Hi Beth and thanks for posting on this forum. I am so sorry to hear about what you have been through an dthe long standing blood in stools. From the information you have provided, you have a chronic loss of blood in your stool that was aggravated by the recent large volumes leading to this low blood count. There are several different causes of this from hemorrhoids, intestinal worms, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. My advice is that you should get consulted by a gastroenterologist who would investigate and get the cause of this. From there, personalised and adapted solutions would be proposed to you. Please, spicy food, though less likely to cause bleeding in the digestive tract, would not cause bleeding that manifests with bright coloured blood. It is clearly not related to this. Get consulted by a Gastroenterologist for adequate investigations and management. I wish you well in your pursuit of solutions to this. Dr. Ditah, MD