For the last week or so I’ve noticed a tiny bit of blood on the tissue after a bowel movement. It’s not everytime, but did seem to occur more often than not. I mentioned it to my consultant at my check up on Monday and she wasn’t concerned. Today I’ve had more bleeding, but hadn’t had a bowel movement in 3 days after going daily. It was only on the tissue and not flowing out or anything but was more than previously.
Not sure if it’s a)a tear that’s already there b) due to me being much more active over the last 4 days c) my diet hasn’t been examplarary over the last week and I had to strain quite a lot! Or is this the start of another horrible cancer journey?!
Guess I’ll just call my nurse to get it checked out but wondered if anyone else had similar experiences?
I’ve been quite lucky in that I’d not suffered from constipation, just a bit of trapped wind but this is freaking me out!
I think you're probably right that it is most likely to be a little tear. If you hadn't had a bowel movement for three days and then you had to strain, that could cause a little fissure which would show itself to you in the form of a little bit of blood on the tissue after you've wiped yourself. The other possibility is that you might have piles (I know, will the glamour never end?!) as that can sometimes cause this symptom as well.
However, you are absolutely right to get it checked out - even though it's overwhelmingly likely to be one of the things we've both listed, it's a symptom which is continuing to happen for you, so getting to the ... um... 'bottom' of it (sorry!) is just the sensible thing to do. To set your mind at rest and to stop your imagination working overtime, it might be worth being a bit pushy when you ring your nurse, to get them to have a look at you so they can tell you "It's definitetly because of XYZ" rather than them just saying to you over the phone "It's probably because of XYZ", because as we know, 'probablys' don't help set our minds at rest after cancer!
Do your best to keep in mind that it's overwhelmingly likely to be something unthreatening, and get on to them to get it sorted a.s.a.p. so you can stop worrying about it.
Hi Jo - might be a little anal fissure rather than a tear of the bowel. Can happen when you've put a lot of strain on your sphincter and it has certainly happened to me when I've taken my eye off the ball fibre-wise (that's both of us in the TMI club - at least I changed my wording to 'sphincter'!). As Annabel says, it's definitely best to get it checked out.
The bowel thing is a pain in the bum in lots of ways. I find everything is ticking along fine and then I suddently get constipated for no obvious reason. I have stool softeners which work really well, but these days I just keep them as a backup plan (no pun intended). Ususally, by the time I think it might be an idea to take some, I'm bunged up.
My hubby has taken to bringing me back little packets of interesting dried fruit as a little treat when he goes shopping. Ah me, I remember the days when I though it was romantic to receive flowers!
It does feel like the little tear you get every now and again, and I’ve had pop up all my life. But just seeing blood now is like GET ME TO HOSPITAL! Normally I’d think, ahh, it’s ok. It’ll heal. Then forget all about it!
I’m calling my nurse tomorrow to get it checked out. Taken some Lactulose today to keep things nice and smooth so as not to aggravate my little problem.
