I'm a 19 year old and I recently started taking Metamucil about 4 days ago to aid my symptoms of ibs. Its been working great as I no longer have the stool consistency ranging from pebbles to logs. However, I have noticed that my stools have contained red tissue looking material (best way to describe it--not tissue paper but bodily tissue) the stools are soft and when broken apart it is stringy and floats away by itself as it doesn't seem to be part of the stool. What is this red stringy tissue like stuff in my stool, any cause for concern and has anyone else had anything similar to this? I've noticed this too about a year ago also when I was either getting over or suffering from an IBS flareup but it went away to best of my knowledge.

Also might mention that part of my stool was green. Green stools started at the end of the previous bowel movement and only a small portion of this one was green. I was told this was due to the bowel not being caught up to the quickened digestive process due to the Metamucil and it goes away shortly. Any truth to that?


[This message has been edited by martin922 (edited 08-01-2003).]

Martin,
Metamucil not only bulks up your stool it acts like a cleaner of the folds and pockets in your colon. So, give it several weeks and I think your problems will go away.

Let us know if they don't---Harry

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. Truth be told the only reason I even decided to go on Metamucil in the first place is from reading this board, and since then the constipation and bloating that I was experiencing has gone away. I'll let this stuff run its course and clean out those dark and gritty folds in my intestines that have been building up for the last 19 years.

Also, since you describe it as 'stringy' it might very well just be mucus. Normally mucus is not red, but if for some reason you had excessive mucus in your bowels and like Harry said it got 'cleaned out', it might have a bit of tissue in it as well, or blood. But if it is blood then I doubt it's a serious sign of anything in this case...I don't know where I'm going with this =P

Basically what I'm trying to say is that anytime you make a change in your diet, especially regarding fiber, your body has to get used to it and you may see some changes, usually which are not a problem.