The Colon Club

The other night I had a small bowel movement. A tiny bit of fecal matter was passed and when I wiped, the paper turned yellow. My wife thinks I should call my surgeon to ensure that it is not a complication, but I looked online and found that since my colon is still intact, it is possible to have a bowel movement with an ileostomy. What are the experiences from people on here? Is this something to worry about, or is it normal?

Deep wrote:The other night I had a small bowel movement. A tiny bit of fecal matter was passed and when I wiped, the paper turned yellow. My wife thinks I should call my surgeon to ensure that it is not a complication, but I looked online and found that since my colon is still intact, it is possible to have a bowel movement with an ileostomy. What are the experiences from people on here? Is this something to worry about, or is it normal?

I think it is possible to have "bowel movements" with an ileostomy, but these are mainly instances of coagulated blood left over from a recent surgery, or congealed mucous originating from normal colon-wall secretions. The latter is sometimes referred to as "mucoid plaque", not "fecal matter". In the first few weeks after surgery the colon is basically purging itself of various types of foreign matter in a sort of passive colon cleansing operation. That's my layman's interpretation, but you can check with your surgeon and see what he or she says.

Agree with Green Tea. It's possible to pass left-over bowel movements or mucous from your rectum after an ileostomy. The mucus can vary in consistency from thin and clear to opaque, thick stuff -- all of which are considered "normal."

This should decrease over time, so I wouldn't worry about it. But it's always good to mention it to your surgeon on your next visit.

Juliej

Its normal. Prior to my reversal (had the ileostomy for 9 months) i would the feeling i had to go and my body would go thru the motions. Sometimes i would get poop sometimes mucous. The dr said it was probably “leftover” as the colon may not have been completely

I too passed some mucous balls while my ileostomy was in place. Mentioned it to Doc and this is apparently quite common. Your colon will continue to produce mucous even w/o food in the system. Eventually it'll work its way to the end of the line.

I had this issue from time to time and it was generally caused by sleeping on my back. The small intestine is cut and bent back on the other side so material comes from the upper tube and goes into the bag. But it can go into the lower tube under the right circumstances such as the bag getting too full or the top of the bag lower than the bottom of the bag. My solution was to buy a memory foam triangle wedge to sleep on. This kept my upper body higher than my lower body so that waste wouldn't flow into the lower tube. I also regularly got up at 1-3 AM to empty the bag so that it wouldn't get too full.

Some mucous is normal but it didn't include fecal matter for me.