Hi -

Quick question for you, this is gross but I want to know what you think. I am having some weird bowel movements. They are regular and all, but the stool is usually quite thin and can be painful at times, not always. It seems as though I move more thin stool pencil or ribbon like stool instead of less larger chunks if you will. Sometimes there is a little pain after or during wiping with a little bit of blood, not always. I only get the blood if I force it or go more than twice in a day. I do not seem to have any other pain. I thought maybe this was because of my drinking, but I have not had anything in 40 days or so, and the condition still is there. When I saw the doctor for the liver tests, he put his hand where it did not belong and said I had a fisher, but I was bleeding a lot more than. I do not move any blood only or anything like that and I do not have diarrhea. I have a good diet and eat fruit everyday, should I supplement with something. I have read that this may be IBS - Irritable bowel syndrom and there is nothing to do about it. Or does one get a colon check at 33? I will tell you right now, that my ass is like a pay phone at the mall - "outgoing calls only" so don't tell me to go.

I don't want to scare you or anything dude, but that is also a symptom of colon cancer. I realize you don't enjoy having things inserted into your < ahem >, private place (and more sympathetic I could not be) BUT go to your Gastro doc, tell him EXACTLY what you've just written here, and get a colonoscopy.

If for nothing else, do it for peace of mind. Also, in the unlikely event that it is colon cancer (heaven forbid), realize that when caught early the patients outlook is very, very good.

Call your Dr. today, and get yourself taken care.

You do need to go to a gastro doctor and have a colooscopy performed. Ribbon stools and blodd can both be caused by an obstruction such as a tumor or hemmrhoid. Or you could have IBS. The best thing to do is to go to a gastro and get it checked out. Your age does make your chances of colon cancer low but you still need to rule it out along with other diseases. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hi buzz_saw,

The symptoms you are describing are the exact symptoms I first had when I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This was 7 years ago. Now, thinking back, I believe that I didn't eat a very good diet. I am now being treated by a nutritionist/doctor, who thinks that my problem is a result of the intestinal lining being leaky. My diet now consists of 4 vegetable servings/1 fruit serving per day. (Especially green leafy vegetables are supposed to be very healing). Additionally, I am staying away from sugar, flour, milk products, to some extent starches. I am also taking probiotics to make sure that no bad microorganisms are taking foothold within the intestinal lining. Maybe you won't need such a drastic diet, but since you are/could be in the beginning stages of IBS, you may want to consider seeing a nutritionist to rectify the problem before it gets worse.

My biggest mistake was to trust in conventional medicine, and use medications for years, which made me extremely ill. I hope that by sharing this with you, you can avoid the path I took.

Just to make sure that it isn't anything more serious, have your doctor test your stool for blood.