UOAA Discussion Board

I’ve had an ileostomy for 13 years. From time to time a little bit of fluid leaks from my rectum, maybe 1/2 teaspoon. No big deal. However, for the past year or so I have been leaking the same quantity of black, bloody, stinky fluid. It always happens at night. My G.I. doctor just retired and I have been assigned a new G.I. doctor. I only have about 2 inches of my rectal pouch left with the anal sphincter still intact.
Anyway, the frequency, duration and smell of the rental fluid has me concerned. I can only assume my new G.I. doctor will want to do a colonoscopy on the 2 inches of my rental pouch.

My question is has anyone else had a problem like this? I am concerned it might be cancer. Thank you in advance!

Cosmo

It's pretty common, but I can't remember what it's called. Hopefully someone will chime in with the name and you can search the forum to see how common it is and how others deal with it.

ETA: try searching for "rectal discharge". There's another name for it, too, but I'm not remembering it.

I am a 2004 total colectomy/ileostomy recipient, with my rectum gone. However, mental BS causes my UC to return to the "stub", sometimes causing significant bleeding. I saw a proctologist and he had a good look (lucky him!) and proclaimed it was just my UC and keep it clean. Fortunately, I got a prescription for some "stress relief" medicine and now, well, as the song says "I got stoned and missed it. (my UC)" Good luck with your situation.

xctm1, Thanks for the reply but can you be more specific? Do you just blow some weed?

search.php?keywords=Rectal+discharge&si ... 75102e47bc

Is the forum search for rectal discharge

This condition is called diversion colitis. It's probably not cancer.

Unfortunately, it's rather common among ostomates after a while but surgeons don't seem to warn patients about it often enough... I may write a book about this and other issues. You can Google it or search for it here on this chat discussion. Basically, because your intestine has been DIVERTED and stool flows into a pouch, the healthy short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that are naturally occurring in stool no longer reach your anorectal canal. WIth many ostomates, the result is that this canal or your anus or remaining rectum becomes suffers from inflammation and mucous and/or blood can leak out. It helps for your surgeon or another professional to give you a proctology exam to determine the severity. My condition bothered me so much -- and I'd get cramps when the mucous leaked -- that, when I had OTHER ostomy surgery scheduled, I opted to have my entire anorectal canal removed. This is MAJOR surgery and can lead to complications involving wound care but I was fairly lucky. Talk to your surgeon comprehensively about this.

I never thought I'd have this surgery but am so glad that I did.

Others here find ways to wash the area out in the shower using a "lavage" method. I also used a rectal tube to extract the mucous. And if you get very ambitious you can try enemas that offer "fecal transplantation" but that is difficult and messy -- and your output needs to be healthy. Also doctors can prescribe Canasa suppositories or Rowasa enemas which may help. They are expensive and didn't help me at all.

Good luck!

I’ve had diversion colitis for a decade. As with Diane I’ve tried Canasa and it helped but not much. And steroid suppositories, again very limited help. And butyrate enemas, no help. The only thing that I’ve found is fecal transfer - supplies natural, short chain fatty acids to the disconnected rectal area and it works. I do it twice a day. Works fine, keeps matters under control. The only other option I’m aware of is surgery.

Diane C wrote: 2023-05-03 15:05:06 This condition is called diversion colitis. It's probably not cancer.

thank you, I just couldn't remember it!

Glad to help with the name, Lee.

BillGK, I tried my own concoction of fecal transplant using an enema in the bathtub. Not a fun process, esp as my anorectal muscles didn't work well -- which is why I eventually decided to have them removed. Did you use your "own" biologics or order them from a lab? My GI doc had told me that fecal transplantation would be approved for "colitis" by the FDA "any day" but to my knowledge, it's only been approved for C Diff.

Thanks for the info!

Diane C

Ha, no bathtub for me, Diane. My method takes 10 minutes or less per time w/o any mess.

I do transfers, not transplants. I don’t know about actual transplants for colitis, hadn’t heard about such a thing. It would be interesting to me if it worked longer term. Ten minutes a couple of times a day is no biggie. But less is more, and a lot less as in months, would be a lot more.