Okay, I’ve known that I have hemorrhoid issues for some time. After being sick (cancer), side issues sent me to a gastroenterologist (sp?) and when I said thatI was getting some blood on the toilet paper, he wasn’t concerned. I did shave a test that involved a huge thingy going up my butt. More fiber was the perscription. This was in '95. Ever since I’ve done two bad things: not enough fiber and reading on the toilet. Every once in a while I’ve described my symptoms to my G.P. and he wasn’t concerned. More fiber. This whole time my main symptom is a little blood on the toilet paper with some stools and not much else. Until last night.
Last night, before going to bed, I sit down for a potential movement, that turns out to merely be gas. Somewhat full-bodied gas, in fact, so I give a quick but firm wipe just in case–since my hand is broken I am skipping showers every other day and I want to keep clean. The toilet paper is wet, so I look at it and it is soaked with rich, cadmium-crimsom colored blood. And I mean soaked. I look down and there is a lot of blood in the bowl. I wipe repeatedly, producing more blood. Finally I get up and get my 8-year old box of prep H. medicated wipes (still moist–what packaging!!) and wipe with that. Still more blood. So I get off the toilet seat and squat down and the quantity of blood coming quickly diminishes and stops with a little applied pressure.
I go to bed with a folded-up piece of toilet paper between my cheeks; it is clean when I wake up.
Where do I stand? Do I need an appointment with the doc. ASAP. Should I just take metamucil daily and try to be quicker on the tiolet? Thoughts.
This is a definate trip to the Doctor. You may have a simple problem like a ruptured varicose vein or a damaged polyp, but you really must investigate, and soon, especially with your medical history.
Wow! You asked for advice and then actually took it. I think that is the first time that has ever happened to me!
Seriously though, even if it is nothing (which it probably is) you will feel much better after you get it checked out. And if it is something (which it probably isn’t) then you will be grateful you got it taken care of earlier rather then later.
The doc chose not to speculate. Since I was lacking other symptoms such as cramps & soreness, and since the blood was such a lovely crimson, his hunch is that it is nothing much. However, he would rather play it safe and not miss something farther up, so I am being sent to a specialist who can do a scope. The specialist’s office is supposed to call me to set an appointment. Silver lining: this specialist is supposed to be a take-the-pill-to-prepare guy rather than a drink-this-nasty-fluid guy. That is a big silver lining.
In the meantime, you really must read McGuane’s novel “The Bushwacked Piano,” which depicts in excruciating, hilarious detail a hemorrhoidectomy procedure gone wrong, performed on one of the characters by his drug-addled, egomaniacal physician. Whatever your own experience may turn out to be, you’ll at least be able to console yourself that it went better than in book.
I hope it goes well.
Well, I haven’t read “The Bushwacked Piano,” but I did get my colonoscopy yesterday. All clear. No hemorrhoids, no nothing. Which confuses me quite a bit.
Dunno about your age, js africanus, but an avm (colonic submucosal arterio-venous malformation) strikes me as a possibility, both because it may bleed bright red blood like stink, and because after it collapses, it’s next to impossible to find.
To date, the specific event that got me to make an appointment has been unique. Still get blood on the tissue once in a while. The procedure was only yesterday, so I figure I should give him a couple days before I start hassling him.
