Dark Green Stool with Stomach Pain - Colostomy Related?

I have a colostomy, I don't know if that makes a difference in the color of you stool.  But usually the senna I take makes mine bright yellow.  For 3 wks. now I have stomach pain and dark green stool, haven't changed diet or drank anything with dye.  Any suggestions, pain feels like burning ulcer?

Hi Faith4Today,

Pain is a signal for us to take action — not knowing what action to take is one of the most unpleasant parts of pain. I hope you have a doctor you trust who can work with you to isolate the action (if any) that's necessary.

I found many webpages concerning "green stools", and here's some information from one of those pages: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/gettingdiagnosed/a/green_stools.htm

The liver constantly secretes a bright green fluid called bile into the small intestine or it is stored in the gallbladder.
Bile is needed to absorb fats and fat soluble vitamins. It also helps to soften stools and is responsible for giving stools their characteristic brown color.
As bile makes its way through the intestines, it progressively changes color from green to yellow to brown, due to the action of bacteria in the large intestine on the bile salts.
Green stool often indicates that food has passed through the intestines faster than normal (called decreased bowel transit time), before it could be changed from green to brown.
Diarrhea decreases bowel transit time, so any condition that causes diarrhea can result in green stool.
Other causes of green stool include:

• Laxative use
• Antibiotic use
• Medication side effects
• Food poisoning
• Celiac disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• Crohn's disease
• Malabsorption
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Bacterial overgrowth
• Infectious diarrhea - especially salmonella and giardia
• Traveler's diarrhea
• Cancer

Foods and supplements that can cause green stool include:

• Chlorophyll
• Iron supplements
• Algae
  
  Best wishes,
  three

three, not only are you good with art, that was some fast thinking and you are right on about the Doctor.  I guess you wont shock me anymore as I have seen how smart you are and also how kind, thank you, Jenny

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Grazie tanto Jenny.

Hi Faith, I had forgot about the green bile until I read your post. A few years back I used to have blockages (Ileostomy) and after things started working everything came out a watery dark green, also before I had my small intestine rerouted I would start vomiting and it was also this dark green, which I didn't want to dwell too much on, I mean Its one  thing into the pouch but vomiting, quite another. This doctor who straightened out things for me was a real saint in my books, the pain from these blockages was unbearable, I still have times now where I get this green bile but no pain so its easy to live with, I do hope you get a handle on this cause your pain is screaming to be looked into, best of luck with this and keep us informed, Ok, Ed

My Ostomy Journey: LeeAnne | Hollister

Hi Faith - do you have to take senna?  A GI doctor told me senna is not a good thing to take on a long term basis as it is really too strong for the the GI tract unless a person is on pain-killing drugs. Can you increase your fiber (fruits and veggies) instead? Having my colostomy has taken care of any of the constipation/blockage problems I had in the past.  

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