I'm starting to feel so guilty for asking a million questions, sorry, but you're my only trustworthy source of accurate information and I really value your input. It's been six months now, but I'm still learning I guess, I just have yet another quick question. I've noticed I've had a really high volume of mucus recently, mixed with blood and sometimes a bit of stool (caused, I think, by my wacky valve). It's just weird, some days I have almost no output from my stoma (not talking about pouch output, just stoma). I always keep my stoma safely covered in gauze and wide tape to avoid things leaking through to my clothes, but would you say it's normal to have bleeding and high mucus output at least a few days each week? At this point I'm not sure what is considered normal, and what things I should really worry about.
The mornings, as I've said before, are usually the worst for leakage, and intubating. Seems when I have a hard time getting the catheter in, naturally, I will bleed quite a bit, at times, I'll have 6 inches of my catheter filled with almost pure blood before the stool flows, and more blood when I remove the catheter. Some days, the bleeding will continue all day, others, not at all, but as of late, it's been more then less. Do you experience this much bleeding and mucus output? I'm not really panicking about it just yet, but it is definitely concerning. Aside from the leaky valve, this is just one more issue. I have been keeping the catheter in all day, but just for cleanliness and comfort sake, I remove it to clean and irrigate once a day (actually, I irrigate several times a day).....any thoughts?
You know, despite all these issues, I'll never regret getting my k pouch. I was sitting on the loo today, just remembering how much pain I was in with my old J pouch rectal bleeding and horrible pouchitis. Sure, leakage and stomal bleeding is a major concern, BUT, it doesn't really hurt, nothing like before. I remember times when my butt was burning so bad I literally had tears in my eyes and it hurt to sit, so I thank the GI gods for eliminating that at least! Every once in a while I have to remind myself it could be worse, and I got the K pouch for a reason. I only pray Dr Cohen can repair my valve without having to touch my stoma, he did such an amazing job of it. Thanks, as always, for listening, you truly are my inspiration, and my strength, happy New Year!!
Eric
