from EXCESS bile in stool.

After gallbladder removal, bile can constantly flow into intestine and being excreted with the stool (which would be green). Bile irritates colon wall, this is the cause of yellowish mucous leakage. Colonic bacteria eat bile and produce gas, this causes bloating.

2. Yellow, pale, "colorless",  diarrhea is from LACK of bile in the stool.

Gallstones may lodge in bile duct and block the bile flow from the liver into intestine. In this case you'd probably feel upper right abdominal pain. Stool would be pale due to lack of bile. More fats would be in the stool, since they couldn't be absorbed due to lack of the bile. These fats may be tested with a "stool fats test".

Another reason for pale stool is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Excessive bacteria eats bile, so this doesn't come into the stool, which is therefore pale.

I'm not sure what color exactly is in your case.