Dh and Bleeding (Poss TMI)

[Yoshie]

I am needing some help, dh has had bleeding from his back passage for over two years now. He has been referred twice to the bowel specialist to no effect first time they said piles second time blamed his diet. He has made a concious (?sp) effort to change his diet he now eats plainly cooked meat or fish fruit and veg 5x a day, wholegrain rice or pasta the rare occasions that he does eat it. He has been back to the gp and asked to be referred but there is a really long waiting list. The bleeding is now occuring 5/7 days a week, after it happens dh normally ends up on the couch as he is too weak to move. No one has taken any blood as he has a severe phobia of needles.
Don't really know what i am after here just maybe some ideas as to what is causing this.
Thanks

Could it be colitis? Dh has it and wil bleed from the same area if things are bad. Does he get cramps in his stomach?

He doesn't really get cramps. I am just getting concered regarding the amount of blood he is losing. Normally going to the toilet is the catalist for it to start but now it is happening so frequently it can start on its own.

It could be severe piles but that would not necessarily cause weakness, though he could be severely anaemic

I have Crohn's and that can cause bleeding but also would be accompanied by bad diarrhoea, pain etc. Does he have that?

There is no diarrhoea or not that he has told me. Also i forgot to say he has had a rectal endoscopy done and that ruled out piles and any infamation and the doctor at the hospital said it was down to poor diet and to go on a diet (no other advice was given) he went to the gp back in august and the twit told him to get on and deal with it and that it was just one of those things!

Dh was given the same advice at the hospital when he was told he had colitis. Crap information and not much use to anyone. My BIL is a doctor and I have nothing against the good ones, but sometimes they forget that people are living with the complaint 24 7 and not just when they walk into the hospital or GP surgery.

Totally agree, it can be hard when your on holiday having to cut your day short so the other half can spend two days solid on the toilet or the day after you got married because he ate dinner in a restarant he had to spend the day on the couch with severve blood loss and shooting pains in his legs.

in a word, change your GP or at least get a second opinion. There are GPs in each area who develop 'special interests'. If you ring your local primary care trust they may be able to point you in the direction of a GP with that special interest and then you can request the second opinion from that GP. Hopefully they will then put pressure on the hospital to see him quicker.

In the meantime, if it's getting worse and he's on a waiting list get on the phone and tell the secretary how much worse it's getting and keep phoning. After working for the NHS I'm afraid to say that a lot of the time it's he who shouts the loudest gets seen the quickest.

He also really does need to be going to someone to talk about the fatigue after the blood loss. I don't want to scare you but severe anaemia can be very serious and he needs to be treated if it is that.

Thanks liquidclocks, this is the other gp practice in my area that last one we left after worse advice and a few other issues. My main problem seems to be dh thinks the doctor knows best and thinks that it is all fine or rather is saying that. I have been trying to get him to take some iron tablets to at least maybe help him until he gets seen but no luck either. Tried the mil approach but her words were oh he looks fine stop making a fuss! Was thinking about going to the gp surgery tomorrow to talk to one of the docs and try and get him bumped up the waiting list don't know if it will work though.

Unfortunately unless he takes it seriously there's not a lot of hope that anyone will. I would advise against iron tablets though as they may exacerbate the problem as they can cause constipation. You can get iron enriched multivitamin fruit juice from health food shops - you add a bit to a glass of ordinary fruit juice. Bacause the iron is derived naturally it seems to have less unpleasant side effects.

Best of luck with the waiting list, just keep ringing until you get somewhere. If you can, find out if the trust has targets for waiting times and then you can quote them at someone if needs be.