Blood in stool and terrified

[Lifelifelife21]

I had a baby 4 months ago and since then my digestion has been all over the place. It has been so hard to tell what is from giving birth, the iron tablets or a sign of a more serious problem.

There is often blood and it’s so hard to tell the source. I bled for a long time after birth, then have had very regular heavy, long periods, some bleeding on toilet paper from hard stools and my episiotomy scar is also bleeding on and off.

last weekend though after a poo the water in the toilet was red and I panicked. I went to the GP, she examined me but couldn’t find any obvious less serious causes. Then today I’m sure there was blood mixed into my stool.

I’ve just been crying ever since and DP is looking after my baby as I just feel like I’m going to break down if I even look at her. I’m terrified it’s cancer. Completely paralysed with fear and the thought of waiting a few weeks for results to know either way feels impossible.

I have stool tests I need to try and do and send off tomorrow to detect blood and inflammation. I’m terrified of the results. I’m terrified to even go to the toilet to be honest.

Blood tests they did on Thursday all look normal to me. They didn’t seem to do ferritin this time though and that was low after giving birth so I’ve been on iron tablets. But now I’m worried the cause of the low iron was actually bowel cancer.

I don’t know if I really have any other symptoms. Don’t seem to be losing weight. Not bloated. Bowels are a bit all over the place.

Can anyone offer any hope or reassurance? I feel like my mental health is in tatters. I’m also grieving a parent so health anxiety is always higher than it might have usually been.

I’m sorry you’re so distressed.
2 family members have experienced this. My OH was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (not ideal, but perfectly manageable in his case)
My FIL had a polyp that was bleeding out (successfully removed)
I hope this helps a little. Hugs x

Whilst it blood can be an indicator of cancer there are dozens of other reasons may of which can be treated / investigated
obvious place to start is with inflammatory bowel conditions such as Crohns or colitis
you may have a fissure even if your GP could find it
it sounds very sensible to have tests and take things from there
i would also speak to your GP because your health anxiety could be really spiralling
good luck and am sure you will get some answers

piles after pregnancy are also very likely and could cause blood to be seen in the toilet bowl. Blood from the bowel would tend to be darker and mixed in with poo and not noticeable as blood. So honestly it’s highly unlikely to be anything sinister. And IF it is something that needs treated you’re on the right path for getting it diagnosed and treated so try to calm down, spend time with your baby and family. Do the tests but try to stop travelling at 100 mph down the wrong and terrifying path that it’s not likely to even be.

Honestly it’s most likely piles after your pregnancy, especially if it’s bright red. A little blood goes a long way in water.
Get it checked out but don’t catastrophise and don’t use Dr Google as confirmation bias tends to make you think your worst fears have come true.

I agree that whilst I know how alarming it is, it is probably piles.

I have Ulcerative Colitis which was coincidentally diagnosed 4 months postpartum, so it could be that or Crohns, but I really don't think bright red blood is likely to be cancer. Cancer tends to present as old, dark blood rather than fresh and red.

(My UC is well managed 15 years after diagnosis, so if it is that, it's not necessarily as bad as you might read online.)

Thank you all. I’m starting to think that the blood is darker. Or that the darker areas of the poo could be connected to cancer rather than the iron tablets.

I feel so incredibly guilty for how this is affecting me with my daughter.

And in the next 2 weeks we are supposed to have her christening and our first holiday which in my head is already going to be ruined as I couldn’t possibly enjoy it. I know I should just be able to put it to the back of my mind and hope for the best until I know more but I just can’t seem to manage that.

Iron tablets cause spiky more solid dark poop which can scratch internally which can cause bleeding did the dr examine you? There could be internal piles that are not always immediately apparent on examination

Basically step away from google prepare for your test to be positive (especially if your still bleeding) you will have a colonoscopy (however you spell it) but at your age its most likely going to be piles or something easy to deal with

OP take a breath. You are catastrophising without any real knowledge. What you do know is that you have just given birth and have had bleeding because of that. Piles are very normal at this time. All of your tests so far have come back normal. Blood in poo isn’t automatically cancer - actually there are many many reasons to be other things.

I get you are worried because you are now a mun and cancer is scary but only you have come to that conclusion- no one medical has said as such and again your tests so far have been normal. Not knowing at this point what the cause is again doesn’t mean something sinister.

Nothing is going to be ruined as nothing is actually ‘wrong’ or diagnosed (yet?). I know people with colon cancer and while every diagnosis is different you are presenting with symptoms that could neither things and don’t lead straight to cancer. In the other cases I know yeah they had blood in there poo but a lot of other very different symptoms that couldn’t be explained.

My sincere advice is to try and deal with what is in front of you and not the very small percentage of what it may be. Blood in poo isn’t automatically cancer. Your other tests have come back normal . Surely they would have looked at white cell count and since you didn’t mention it then I would suggest the didnt test or there was nothing to be alarmed by.

Pregnancy and birth can really screw with your body and you are experiencing symptoms that are very normal to this point. Yes get checked and yes in very rare cases it could be something more but you don’t know that yet .

The white blood cell count, red blood count and haemoglobin all seem normal to me. I know I had low iron though.

Im Thinking of calling the GP practice and explaining how anxious I am and requesting they confirm a plan for how they’ll communicate the results. Has anyone ever done this?

In the past I’ve just had to find things out first from the app or a receptionist ringing very vaguely going ‘there was a problem with your results and I need you to book an appointment’ both of which obviously sends me into a complete spiral. The receptionist also blurted out my dad’s terminal diagnosis to us on the phone because she didn’t understand the gravity of what the illness was, that’s literally how we got the news.