What to do if you have blood in your stool after Yang Kang?

This is the 4229th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Before the Spring Festival, most of the country had passed a wave of Omicron virus infection peaks. Like most patients, Xiao A experienced fever, muscle aches and a period of coughing, and then his antigen turned negative, and he felt that he was "healthy". However, recently he suddenly developed "blood in the stool", and the toilet was bright red. Xiao A was so scared that he ran to the hospital for a check-up - "Doctor! Is my hemorrhoids acting up again?"

When I arrived at the hospital and was waiting for the consultation, I found that there were many patients with similar symptoms. They all had abnormal stools after being infected with the new coronavirus. Some had swollen and painful anus, some had bloody stools, and some had abscesses... The doctor analyzed that after being infected with the virus, the body's resistance decreased. When the immune system was fighting the virus, some of the body's "weak points" that had hidden dangers were easily attacked and secondary diseases occurred, which is what we call "taking advantage of the opportunity to enter." For people who suffer from anal diseases, the symptoms that are not usually obvious will take advantage of some inducements to develop.

Some patients have poor appetite or lie in bed for a long time during the recuperation period, which slows gastrointestinal motility and makes defecation difficult; some people think that they should make up for their illness, eat without restraint, or eat too much spicy food, which leads to dry stool or diarrhea. Some people take medicines for clearing heat and detoxification, which are too cold and damage the spleen and stomach, resulting in diarrhea. Some people are infected with the "dry rice strain", with a particularly good appetite, and the food they consume far exceeds the normal amount of food, but the fragile stomach and anus suffer as a result. Of course, the specific diagnosis still depends on the different situations of each person.

1. Blood in stool + tearing pain

Severe pain and blood in the stool during defecation may indicate an anal fissure. At this time, you need to properly regulate your stomach and intestines, maintain soft stools, and use medication after defecation to promote the healing of the fissure as soon as possible. Otherwise, it is easy to form a vicious cycle of constipation-anal fissure-pain-continued constipation, which will turn into a chronic anal fissure or secondary infection.

2. Blood in stool + no pain + feeling of heaviness

If there is blood in the stool after abnormal defecation, no pain, but a feeling of heaviness or prolapse of the anus, it may be a hemorrhoid attack. You also need to eat a light diet, maintain soft stools, take a warm bath after defecation, and use drugs to stop bleeding and fumigate to reduce swelling. If the symptoms are not relieved after taking the medicine for a period of time, or the blood in the stool is more serious or even anemia occurs, surgical treatment can be used if necessary.

3. Stool mixed with blood/mucus and blood in stool

If you have blood in your stool, or dark red blood in your stool, you should pay attention to it. It is likely that there are polyps or tumors in the intestine, or inflammatory bowel disease. You must go to the anorectal department for examination in time, or do a digestive endoscopy to rule out organic lesions that endanger life safety.

4. Anal swelling and pain/ulceration, bleeding and pus

If there is subcutaneous redness, swelling, nodules, tenderness, local distension and pain, or fluctuation, or even spontaneous rupture of the abscess around the anus, we mainly consider it as perianal abscess. This is an acute suppurative infection in the soft tissue around the rectum and anal canal or in the surrounding space. Perianal abscess should be treated surgically first, with incision and drainage. Afterwards, we expect the drainage to be smooth, the abscess to subside, and a fistula to form, and anal fistula resection should be performed.

Of course, even if we are not infected with the new coronavirus, we should maintain good living habits and bowel movement in our daily lives: eat three meals on time, eat a reasonable diet, eat less spicy food, exercise moderately, have a regular work and rest schedule, don’t stay up late, and the most important thing is to "quickly resolve" bowel movements, and never indulge in mobile phones in the toilet. Let us take good care of our own "chrysanthemum health" and stay away from the trouble of blood in the stool.

Author: Huadong Sanatorium

Zhou Lu Attending Physician