Alcoholic. Taking Pantoloc. Getting Upper Abdominal Pain And Noticed Yellow Fluid In Stool. Prognosis?

Posted on Tue, 21 May 2013

Question: hi ! my name is XXXXXXX a 62 year old healthy male non smoke !been in arizona for the last 6 months having a great time doing alot of socializing , meaning alot of drinking alcohol, red wine mostly , now back home no drinking for 2 weeks and have brown stools but there is a yellow fluid on the toilet paper and some in the bowl, no real pain anywhere , but did notice that sometimes a very slight pain in upper rite side , come and go , but nothing now, had this in 2008 and cleared up in about 5 weeks ! havin been taking pantoloc for several months as i am on anti inflammitories ! i feel normal

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (1 hour later)

Hello,
Thanks for the query.
It seems you are passing mucus in your stool.
Mucus is a clear, white, or yellow substance with the consistency of jelly that is produced by the mucus membrane of the large intestine
In the intestines, mucus protects the inner lining and helps ease along the passage of stool. Passing mucus in the stool is not harmful in itself, but it could be a symptom of a disease or condition that may require treatment,if the amount of mucus passed is large or accompanied by bleeding or accompanied by pain or if there is change in bowel habits.

There can be various causes for such type of large amount of mucus like
Irritable bowel syndrome
Ulcerative colitis
Intestinal polyps
Cancer
Diverticulitis etc.

Most likely the mucus being passed by you is normal ,but if you find the change,as mentioned above,consult a gastroenterologist for diagnosing the cause.
I hope it helps however you may revert to me for any further query.
Best of luck
Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (51 minutes later)

thank you , i may question that there is no blood, no pain, and the bowel movements have been like clockwork daily ! i would really like to get to the answer for this condition , as i mentioned that this was there before an cleared up , could it be the alcohol consumption ? what other symptoms should i watch out for ?? have hd 2 colonoscipies in the last 5 years and i had no issues at all !

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (5 hours later)

Hello,
Since you are not having large amount of mucus production,no pain and bleeding,the chances of any pathological process looks less likely.
Alcohol consumption in itself doesn't seem to cause this but associated consumtion of spicy and greasy food may cause overproduction of mucus.
Diet,stress and disturbed general health can also cause more production of mucus and can trigger mucus production after remaining healthy for many months or years in between.
You can adopt some lifestyle changes like...
Drinking plenty of water.
Avoiding non vegetarian food for sometime
Taking more of fresh fruits and green vegetables
Take more of probiotics like yoghurt.
Wait for few weeks.
If you still keep on passing mucus,get yourself evaluated again by a gastroenterologist by getting your stool examined and a another colonoscopy.
Although you have had couple of colonoscopies earlier,still there is no harm in a fresh colonoscopy as any early form of some disease like cancer can be caught in that.
You may revert to me if there is something more to ask .
Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar