be

hey folk,
its been just over a year since i joined the club.

most days i have a small amount of pinkish blood discharge from the rectal stump,
i was at a doctor (to get a mole checked) yesterday and related this,
mentioned i was feeling fine taking pentasa daily etc but he seemed to
think it shouldnt happen and referred me to a gastroenterologist.

whilst i'm happy that a mucous discharge is normal, is the blood discharge
also normal, a year later?

the other thing that suprised me was he said that just because i've had
most of my bowell removed i was not necessarily immune to bowell cancer.
granted i didnt expect to be immune, but i expected ileostomates would
definitely be in the minority for bowell cancer?

any comments appreciated.

ron gould

Hi--
I wonder if he meant that you could still get cancer in the Rectal
Stump.

When I chose to have mine removed along with my ileostomy, the Surgeon
mentioned that I could never have cancer of the bowels, because he had just
removed the rectal stump also. He explained that *now* there was nothing
left where I could (future) have gotten bowel cancer.

Maybe s/he was thinking of the short rectal stump that you have left?

Best---
Ron

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kristen313@aol.com

Hi,
I had my total colectomy with ileostomy in 1994. Beginning as early as when I
got back to my hospital room after surgery, I had bloody, mucousy drainage that
never went away. I did the rowasa enemas but they never worked. It became so
bad I even occasionally had 'accidents'. (How embarrassing!!!) I ultimately
had a proctectomy (rectum removed) in 2000. I should have had it sooner, I
guess, but to me that made it absolutely definite I would never be able to get
rid of the ileostomy. Oh, well, I am no longer sick all the time, and I'm
alive!
Kristen

be

i've had such a bad run with doctors over the years being treated
for everything from piles to low blood pressure without anyone finding
that i had crohns until after my ileostomy, it wouldnt suprise me if
this doctor was referring to my toe nails.

when i look at the laboratory reports, from my time in hospital
immediately after surgery, of the section removed and see that it says
"acute appendicitis" i give up and just think myself lucky that i survived
the surgery.

thanks for the comments Ron & Kristen313 they give me confidence that
there isnt anything wrong with a bit of blood.

i agree that it doesnt take much for that little stump to fill!

cheers
bruce

dcrim@webtv.net (bch

Had rectum removed at time of ostomy surgery...not a drop has come out
since.

Susan

martin obrien

Well, this doesn't help you out much, but thought it was sorta
connected:

When I got home from my procto-colectomy in January '96, I had a few
visits from a home nurse, to make sure I was recovering properly,
since I ended up being inpatient for over 3 weeks with complications,
caused mainly by gastric ulcers developed post-op. (They wouldn't let
me eat until my nasogastric tube stopped draining, which would stop
draining when my stomach/small bowel started "working again". That
didn't happen cause of the ulcers. They thought I had adhesions or a
blockage, and didn't figure out the ulcers until I puked up a big
blood clot.)

I mentioned to the nurse that I had a little brownish drainage
staining my underwear, she basically said that it was normal for me to
have drainage from my rectal stump, until they did the reconnect
(anastamosis). When I told her I had a PROCTOcolectomy, she made me
get a checkup. Turns out, a few of the stitches from the proctectomy
had popped. It took about 6+ months of twice daily (morning/evening)
nursing visits, packing the wound with gauze, for it to totally heal
and close up...

-Martin O'B