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Question for the bleeders?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 10/25/2008 5:49 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Guy's,

this is for those of us that bleed.

Simple put, what was your reaction the first time you had ever seen blood coming from your Anas?

Where you scared? What did you think? What did you do? How much blood do you loss? Is it always within the stool or can it be on its own as well?

Personally, had I had any on at the time, I would have pooped my pants. I was scared beyond control. I still get scared to this day.

Anyone interested in sharing their experiences?

Posted 10/26/2008 12:57 AM (GMT 0)

I was very frightened.  It happened when I was at work (Sheriff Office jail records) and I tried to call my husband at his work (power plant) because I was frightened but I could not remember his work phone number.  I finally called my jail supervisor and was crying on the phone with her, trying to tell her about this problem and that I couldn't get ahold of my husband because I couldn't remember the number or how his company was listed in the phone book.  She came to my office to calm me down and called my husband for me, getting his number from my personnel records.

At the begining of my health problems (end of 2001) I had blood and mucous, but mostly blood.  I do not recall diarrhea, but I was getting blood/mucous every time I 'tried' to go.  It was also accompanied by a terrible smell, it smelled rotten and I had only smelled that smell once before; late 1999, early 2000 my aged horse had a weepy eye (blood and yellow 'stuff', possibly serum) that smelled awful.  Took him to the vet to learn it was an aggressive cancer in the soft tissue of his face, so I opted to euth/bury before the cancer could ravage him.  I had owned/ridden him for 18 years and he was 29 years old, so I know I'd given him a good, long life and was making the best decision for him.

Of course, Husband and I were very scared.  I was diagnosed between xmas and New Year's day, so appointments were fairly far apart before we could get definitive answers to our concerns.  The only medical thing I had to go on, was my horse's cancer and how its' smell was the same as the odor from what I was excreting from my butt. 

Of course, we were sent to specialists who gave us the best information they had and we were able to stem the tide of panic we had been floating on.  I eventually got used to the blood and it didn't worry me, though I kept track of it and it's amounts.  It was never what I would call plentiful, though it was almost always present in small amounts.  I haven't had bleeding for quite some time, though I would occasionally get some spotting.  It doesn't alarm me now, but in the beginning?  I was a gibbering mess.

Heidi

Posted 10/26/2008 1:40 AM (GMT 0)
The first time I saw blood was when I was about 15 and was too embarrassed to say anything pertaining to those kinds of problems so I kept silent and did nothing about. It disappeared for a little while and began to come back intermittently now and then but most prevalently when I was 19(about two months before I was diagnosed). I wasn't too terribly afraid initially since I had no idea what it could be, but once I began looking up potential ailments I became extremely frightened. Needless to say I cried quite a bit those days. I called the doctor about two or three months after when I was finally too weak to do anything and could not eat so...perfect timing too since it was right at the end of the Spring semester.
The moral of this story I think is to swallow your pride and let someone know what is going on and/or call the doctor immediately. It can't hurt to jump the gun these cases I think, but it definitely did to do the opposite in my own case.
Posted 10/26/2008 3:52 PM (GMT 0)
I was scared the first time I saw blood, but since it started light, I wasn't frantic. I told my fiance who said it was probably a hemorrhoid, but insisted I go to the doctor anyways. Well, I put off going to the doctor out of fear of the exam, but when the bleeding continued for 2 weeks I finally made an appointment with my internists. She (in spite of me explaining other symptoms like bloating, pain, etc.) said it's probably just a hemorrhoid but just in case she gave me a referral to a GI doctor. I waited a few more weeks, bleeding continued, so I finally called the GI. Right away he suspected either celiac, UC, or Crohn's, put me through the whole gamut of tests, and here i am!!
Posted 10/26/2008 4:21 PM (GMT 0)

I was terrified the first time I saw blood.  That was, however, how I was diagnosed.  My symptoms always present with blood, one way or the other.  My first fear was cancer.  I had never heard of Crohn's or Colitis!  (Weird because it turns out that my dad had proctitis for several years when I was very young, but I'd never known.) 

Anyway, sometimes I bleed with mucous.  Sometimes I bleed with stool.  And, sometimes I just lose straight blood.  I've lost quite a bit a couple of times.  Once I guessed it at about 4-6oz and once I required 3 transfusion bags and was still a pint short.  (that was my hemorrhage that sent me to ER, I could hardly walk I was so weak from blood loss!  I even passed what the doctors guessed were clots the size of a shelled walnut.)  The 4-6 oz I was told is not a problem so long as it did not continue as it did the second time.  Little amounts of blood with mucous don't bother me now, it's par per course.  Straight blood always scares me.

Posted 10/26/2008 4:23 PM (GMT 0)
I was scared but I suspected Crohn's instantly even though I was praying it wasn't. My cousin was getting diagnosed with Crohn's when my symptoms started so I kind of thought that was where I was headed. I called my GP and went through the whole testing, being referred to a GI and finally offically dx 5 months after my first symptoms.

When I'm flaring, passing blood and mucos is very normal for me. My GI doesn't even flinch anymore when I mention blood.
Posted 10/26/2008 6:22 PM (GMT 0)
I was scared and would get sick to my stomach every time I saw it. When I would tell my mom, she would tell me that it was probably just hemoirds so I never went to the doctor. This went on for a few years. Well 8 years ago I got deathly ill and had no choice but to go to the doctors. It took them 3 months to figure out what was wrong with me. As the weeks were going on, the sicker I was getting. I was bleeding, dropping weight fast, couldn't eat, could barely walk to the point I was almost in the wheelchair....It was awful. I finally had a scope and landed in the hospital right after it for a week. That's when I found out what I had. Now when I see it, I just think to myself "Oh no here we go again". I still get a little scared but at least now
I know why it's happening.
Posted 10/26/2008 6:36 PM (GMT 0)

Hi Guy's, WOW! It sound like many of us went through the same thing. Good thing is that you guys have found the cause and are having it dealt with. I am curretly still undegoing tests, however, doctors seem sure that it is chrons.

I hate the site of blood. It is so scary. My wife freaks eerytime that she sees it coming from me, for me it is becoming par per course.

It is strange that the first thing everyone thinks of is Cancer. It shows how under educated we are when it comes to conditions of the Colon.

Posted 10/27/2008 10:01 AM (GMT 0)
did not worry me, my dr warned me when i was first diagnosed.. then as time went by i got used to it. i have had 3 hemoraghes in the last 20 years. even that did not scare me as much as everyone else. you willknow if this ever happens cause it will be all blood in the bowl, it will be either black or deep purple and it will stink like heck. blood has a terrible odor for a reason its to make you get help. or notice that your bleeding. even if you cut yourself if theres a signifigant amount of blood it will smell. i dont know if its the blood itself or the clotting cells or plasma or what but its there. this last time last month i had to have the spot lasered to stop it, the two times before that it stopped on its own while in the hospital and getting blood. i think they put in extra clotting stuff for that.
Posted 10/27/2008 12:01 PM (GMT 0)
thought it was a hemmie from working out too hard, been doing it for years before dx
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