Depressed beyond belief. 5 days ago I found some blood on my toilet paper after a bowel movement. I had a massive panic attack. I also have an ongoing history with depression and panic attacks. I have no medical insurance. I tried to schedule an appointment with a gastro doc but would not take me without insurance unless I paid for a colonoscopy up front. I decided to go to a hospital free clinic. The doctor there talked to me, did an exam only on the outside of the rectum to look for external hemorrhoids and didn't find anything but concluded they must be on the inside. Took some blood and urine and ran tests on them and concluded that it was hemorrhoids prescribed metemucil an some suppositories. No physical exam was given. How much faith to put into a blood test? Had some protein in the urine which he seemed concerned about but didn't think it had anything to do with my complaint. I've had 5 bowel movements since and no blood although it was odd to see that there remained some spinach I had eaten which had gone through without being digested. I have no clue if that's uncommon or not. I'm not accustomed to examing my stool until this happened. I've been majorly depressed since this occured and have lost my appetite although that is getting slighly better. I have for several months now also felt a soreness/fullness type feeling in my rectum which has come and gone and also a burning sensation which gets worse after a bowel movement. I can still feel the soreness/fullness and am now feeling some lower back pain and very odd little ripples and spasms in my abs area. The doc did set me up with an appointment to see a specialist to follow up but that's not in almost 2 months. Don't know if I can go that long with all of this on my mind. It's hard for me to not think this is the beginning of the end for me. I can't even believe I'm dealing with this. I'm 32, male. Please God help me, I don't want to die. : (((((

Hello

I am by no means qualified to give advice. I can only give you my personal experience. I too noticed a bit of blood on the toilet paper last week but it hasn't happened since. I spoke to my Dr on Friday and he said that if it happens again I have to go and see him on the day it happens if possible so he can see where it might be coming from. He also said the brighter red the blood, the better. I also felt very scared because I lost my Mum to bowel cancer.

I am not sure how the medical system works over is the states as I am from Australia. Surely if your Dr thought it was serious he would get you some help immedately? You have done the right thing by getting checked out. I know how easy it is to think the worst...but by thinking the worst, our mind can play havoc with our bodies. I am not saying that it is in your mind at all, but I know that some of my 'symptoms' eased after I had spoken to the Dr.

I wish you well and hope that you will find peace soon. I am not sure which course of action you should take as I am not qualified and only new here myself but you have done all the right things so far. If you can not get an appt earlier please try to relax until then. Cross bridges when you get to them.

http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/angel.gif

The doctor is right in making the decision that it is hemorrhoids. If your blood work had come back abnormal indicating blood loss they would have looked farther but since your blood came back fine it is quite safe to assume you have an internal hemorrhoid. That would be why you feel the fullness and burning sensation after a BM. That is the inflammed hemorrhoid telling you it is inflammed so to speak. You need to use the metamucil 1-3 times daily until you get your bowels regulated. Use the suppositories to ease the infammation. Do not sit on the toilet for more than 5-10 minutes max and do not strain with your BM's. Increase your fluid intake as well as your natural fiber and be sure to get plenty of exercise. These suggestions will help prevent further hemorrhoids from developing.

I thought metamucil (sp?) GAVE you diarrhea? or does it take away diarrhea? im confused, i also have this burning when i make a BM.. and i am SO scared.. i also have a had diarrhea for a long time, and a couple times blood.. im only 14.. and what is a hemorrhoid? is it serious?

[This message has been edited by Xanthic411 (edited 08-07-2002).]

Metamucil bulks up your stool thereby making is easier to pass or in the case of diarrhea is gives it some bulk aka form. It is good for both constipation and those with chronic diarrhea. Anytime you have diarrhea for more than a day or two it should first be checked out by the doc to be sure you don't have some sort of infection or other treatable cause for it. Once checked by the doc go ahead and add Metamucil to your daily routine as well as yogart with live active cultures or acidophillus capsules. Your sore behind is most likely caused by your diarrhea. As for hemorrhoids.........those are essentially varicose veins of the rectum either internal aka inside or external aka outside.

Hey I understand how you feel and it seems as if your whole world is topsy-turvy when you are constipated. Things that I try that have helped me in the past are:

1. Prune juice (nasty but works) for quick relief but I had to learn to do things consistently so that I wouldn't need to drink prune juice as a quick fix. I knew that I needed to be regular.

2. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables (make sure you eat your green veggies and plenty of it. Or atleast as much as you can)

3. Staying away from rice, pastas, breads and junk foods (they only made things worse for me). I still eat them, just not as much as I used to.

4. Drinking water, water and more water. I used to get so tired of drinking water because I was a soft drink girl, but now I find myself drinking it all the time even when I go out to restaurants because now I don't feel right if I don't drink loads of it. You know that they normally recommend 8-8oz. glasses a day. I know that it sounds like alot but if it will help.... DRINK IT.

5. Learning to be consistent with eating fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. What I used to do is eat or drink just enough of the good stuff to get myself going again and then fall back into the same rut of eating a bunch of mess. I had to learn to be CONSISTENT because being constipated is no joke.

6. Adding fiber supplements if/when necessary. I usually take a fiber supplement daily because it's just that FIBER. It's not a laxative and you shouldn't form a dependency. It just helps to have that extra fiber...it certainly can't hurt.

7. When I do need that extra umph...I usually take a herbal laxative, cascara sagrada and that works as well. It's very, very mild and gets the job done.

8. You may want to try going to a health food store and get something to cleanse yourself. Start from scratch and then keep a monitor of what you put into your system.

9. I also try to keep a daily log of what I eat including snacks because I don't always know what it is that triggers me being constipated. That way I can back track figure out what I ate around the time it started to happen and try to weed whatever it is out of my diet.

10. You may want to try and stay away from those soft drinks but if you find that you can't try to double in water what you drink as far as soft drinks and that may help to balance things out a little. If you drink 8 oz. of a soft drink make yourself drink atleast 16 oz of water. This is just something that I make myself do so that I can keep myself on track.

11. Try to exercise as much as you can because that helps to keep things moving. I used to think that folks just said that, but it really works.

12. Try drinking green tea and you may want to try getting it from one of the asian health stores or somewhere like that because the others that you buy from the regular supermarket is just not the same.

13. Don't sleep on your vitamins. Take your vitamins DAILY. I take a multivitamin daily and it gives me what I may be missing out on when I haven't eaten enough of the good stuff. But it's not a substitution.

13. Buy apples, prunes, raisins and whatever has helped you in the past and keep them in your home and if you can keep some at work too!

14. Try to find out about everything that's high in fiber and go for it!

Those are things that have helped me and I hope that they can help you as well because as I said before being constipated can mess up your whole world. If I think of anything else I'll let you know. Take care and good luck to you.

What about an anal fisure (i think that's how you spell it). I was diagnosed with one of those a while back and when i had a bowel movement i had blood in the toilet and on the paper. just wondering because i know how doctors can misdiagnose stuff. But anal fisures are not harmful, they are just tears in the anal. good luck to you