I had a BM this morning

Guys. It freaked me out. What madness was this??

But seriously, I presume it was just mucus, although what got me it was brown. This is the first time I've passed anything since the operation 4 months ago. To those of you who still have a rectum, how often do you pass mucus?

On the plus side, at least my rectum no longer feels like it's straining to leave my body and find a new home for itself.

If this was the first time passing anything I'm not surprised it was discolored. I didn't start passing mucus from my rectum until a month after surgery and the first time it was pretty gross.

After I started passing mucus from my rectum, I continued to have mucus pass on a regular basis. Basically my rectum went into a spontaneous remission after surgery, but with the passage of time the inflammation came back and for the rest of the time I had my rectum (about three months) it was flaring. I started off passing mucus on alternating days, then once a day, then twice a day, and eventually it was a few times a day, often after meals (yeah, the perverse logic of the body that even when your rectum isn't connected to anything, eating causes a "BM"). The mucus started out clear, a little brown and gross the first time you like described, but eventually it became blood tinged mucus.

I had a pelvic MRI before my protectomy and that along with the pathology on my rectum after removal both showed severe UC (or UP is I guess the official term). So my experience is not the norm unless you're starting to have active disease in the remaining tissue. I tried treating it with Canasa and sodium butyrate suppositories, but they weren't improving the inflammation and needing to expel the glycerin was making my rectal evacuations much more urgent. If I were keeping the rectum long term I probably would have used some mild topical steroids like proctofoam, but knowing I had surgery coming up my surgeon said it was preferable to have active inflammation than have weakened tissue from recent steroid use.

I'm surprised you went SO long with nothing coming out! My GI was surprised when I didn't pass anything for a full month. Again, even without active disease, you'll probably pass mucus every few days, shouldn't be urgent or painful, just don't fight the urge .

Hope this helps!

I didn't know what was going on and didn't ask for advise. I didn't pass mucus for a long time but knew there was something wrong because of the pain and pressure to defecate. I have my entire rectum, and now 3 years post colectomy, I expel mucus every time I urinate. The consistency and coloration that you and others mentioned is correct with me.

wow silent. sure seems like you should be scoped yearly for dysplasia if you have that rectal stump still in there. that's the protocol in most places in the US.

It is generally recommended that rectal stump get removed if a UCer isn't going for jpouch, because of dysplasia concerns and ongoing inflammation.

I started passing mucus about a week after my surgery. I was watching a movie with my wife when I felt the urge to go, I looked at her and said "I think I need to poop?" I now refer to these BMs as "weird poops".

I generally have a "weird poop" once or twice every day (it seems to have increased as I've tapered my Prednisone from 30 mg to 5 mg - stopping totally this Sunday woohoo!!). It's generally beige/tan and just kinda slips out when I sit down to empty my bag. Sometimes this occurs when I crouch down to inspect plants in my garden although this has been getting a lot better over the past two weeks. I generally don't have any urgency when I feel the need to take a weird poop and most times I don't fight it but I can hold it back and the feeling passes for a few minutes.

Certainly an odd sensation and strange considering it's not hooked up to the rest of my GI tract!

-R

Hi folks.

I was, er, on holiday. Yes, that's it. A holiday.... >_> <_<

Thanks for your replies. My rectum seems to be okay now! I did have a few more BMs, with the mucus becoming progressively paler. I had the urgency that chronielass described (like old times indeed). But I haven't passed anything, or had any pressure, for a few days. Incidentally, I mentioned it to my stoma nurse and she seemed entirely unfazed by it. Just basically said it was normal.

I'm seeing the surgeon next week, and my stoma nurse said she would come to the appointment to 'discuss my bottom'. Heh. In any other context, that would sound seriously weird. Anyway, we laughed about it, but yeah, I do actually want to decide what to do with my bottom now.

As an aside, I wonder why some people produce so much mucus and others don't? My disease was at its worst in the right and transverse colon, so maybe that's why. But then Pro doesn't have much mucus either, so I dunno.