Any doctors out there?

anyone?

prothrombin time

http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/hw203083.asp

How's your stool looking...I'm actually being serious.

I'm nowhere near being a doctor, btw.

I have been bleeding with my stools but I have seen the doctor a few times and he said it's piles.

The blood was fresh and bright red and I have had it checked out. I was really relieved when they said it's nothing serious ...you know I started thinking it could be something bad. I've really suffered with piles for the last few years and might have an operation soon. Recently I have been losing a lot of blood when I go to the toilet: it just drips like a nosebleed. The doctor hasn't said anything about anaemia and isn't concerned by the results of my blood test but I bought some ferrous sulphate tablets anyway. I took one today. Is this wise? I have been reading about anaemia and piles on the internet and thought the tables might help. I want to get into sub 70 mins half marathon shape next year and I'm feeling really run-down and fatigued even when I back off my training.

Thanks for helping fellow running people

You should check out another doctor...particularly if you're near a big city there must be more qualified docs than the one you're seeing, cause you are anemic, but he didn't say anything about it. That's irresponsible of him. The ferrous sulfate would gradually help with the iron, of course, though frequent constipation is a standard side effect, and that can't help the cause of all this...the piles.

It seems you need to get the chronic loss of blood taken care of. When I lost a lot of blood in August I also got very dizzy and basically passed out, cause your blood pressure is lowered when that happens and gravity pulls the blood downward (away from your head), so that could've been the dizziness you had. Not that bright red is OK, but if the stool gets black (indicating bleeding from further up) or particularly dark pay attention and go to the hospital that day.

You can improve a lot in a year, but not while losing blood everyday. It more than negates the effect of training. Get to a gastroenterologist, and I hope everything goes well for you.

Thanks Mike.

I'm just going to take 200mg of ferrous sulphate a day and hopefully it should sort out.

What did you take for your anaemia and how long did it take you to feel better? Are you OK now?

The piles seem to come and go. Sometimes I go months with no blood at all but recently I've been really suffering over the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for helping

Basically, if you're having bleeding out your rear, and you are anemic, you better find the source of the bleeding. If it is just hemorroids they can be fixed. If it is higher up in the GI tract, it could be a bleeding GI ulcer, an inflammed part of your colon like diverticulitis, or cancer of various types. The PT prolongation could be due to a Vit K deficiency which causes your liver to not make some of the factors that help your blood clot. I've been doing work at Walter Reed and apparently they thought this 22 year old soldier only had hemorroids, and they didn't do a colonoscopy. They let him bleed like that for two years until he died of colon cancer. I've been taught if anyone has bleeding like that they need a colonoscopy. Don't take a chance.

There was a good thread recently about how anemia affected performance and recovery time here:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1059450&thread=1058437

Halfway down "Ex Phys Doc" details three stages of iron deficiency. Yours really isn't that bad, but the concern with you is the frequent blood loss.

Cause I lost a lot of blood (hemoglobin was down to 10.0 at one point), I'm still recovering, and it might be another couple months. I do run everyday, but SO slowly, with the exception of weekends when I do "harder" effort (essentially tempo), though, being very anemic still, the pace is laughably slow, but I'm fine with that till I get better. I'm not going to race until the spring.

The above poster has a point, too. I hate to suggest worst case scenarios, but my uncle also apparently had bright red blood when he was in his late twenties...polyps in his colon. The only reason I hate to suggest it is you might become paranoid about a possibility someone mentioned on an internet message board, but a visit to a well-reputed gastroenterologist can never hurt. Collapsing ain't normal! I should mention that my uncle ended up JUST FINE because everything was diagnosed and taken care of before it progressed.

You need to go get the bleeding stool issues checked out. It could be from more than just hemmroids but that is not normal.

It is sometimes not uncommon for distance runners to have blood in their stool but it is usually only seen after an actual race rather than on a regular basis; also that blood is usually so minor a loss that we do not consider it a hugh cause to iron deficiency. Especially if you are of the male gender.

See another doctor, and back off any training you have been doing. Rest. A taper is a wonderful thing. When I give athletes the protocol used by Vigil, they are always amazed at how great they feel in a race and how they PR.

Vigil's Protocol:

4weeks out reduce by 10%

3 weeks out reduce by 20%

2 weeks out reduce by 30%

1 weeks out reduce by 60%

7 days prior do an all out mile and then just rest/stride out until the day before the race.

Hope this helps