Passing stool from rectum after ileostomy surgery - need advice!

Once again, I am turning to you all for advice. My surgeon had told me that, once in a while, I might find that I pass mucus from my rectum, even a small amount of stool. He did remove about 1/3 of my rectum but said I still have enough of a functioning rectum that this could occur. Well, in 3 weeks since my surgery I have now passed stool 5 times. This seems crazy to me. It's always a small amount but still I really don't get how it's happening at all. Has anyone had this experience and this often? Could someone please explain to me how this even happens? Is there a point at which I should be concerned if I continue to pass stool this often? Thanks for any input or advice you can give me.

The passing of mucus while recovering drove me mad. I was slated to have a J-pouch, so while the pouch was healing and I had the temporary loop ostomy to divert the stool, eventually due to post-op problems, I was not able to complete the re-connect. For some idiotic reason, when they gave me the permanent ileostomy, they left the unused J-Pouch still connected to my rectum! So for nearly 5 years, I passed mucus daily. I eventually started draining it with a catheter before bed, and still sometimes would wake with a wet bottom. And once or twice a year, I got "pouchitis" and would get a reddish color to the mucus, and of course, because of the infection, the amount of mucus would increase dramatically. So then I would have to go on a week of antibiotics to clear it up. FINALLY, after 6 years, I had some downtime in my life and told my doctor, "GET THIS THING OUT! NOW!" LOL. So once finally getting my rectum out, it's been smooth sailing ever since.

Hi... I don't understand why the medical professionals don't advise on this issue before turning people loose following colon surgery, but it happens all the time... I went through various degrees of this excretion following my colon removal for U Colitis... With the rectum remaining, the cells within the walls of the rectum continue to reproduce, i.e., replace, and mucus cells continue to be produced... At some point, they gather in the rectum and are released... If, as I experienced, the problem the rectum continues to be affected by UC, then the mucus secretions will be heavier than should the rectum be healthy... This is a very common issue... If you find the frequency of elimination is increasing, your doctor will likely recommend some medication, but nothing really unexpected is happening... It's just the nature of how the cells within the rectum reproduce and are removed from the body...

Thank you both for the responses. I feel a little more at ease. I couldn't agree more with you, Scotiaman, that the medical professionals fail miserably to prepare us for this. I was told that I "might" pass some mucus once in a blue moon. WTF. I continue to pass stool every so many days. Do have one more question for either of you - what if it looks like there is a hint of blood in the stool? Should I be alarmed or just to be expected? I had a little blood today when I once again passed some stool. Thanks so much for your input.

How much mucus is normal? My underwear is always wet and stained. I need to wear pads because mucus dribbles out all day.

Croh, I was going to say, "Depends", but that response could be misinterpreted. Some days I have a lot of mucus flow; and, for me, it may be a matter of hydration. The more I drink, the greater the flow. I've also had to wear pads, etc., which have not worked well when I am out for long hours like on the golf course.    

Recently, however, I found a new technique which effectively contains mucus dribble for hours. I roll a Kleenex tissue into the shape of a cigarette. Then I bend it in half, coat the bent end with Vaseline, and insert it into the anus for about one inch by pushing the bent end in with my finger. (Caution: fingernail must be clipped.) The tissue will generally remain in place until extracted hours later. I use this technique for only part of the day because it may not be prudent to use a permanent blocker. Incidentally, when the tissue is extracted, there isn't any release of built-up mucus. I think it just gets absorbed into the body.

Anyway, I now go out golfing with assurance that I will stay dry. I suppose this gives new meaning to a popular expression: plug and play. Good luck with your situation.

    PB

I don't have problems with mucus flow, but I have had an annoying abscess that has been draining for the past 11 months. My technique is to stick a pad to my underwear and take a 4x4 gauze and scrunch it up and place it in the rectum area as a wick. These 4x4 gauze squares are very absorbent. I hope this helps. PB. I am a golfer too, so I know what 4-6 hours can mean. Penguin.

The mucus is normal, as is the blood. I have an ileostomy for 9 months now and experience the same. I even passed what appeared to be stool.
Last Wednesday, I had a colonoscopy which was fine. However, I have diversion colitis, which is typical in ostomy patients. The colitis is an inflammation, which explains the traces of bloody mucus. Don't worry about it.

I have had an ileostomy since 1998 and, initially at about 3-month intervals, I had a discharge from the rectum. Medics said "this happens". I was not informed about this after my surgery post-op. Lately, the intervals between discharges have been about 6 months. Sometimes the discharge is quite heavy, smelly, and, on occasions, some blood is visible. When in 'discharge mode', I put absorbent incontinence pads in underpants. The discharge lasts about 7 days. Lately, I have found that the intervals between discharge have lengthened by taking IMODIUM tablets or own brand equivalents. Doctors do not recommend this, but I found a medical book stating that this practice was acceptable under the circumstances. I regularly take 2 of the tablets daily.

