Mucus After Colostomy - Is My Experience Normal?

I'm returning to the ostomate community for some opinions about the frequency of mucus being passed from the anus after a colostomy. My surgery was on 10/1/2019, and I've adjusted my diet to produce an easily maintained output and a routine that allows me to go about two weeks between barrier changes. I've chosen a diet of high fiber to produce this result. Of course, the bag needs more frequent changes, but I get good results by keeping the interior of the bag lubricated with mineral oil.

Furthermore, I am 78 and live in the Arizona desert where hydration is an absolute necessity for survival. I have BPH and have to urinate about every two hours, day and night, which most often requires me to be in an upright position. At night, every couple of hours, I have to stand and use a combination of finger manipulation and pressing to coax a few milliliters. During the day, no such manipulation is necessary.

So, since the beginning, I have experienced mucus leaking from my anus. Since most of my urinating during the day requires standing, I first have to sit on the toilet, every time, to pass a drop of mucus. But just a drop. At night, I use a handheld urinal and place a paper towel over my anus to catch the drop. The nighttime urination event usually takes about 4 to 6 minutes.

So, is this mucus frequency and quantity normal?

I know there are colostomates here who must have some level of experience with this mucus question. The reason I'm asking you first is that your input won't cost me several visits to expensive specialists to get an opinion 🤔.

Hi Keepers, I wish I could give you a good answer. I had my first surgery, for a colostomy, at the same time as you, and I've continued to have anal mucus from time to time. The amount and frequency vary and don't seem to be related to anything that I can discern. My question for the doctor would be why you aren't able to control the mucus from 'leaking' out. I've never had that problem. I can feel it sometimes before I sit on the toilet, a feeling like I need to have a BM, but I often don't feel anything and then when I sit down to pee, the mucus will come out. I've never had it leak out or been unable to control when it comes out. I hope you get some better answers.

Terry

Thanks, Terry,

To be clear, it usually doesn't "leak" out. It's when I relax in preparing to urinate, whatever that takes physiologically, it relaxes the sphincter and the drop oozes out.
What about quantity and frequency?

Hello,

I've had a colostomy for approximately 18 months. Usually, I pass mucus 3 to 4 times a week, a small amount... a couple of drops. I usually don't feel anything in the rectum area beforehand. Once in a while, I do get the pressure and urgency feeling, and release a teaspoon or more. I've noticed this happens when I eat a lot of food. Even though my butt is disconnected, the rectal stump still reacts to accommodate the increased food load, even though the digested food is diverted.

Mucus is normal. Sometimes mucus will get stuck and dry up in the rectum. Then one day it all comes out looking like grey, dry chalk. This happened to me once. I didn't have any mucus for 4 months. I visited my surgeon, who checked out the rectal stump (similar to a prostate check by a urologist). A day later, out it popped.

Hope this helps.

Hello Keepers 51.

Thank you for this post, which offers the opportunity of a cathartic rant.
On the other hand, I usually rant in rhyme, so I'll try to keep my reply in prose and 'factual' rather than emotional.
Before my stoma, I was incontinent of faeces, so a little bit of mucus now seems a small price to pay for being able to manage all that mess.
I don't like to appear to be a pessimist (even if that is what I sometimes am) but mucus is often a fact of life for those who still have any amount of colon still attached to the anus. 
In my case, I cannot control the output, which sometimes is nothing for days on end and sometimes it is overwhelming and unpredictable.
My 'management' (if it can be called that) is to wear an incontinence pad permanently. However, when the output is excessive this needs changing regularly. Unfortunately, the mucus does not absorb into these pads very well, so I need to wedge some tissue between my cheeks to try to stem the flow. Often this does not work and the only way I know that there is a problem is when I can feel it cold and wet in my underpants. Then I need to change the lot and start again. 
Sorry if this sounds depressing, but that's often what it is!
My way of 'coping' is to keep reminding myself that this mucus used to be faeces and I 'should' be grateful for the 'positive' change to mucus.  Sometimes this works and sometimes I feel the urge to write another rhyme on the subject to get it off my chest.
Perhaps the time has come for a fresh look at this vexing subject through the medium of rhyme!!
I am aware that some people have resolved this problem by having surgery to remove that part of the colon and have their anus sewn up permanently. This option has risks that I am not (yet) prepared to take, so for now, I must try to manage it as best I can.
Best wishes

Bill

PS: I'll leave you with my first rhyme on this subject (dated 2012), which still seems appropriate today

RECTAL STUMP MUCUS.

If there’s one thing’ gives me the hump
it’s mucus from my rectal stump.
They did not tell me this would be
a side–effect of ostomy.

