Gassy Stools and Bleeding

[cnative]

Good morning,

For about three weeks, I've had fairly significant changes to my bowel habits. There is blood in my stool which is generally bright red, and my stools tend to be very gassy and pass partially formed, and partially as diarrhea. The color of the stools is a light, reddish brown (notwithstanding the occasional bright red blood on the surface).

The symptoms coincided with a change in work schedule and an accompanying change for the worse in my diet and exercise habits, which consisted of an awful lot of meat and fast food, sodas, very little water, virtually no fiber, and no exercise (I previously worked out four days a week) over a period of about three months. I abandoned this awful diet only about a week ago.

I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy next week and my doctor says the cause of the bleeding is most likely internal hemorrhoids since his initial exam found no blood in the rectum past 16cm. I've been placed on suppositories pending the colonoscopy.

My question, though, is about the cause of the gassy, partially-formed, partially-diarrhea stools. Is it just my previously poor diet working its way through my system? I have no nausea, vomiting, weight loss, faintness, fatigue, or pain that I've read would accompany a GI infection, Crohn's disease, Diverticulitis, malabsoprtion [sic?], and other GI issues. I feel healthy as a horse - I just have these strange stools.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

-Chris

[LivingInHope]

Looking back at what I said, realized it might not make sense on that last part- I meant frequent passage of unformed stools might also aggravate hemorrhoids, besides if you had hard stools passing due to dehydration.  

[B_Shel20]

Stress can cause gassy stools. You stress out, and your digestive system reacts to it. Some people get diahrea, others gas. Enough gas, and it gets mixed with the stools(Where you actually see bubbles coming to the surface.)

Keep us updated on the colonoscopy results. Im sure itll end up being internal hems.

[LivingInHope]

I suspect your change in diet could have something to do with your GI tract reacting with gas and the lack of fiber with stools not fully formed.  Good you are getting the blood issue checked out!  Soda is dehydrating I've heard and with very little water, that could tend to make your stools harder and aggravate hemorrhoids, as well as frequent passage of unformed stool.