Thank you all for the input. I am much more at ease now. I have begun to take a stool softener (which the medical staff also failed to tell me to do until I called 4 weeks later) to ease the discomfort that I was sometimes feeling when trying to pass the mucus. This has helped considerably. Thanks again, guys.

Hi friends,

First of all, I would like to say I am so glad that I found this site as it has answered some of my great concerns, particularly in regards to the release of mucus. I had a permanent colostomy done on the 3rd of July 2012. I am 25 years old, from a tiny island Republic of Fiji, where we certainly lag behind in medical infrastructure. My case is rare, if not almost unknown here. I had to have my surgery done in India where I spent 6 months of long, gruesome, and intensive treatment. After the surgery, I went through intensive chemoradiation, which was the hardest and most difficult part of the entire treatment.

Nonetheless, I somehow managed to pull through and now life is carrying on, but not like what it used to be. I find it so difficult to sustain myself, especially with the increasing cost of sourcing the ostomy materials from overseas as we do not have them here. I have tried several brands and found out that Convatec's 2-piece system works the best for me. I also do irrigation, and it helps a lot, especially when I am at the office.

One of the other and the major problem which I face is skin irritation around the stoma. It becomes so hard at times that it gets almost impossible for the wafer to stick on the skin, and I have to heavily plaster it with adhesive bandages. I would very highly appreciate any suggestion/solutions for it.

I thank you all for taking out your valuable time in reading my post.

I hope to hear from you good people.

Take care and keep up with your health.

Regards
Jabid

PS: Please do not mind my English. English is a second language for me.

Hi folks,

I have had my ileostomy since February 2018. All has been going well. However, last night I awoke and my stoma bag was almost about to explode as it was full to maximum capacity (no pain and no other warning). I got to the bathroom and successfully emptied my bag. Then all of a sudden, for the very first time, I felt material coming out of my rectum and it was not the occasional mucus but fecal matter. Not a great deal and all fundamentally liquid. Can someone explain how and why it happened and how concerned should I be?

Thanks my friends.

My doctor said it's normal, as I pooped once like it was still hooked up, then 4 months later I felt the urge again and pooped again. She said it was normal.

Hi, I've had an ileostomy now since April. I never passed mucus or anything until about 2 months after... then nothing again... However, this morning I passed wind from my bottom a couple of times... I've read that this can't happen... but obviously it does... Is this normal? Has anyone else had this happen?

Geritrex Compound Benzoin Tincture will help heal the skin and also help the wafer stick to your skin. I was awful broken out and my skin was so tender I could not stand a wafer on sometimes for over 3 minutes. As soon as I started using the above, I wore a wafer for 2.5 days. Now I'm fully healed and could get 9 days if I had to. Once I ran short and after a bath, my wafer came mainly off. I reglued it with the above product. Good luck.

Yes, that is normal and I even had poop a few times in the first 3.5 months. My doctor said it was normal.

Hi Warrior6391. It sounds to me like you have a loop ileostomy and the pressure from the gas that built up in your pouch overnight may have entered the distal end and pushed some residual stool/mucus through your rectum. In theory, that's possible, however, I'm still new to the field and not sure if this is what happened.

The only products you should use for the care of the skin around your ostomy are:

I. Warm water and a soft cloth

II. Ostomy powder (which is really just ground up wafer).

III. No sting skin prep.http://www.smith-nephew.com/professional/products/advanced-wound-management/no-sting-skin-prep/

1. The first thing to do to help adhesion of the wafer is put your wafer under your armpit or behind your back to warm it to body temperature. It really helps if your stoma size has stabilized and you are able to precut your wafer that way you can just quickly apply paste and stick it on. This is not always possible with new stomas.

2. Warm water and a soft cloth should be used to cleanse the area around the stoma and remove any residual paste and/or stool. Ensure skin is dried thoroughly. DO NOT use soap or any other cleansing agents as they will irritate the skin unless instructed to do so by your enterostomal nurse or physician.

3. For any irritated skin (red, macerated) apply the ostomy powder and "dust" it all over the skin evenly coating it in a thin layer of powder. It's perfectly safe to get ostomy powder on your stoma.

4. Next, while covering the stoma, spray all skin area that will be covered by wafer with no-sting skin prep spray (a little overspray on to the surrounding skin is ok and can be washed off when finished the process, but try to avoid spraying the stoma.

5. Repeat steps 3-4 one more time.

6. While the skin prep spray dries (approx 30 seconds), get your wafer ready by measuring (if necessary) and applying the paste seal/gasket around the opening in the wafer.

7. Next, apply your wafer and ostomy pouch to prevent stool from leaking out. Then with your warm hand, apply pressure to the entire surface of the wafer and paste strip against your abdomen with moderate pressure. The heat and pressure are what will help the wafer adhere to your skin.

Here's the thing with ostomies, everyone develops their own techniques and honestly, sometimes they're very useful. That's why I always ask my patients who have had an ostomy for a long time what they do, sometimes this is the best source of information. So these steps may not be what you do, and that's ok.