Fair warning, this is a poop topic if you didnt already get that lol.

Today I had my first stool since surgery (4 days later). It was just a few pebbles but there was something about it that freaked me out. The stools were covered in something fuzzy and white.

Doing what I shouldnt be doing, I ran online to pull up what it could be. After some searching around I found that it was mucus. Now the cause for the mucus ranged from a variety of diseases all the way to cancer!

Thoroughly freaked out, i called my surgeon. He too explained that it was mucus and he said that it is entirely normal.

Unfortunatly i still am a bit freaked out about it. Has anyone else experienced this? How quickly did it go away?

I searched online and couldnt fine 'surgery' as a cause to trigger it, so I dont know.

Any info would be helpful! Thanks

FRom what I understand it's pretty normal. You have to remember that you're on liquids right now, so your stool isn't going to be all that normal until your diet evens out. Liquids in=liquids out. Sometimes in the for of mucous. I don't think you have anything at all to be worried about.

A one time occurence after surgery is nothing to worry about. I would worry if it happened regularly AFTER returning to a "normal" food intake.

A saying I once heard applies "When you hear hoofbeats, think Horses, not Zebras". Meaning consider the most common cause before the more exotic. Of course the opposite would apply if you lived in Africa. LOL.

Hang in there.

I have had my band now for four years and four months. I was the first of my family to get the band. My mother, daughter and husband got it done shortly after I did. I am the ONLY one of the four of us that has had verious "Issues" (for lack of a better word).

I have mild asthma and allergies and on occasion MUCUS is an issue. Ironically, I got on the internet to see if I could find information about the band itself and mucus. But you post caught my eye.

I just had a BM and noticed a white ball of mucus. As much as mucas can be an issue for me at least yearly, I have only seen it in a BM on occasion so I would not worry.

I have not been able to take anything but fluids for several days becuase of the mucus so I broke down and went to get Mucinex-D, I called the office, and was reminded that hot liquids help with congestion. Hope that helps!

OP, maybe its from the barium swallow??

I have done 2 and what you describe sounds like my first BM after I did the barium swallow.

J

As far as I remember, It's Normal.

Since we're talking poo, I'm an expert on the topic, lol.

Mucous to some extent is normal - your intestines produce a lot more of it than you realise - whilst I had my ileostomy for nine months (so of course, I passed no poo out of my rear end), I still go the urge to go once in a while and would pass quite a lot of mucous.

But you dont normally see it in your stool. A one time occurrence, or even a few times whilst you're on this liquid diet is nothing to worry about, but I wouldnt be passed off by the doctor. I would follow it up if it continues or you're worried.

I got passed off by the gp because I was too young and too healthy and lived too good a lifestyle to be a likely candidate for bowel cancer. It could have cost me my life as when the tumour WAS discovered after I jumped up and down and insisted on being referred to a GI, it was a bees d**k away from having spread to my lymph nodes. Its scary, and not at all likely for you, but its always worth checking it out. Look out for a change in colour and smell that could indicate bleeding too. I googled and googled my symptoms because I was beginning to have continence issues and I was rather worried about it, but I scoffed at cancer as a cause. Of course, the easiest thing you can do today to put your mind at rest is go and buy a bowel screen kit from the pharmacy. They are very accurate. If its negative, it likely really IS negative.

I hate saying this stuff, it sounds dramatic and it doesnt put you at ease, but it is so important not to ignore anything like that. I'm the worst in the world at saying "oh, she'll be right mate" to the point where I've even not taken my kids to hospital or rung an ambulance when I really should have. But if the worst that happens is that you piss someone off or waste their time on nothing, and feel a bit embarrassed, that's a good outcome!

Do keep in mind that these liquid diets really can cause havoc with our guts.