Burning rectal bowel movementsu

Hello everyone this is my first post. I'm am first of all a DS switch weight loss patient. I have lost 260 pounds in 17 months. That would be great but after a ruptured appendix in January I have become basically disabled with pain before during and after bowel movements. I have had a Colonoskopy that found severely redundant and torturous colon. That's really all they found and suspect scar tissue from multiple surgeries. I need help. Drs are pushing me from one to the next. With no answers. I get severe burning like acid during flatulunce and bowel movements. Then I get rectal spasms that last for hours sometimes all day or night. It is traumatic and doctors don't seem to understand it. They did remove my gallbladder but seems even worse. I understand bile diarrhea and cholestyramine helps but makes me constipated. I just want to know if you guys with chrohns go through this. I know they need to do upper gi next and my weight loss surgery was done at small intestine so could be either one. I'm a good guy looking for support. I make notes every night and day when I'm in pain. I'm going on 6 months going to have to try to file disability due to pain. I live on heating pad pain medicine and laying down. Also had a fissure last year but not quite the same pain. I joined because I saw someone with very similar symptoms as myself. I'm hoping u guys can give me a clue what's going on. I do have IBS C and d at times. Nothing is steady except a life of pain. Hope I can find some friends that have gone through this. Thanks! Mike

Hi Mike, and I'm so sorry about all your symptoms and suffering.

Your body has been through a tremendous change with the surgeries and weight loss. It sounds like you're having multiple problems that give symptoms somewhat like we Crohn's sufferers experience. I have a niece who had a ruptured appendix and went through basically the same thing. At one point we thought she might have Crohn's because the symptoms were similar (before her appendix actually ruptured). I'm not sure what "DS switch" means concerning your weight loss, but I'm gathering that you've had a type of weight loss surgery. Any surgery (along with that ruptured appendix) on the GI tract can leave scarring and adhesions which is probably the cause of your pain and other problems. Gallbladder surgery, as you've already stated, can give you problems with bile salts. I've had gallbladder surgery too, and for me, the biles salts problem got better over time.

Hi Mike, I wonder if it's not bile salt acids? If things are running through quickly and not slowing down enough for all the bile salts to be absorbed by your bowel. A bile salt binder ( i can't recall the name) might help.

good luck!

Mike, sorry to hear you are going through all this.  No one should have to go through this.  Most of the symptoms you mentioned may be inflammatory related.   Bile Acid diarrhea may be the result of previous surgeries and removing the portion of intestine that normally recycled the bile so it wouldn't pour into the colon.  Cholestrymine helps me to a certain point but with a stricture (scar tissue) getting bound up is no good because it can easily block up.  Sometimes the bile acid diarrhea is hard to differentiate between inflammation and disease activity as both involve diarrhea, and if you have enough of it, both bile and the inflammatory disease may be irritating to the intestinal tract.

Cholestrymine does not work for everyone, when the inflammation is really bad then usually the anti diarrheal med does not work. 

Of course there are different things that may cause rectal problems, eg..fissures, hemorrhoids etc...but often if there is active inflammation in the intestines, one may present with inflammation in their rectum as well.  Other causes of such symptoms may also be bacterial related.  Has your doctor done tests to rule out bacterial infections?  Hopefully the upper GI series will give you the answers you need.   

Post Edited (dorri) : 8/22/2015 1:37:35 PM (GMT-6)

All I can say is that I understand. When I went to the doctor with my rectal pain, the pain feels much like acid going over a cut. I often tell my Dr. that I have acid diarrhea. When he checks he never seems to see much, yet, it hurts bad. I ask myself why can't he see where it's coming from? But as I have learned from past experience, if there is inflammation further up, it can sometimes feel like it is lower. The only way to view upper inflammation in the small intestines and junction of the large and small bowel is through special tests like Small Bowel Series, CT, camera and so on.