Red Visible Blood In Stool

[Martok42]

There was bright red visible blood in stool, how worried should I be? There wants a TON but it wasn't just a little bit either. NOTE: I am only 14

[GFinDC]

Hi Martok.

I have had red blood in stool before also. Last time it was when I was still eating soy and got glutened. It always cleared up after I got over the glutening. This is something you should discuss with your parents though. It probably is a reaction to something in your diet. But it may be something a doc should look at also. The tests the doctors would do are an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. For an endoscopy they use a thin tube down the throat to check out the small instestine. In a colonoscopy they use a tube to check the large intestine (from the other end). They use anasthesia during the procedures so you don't feel anything. There is also a pill camera endoscopy that sometimes is used. The pill cam can't take biopsy samples though. I am not saying you need any of these tests, just mentioning them so you are aware of them. An endoscopy is done pretty often to check for celiac disease.

Do your parents help you with your gluten-free diet? If they want more info on it this is a great place for them to do research and ask questions. Lots of us follow a simple whole foods diet. We make our foods from scratch using meat, rice, veggies, etc., instead of eating processed foods like pot pies or frozen dinners etc.. Mission corn tortillas are good for wraps if you heat them up a little.

The thing about celiac is, it takes only a very small amount of gluten to make our bodies react. So if you are getting a little bit of gluten every day, you can be doing damage every day that can get worse over time. That's why it is important to make sure you aren't getting gluten, even cross contamination from your foods or meds or vitamins etc. Cross contamination is when gluten accidentally gets into a food that doesn't list gluten in the ingredients. Or say you use a jar of peanut butter that someone else used on a piece of gluten bread. If they put the knife from the gluten bread back in the peanut butter jar, then it will have traces of gluten in the peanut butter.

I'd like to suggest you avoid soy as well. Soy does cause some of us problems.

[Martok42]

Good GRIEF your helpful. Unfortunately I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. I really don't want to go, but I am a minor. So alas I have no say whatsoever. I've talked with a gastrolologist. (Or however you say that) and she was amazed that a fourteen year old could stay off gluten as good as I am. Butt apparently not good enough. And having stuff stuck down my throat is a bit of a phobia for me... They don't put to sleep?

[GFinDC]

Oh, well, most of the people who report on their endoscopy here say they didn't remember it at all. So yeah, they can put you out and wake you up after. That's good to see the doctor. I find it helpful to write down the symptoms I have been having and give that to the doctor. That way I don't forget something while I am there talking to them. You could also make a food journal, writing down what you eat each day and how you are feeling/symptoms. This can help you figure out foods that may be bothering you. For some of us though when our guts are irritated already, just about any food can cause a bad reaction.

[Martok42]

Well the doctor tomorrow is just my family doctor who is going to refer me to a gastro-whatever. And my parents said that we can make an appointment for a couple weeks and I will try VERY hard to eat NOTHING with gluten and they said if I feel significant improvement, we don't have to go. They mainly just want to make sure it's not colon cancer or something dumb like that. I say that is dumb especially when you factor in the I have siblings with celiac it would make sense that I have it too. Then they say it's necessary and I say no it isn't then I get grounded.... that's how it goes any time the word 'doctor' come up....

[GFinDC]

Yep, a gastroenterologist. Your best chance to avoid gluten is to not eat anything that isn't cooked at home from whole foods. Foods like rice and veggies, home made soups, meats etc are good.

My younger brother had both celiac and Crohn's diesease. So it is possible to have more than just celiac. Lots of people with Crohn's do well on the celiac gluten free diet though, they kind of cross over in the diet area. Maybe the test would be worthwhile to just get it over with and know for sure?

Grounding isn't so bad. That would be a great time to catch up on homework right?

[Martok42]

Lol yeah, but I just can't stand anything to do with doctors! And dentists but that is for a different forum.

The way I see it is like this. It's my body, and If I think the diet isn't helping and something else is wrong, then I go see the gastro-whoever. But I DO think the diet is helping alot, I don't feel normal yet, but I've been in immense pain forever and now that has finally stopped! Doesn't that seem logical to you?

[GFinDC]

Lol yeah, but I just can't stand anything to do with doctors! And dentists but that is for a different forum.

The way I see it is like this. It's my body, and If I think the diet isn't helping and something else is wrong, then I go see the gastro-whoever. But I DO think the diet is helping alot, I don't feel normal yet, but I've been in immense pain forever and now that has finally stopped! Doesn't that seem logical to you?

Ya got a point there, if the diet is helping then it is most likely celiac. Or celiac and Chrohn's. Crohn's affects the large intestine, and people do say that red blood is from low in the GI tract, implying it is from the large intestine. They say black stool indicates bleeding in the small intestine, higher in the GI tract. I don't know if that is an absolute, or exact boundary type of thing myself. I think it is possible for red blood to come from the small intestine, but near the large intestine junction. that's just my thinking though, not anything from a doctor or research.

For the next couple weeks, you might want to avoid any processed foods and see if that clears it up. I have problems with soy for instance and it is in lots of processed foods. So I eat very little processed foods now. It's just much safer and easier to deal with eating if you don't have to worry about checking on lots of ingredients. You mentioned Caramellos's in another post. There is a possibility that dairy is causing you problems also. Dairy sure does a number on me. Could be a good time to give the dairy a pass and see if it helps. You would need to check with your parents on that though, and maybe take a calcium pill each day also.

Your parents have other children with celiac right? I imagine they know a thing or two about it then. I know when I was younger I thought I was smarter than my parents. Turned out I was way wrong, but it took me a while to understand that. I've been doing the gluten-free diet for a little over 2 years now. And I am still learning things about it and how my body reacts.

Here's a page with some info on intestinal function that might be interesting..

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[Martok42]

Oh I hate doctors. Especially my doctor, and my doctors nurse, I have met doctors I like, to bad mine are not those. This one tells me I don't need to go see a gastro-guy and that they want to the blood test anyway. I said don't you need to do that before someone goes on the diet, the imbecile (Who is just a nurse. I saw her because I hate my doctor and refused to talk to her. And to be honest she really doesn't want to talk to me either) said no you can do it if someone is on a gluten free diet. So now I'm probably going to get a false negative and they will all sorts of other crap and AAHGFHGHHGHGHGGGGHH!!! :angry:

See? A good reason for hatred. We went through this last year with sleep apnea. After an AWFUL sleep study and a TON of doctor visits my mom finally agreed with me and all that crap was not worth it. She claims this won't go down like that, but Am I the only seeing where this is going?

EDIT:Okay so celiac blood test has not come back yet, but the other tests show nothing, except I have a kidney stone Which I can't imagine that is going to be fun.