Rectal Ulceration? Please Help - Bowel Disorders Message Board

sarah5432 · 05-16-2005, 10:02 AM

I'm new here, but have a question and am hoping someone can help me. I had gallbladder surgery almost three weeks ago and then a week after surgery I started having blood in my stools and blood on the toilet paper after wiping. Its been off an on ever since. My surgeon says it has nothing to do with surgery so I went to my family physician who checked me out today. He said it appears to be a rectal ulceration and he has referred me to a specialist.
What does this mean? He says its most likely nothing serious but I have no idea what to expect or what to think. All of this started just under two weeks ago.

I did to go the ER a week ago for rectal bleeding and they checked for hemmroids or a fissure but found neither and sent me home after telling me that my blood count was down a little although it was still in the normal range. I'm completely confused but even more scared because I don't know what to think of all of this.

I do have anxiety as well and this is only making it worse. Has anyone else been through this before? Or have any idea what this could be? What can I expect?
Any help is appreciated....

chigs489 · 05-16-2005, 10:42 AM

despite what the doctor says, I think this is almost certainly connected somehow to the surgery. Perhaps an internal laceration of the small or large intenstine.

I'd like to know how he came up with the "ulceration" diagnosis, considering he doesn't know where the blood is coming from, without doing a colonoscopy.

Is the blood bright red or black?

Have you had any problems like this before? Diarrhea?

The specialist will probably do a colonoscopy to find out what is going on.

sarah5432 · 05-16-2005, 11:01 AM

The blood is bright red and I did have two bouts of diaherea after surgery which was about 3-4 days after surgery and since then my bowel movements have been normal. Not hard or anything because I haven't had to strain to have one either.

I kept asking over and over if it had anything to do with surgery and they've all told me no. That came from the doctor in the ER, the surgeon and my family dr. Its frustrating because I think it does have something to do with surgery as well since I never had this problem before surgery.

Thanks for the reply.