I'm kind of worried about something. For a long time, after I poop, I've had a little bit of blood when I wipe. I never thought much of it since there was never much there... but I just got out of the restroom and on the first wipe, most of it was red. After that, there was a little but not much at all.

I'm kind of worried it might be something bad. I was talking to an internet friend on msn and he said he blames it on bad diet. What do you think?

You didn't include your age, which is an important piece of information. Blood is not normal and is not a result of any diet. It could be a number of things including skin irritation from wiping too hard, hemorrhoids, inflammatory bowel disease, and other things. I think your question is do you have bowel cancer, but it is impossible to diagnose you over the internet. You need to bring this to the attention of your physician. Some tests you could pursue are a colonscopy, flexible sigmoidscopy, blood tests checking for anemia, digital rectal exam, and fecal occult tests checking for blood in stool. Good luck.

My age is 20.

I can't really see a doctor because I have no money and no insurance. That didn't really seem like it was from wiping too hard, it was just a lot of blood on the first wipe. It really doesn't seem like it was a skin thing.

Yilduz:
You NEED a colonoscopy NOW. Go to a GI clinic, and they will work out a payment schedule with you. Many times, clinics in teaching hospitals do it for free. I am assuming that you are in the US?

Please don't let something like money hold you back when your life is at stake. I DON'T mean to scare you. It might be something as simple as a hemorrhoid, OR it could be MUCH more serious. The faster you catch it, the better your odds.

Obviously, you too are concerned, or you wouldn't be visiting us here on the Board. The procedure is really quite painless as they drug you and many times you barely remember the procedure...read the posts... In fact, the most difficult part for MOST people is the prep where you need to clean out your bowels.

Please DO NOT let ANYONE, including a doctor tell you that you are too young to have cancer. My doctor failed to diagnose me presumably because of my age--28 at the time when I began bleeding.

As you can tell, I am VERY PASSIONATE about preventing this disease. It is a disease that is very much underdiagnosed due to patient embarrassment usually, or like in my case, ignorance by the physician because "you are too young." I have heard this MANY, MANY times since my diagnosis with advanced rectal cancer nearly 3 years ago. I am currently in remission, as are many survivors on this Board. But you NEED to act now. :blob_fire

Please don't hesitate to post ANY questions with us on the board. You will find we all have had much experience and are very knowlegeable on the subject. We also are like a family here...providing support, comfort and reassurance and answering many questions you may have. It is up to you though to make that first step and get your butt into a GI clinic (no pun intended) and request a colonoscopy if they don't tell you it's necessary. I know it's difficult, but you CAN do this. ;)

Please let us know when you have an appointment. :)

Regards,
CancerDad :angel:

I wanted to ad that my neice, who is 36, just told me that she has had rectal bleeding for the past few months, and that her doctor did a "scope" and found nothing in her rectum. She is going in for a colonoscopy on August 11. There are many causes for bleeding, other than cancer, but it's still wise to get things checked. Please don't wait too long to do that!

Windy

Hi Windy:
Bleeding of any sort rectally is abnormal and a cause needs to be found. When you say she was "scoped" I'm assuming you are referring to a sigmoidoscopy which only allows the doctor to visualize the rectum and sigmoid areas of the colon in the office. A colonoscopy allows the doctor to visualize the rectum, sigmoid, descending, transverse, ascending, and cecum including the appendix. A polyp can and does grow in many cases in ANY of those areas which can or cannot be cancerous.

So, YOU ARE CORRECT that there are other reasons for rectal bleeding(vigorous wiping, constipation causing small tears, fissures, hemorrhoids, coliitis, among others), but a reason cannot be assumed without first ruling out other causes by conducting a thorough exam via a colonoscopy to be CERTAIN that the blood is not coming from another source higher up. It IS important to reiterate though that there ARE other causes of rectal bleeding. :)

Thanks and Good luck. I hope all is going well. :wave:

Warm Regards,
CancerDad :angel:

I have another thing to add... Lately, I've been having diarrhea a lot and it kind of burns when I do.