Newbie Here With Concerning Question

Hello Everyone

I am a 31 yr old mother of 5. I had my gall bladder removed in 1995. To start i usually get constipated and least once a month and this month was no different but today I was laying down and suddenly started getting really bad cramping and pain in my stomach and lower back it started on my left side and got progressivly worse through out my whole stomach. I sat in the bathroom for over an hour and was finaly able to go but i was soak and wet with sweat from the pain and cramping the stool was soft and then got liquidy and the pain still persisted for about 3 hrs ... it has finally stopped and the last time i went to the bathroom  it was all blood no stool it was a light maroon color. I have never had this happen before and I'm a little worried any ideas on what i should have my doctor look for.

Given that you have kids, do you ever drink red drinks like Kool-Aid, punch, red fruit juices or cherry fountain sodas? I have definitely found that red drinks will make for red stools (Kool-Aid Tropical Punch being the worst), and it's most noticable when you have only partially-formed stools. Bloody stools are usually dark/black and bloody hemmroids usually bright red (with blood on the toilet paper). If you drink Kool-Aid and you have Kool-Aid colored poop, then it's probably just Kool-Aid. Although colored drinks are the worse, any food that has a lot of red dye in it can do the same thing.

Is your constipation timed to your period? Most of the women on here have some sort of worsening of their IBS when it gets to be "that time of the month". When I was a teen, I always got a bit more constipated right before my period. If you can learn the timing of your constipation, then you might want to try heading it off with some extra fiber, prune juice or aloe vera pills. You might also want to stay away from bananas, cheese and other foods that can worsen or cause constipation.

If this is the only time that you've had this level of pain with a bowel movement after your gall bladder removal, then I wouldn't put you down for IBS just yet (thank goodness, you say!). I've had a few bouts myself of a constipated stool followed immediately by a watery or bile diarrhea stool. If you frequently have stools that are loose or watery with yellow, burning bile in them, then there is medicine out there to help (Welchol). Other than that, I would just chalk this up to a temporary and somewhat random bowel movement caused perhaps, in part, by your lack of gall bladder.

hmm...if you're suspected or confirmed of having IBS you should avoid "diet" everything, the sweetners they use can cause stomach/intestinal irritation, but the blood still has me thinking along the lines of IBD or hemmies (or even both)...I'd be getting to a doc fast.

take care