With no faeces coming through
no way did I expect this goo.
It is so inconvenient
that I am still incontinent.

I thought that this would be all cured
once my ostomy matured.
However, it’s not gone away
and I fear it’s here to stay.

Sometimes brown and sometimes white
but mixed with blood is never right.
Then there’s yellow and there’s cream
which will flood out like a stream.

Sometimes it’s soft and sometimes hard
sometimes it’s slippery just like lard.
Occasionally I’ll get a chunk
but mostly it will look like gunk.

The mucus used to irritate
and refused to irrigate.
That method didn’t work so well
although it minimised smell.

When I reflect I must admit
sometimes I get fed up with it.
For I was not expecting this
every time I have a piss.

With both a plug and inco’ pad
you’d think it would not feel so bad.
But I still moan and I will grump
about the mucus from my stump.

                                    B. Withers 2012

How to Manage Ostomy Leaks with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

Hey beachboy. I literally can't pass any mucus hence the hole for my ileo. Severe pelvic floor dysfunction. The crazy part is he removed my rectal stump, kept the anus, but I have a very tiny piece of rectal stump. I shouldn't have any mucus or sloth, and the doctor even said it shouldn't be, but since I am such a weird, odd case of a patient, I do, since it's attached to the anus. But yeah, the hardening in there hurts horribly. Mine stays hard in there. It took a year for anything to come out over time.

I just love this web site.  Where else could someone discuss Anal mucus. (Almost sounds like a punk rock band).

Lol, right... it's normal for us. When you talk about it to someone who doesn't have an ostomy, they look at you like, "What in the world?" People that go normally don't realize that the rectum makes sloth and mucus.

Thank you, Bill,

Great rhyme.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

I just read this to my husband and we are still laughing. His ostomy was in late June after life-saving emergency surgery. The mucus continues to be annoying, but he is alive and we are grateful. Thank you for adding some humor to our lives.

Unfortunately, anal mucus is normal. I was told that the anus, even if partially removed, is still a living organism. Its job is to lubricate in order to pass the feces. It still thinks it's part of the process and equation of digestion and elimination. Therefore, it will continue to create and produce mucus in various amounts and colors. I still experience pain just prior to my anus expelling mucus. It sucks. The pressure is intense at times. I find it necessary to wear thin pads while this occurs for four or five days each month. Yes, it is inconvenient and annoying. But I have no choice living with a permanent ostomy now.

😂Hahahaha, love it!!! Thanks for the chuckle. 🤣

Thank you, Bill! I totally relate to the whole mucus issue!

I have had my colostomy since 4/2017; it took a while for me to come to be OK with it. I had no problems basically with the ostomy, and I am no longer experiencing the obstruction that caused so many hospital visits for over 25 years. I have had two since 2017, where I had been having multiple hospital visits before.

But in 2021, I started experiencing mucus drainage. It is daily, and it is at least 2 to 3 tablespoons in amount. I cannot control it, and it does leak. I have to wear a pad, and I change it at least once a day; sometimes twice. I haven't had to change more than twice, but it is upsetting and worrisome because it is uncontrollable. I am always nervous to go anywhere.

I have seen the doctors for it, and there is no solution other than to have a reversal. I won't have a reversal because I had so many bowel obstructions; I am afraid of having them again. And I have had so many surgeries already on my bowels: three resections and then the ostomy, plus them telling me it would be at least a two-surgery reversal.

I am scared to have anything done because I haven't had any major problems, and if I have the surgery, they cannot guarantee that I won't start having the obstructions again. Why go for more surgeries until I absolutely have to?

But living with the mucus is discomforting. We have mucus membranes in our colon that are causing the mucus, and because we are not using the colon, it has discontinuation mucus. I started a regimen of introducing fecal matter back into my colon to have some short-chain fatty acids back in my colon. It did help but became a hassle to keep getting a clean stool sample and having to deal with the cleanup and process, so I discontinued that. I have tried hemorrhoidal cream for the bleeding that I experience from my colon, and that has helped. But not the mucus. I have not found a solution for the mucus.

Life is a challenge, and I do live in fear of the drainage, but I wear pads and pay attention. Otherwise, the colostomy has changed my life for the better.

Good luck with your living situation and whatever the life living in a van can be. I lived in a motorhome for a long time. I bought a park model and now stay in one place. Life is a challenge, and I try to keep a smile and a good attitude, but some days it catches up to me, and I have to take a break from trying to control what goes on around me.

2selfbtru, with your rectum still intact, you will continue to have mucus and slough. There is nothing you can do to stop it. Your rectal stump is constantly making mucus. That part of your body's natural process; the mucus is created in the rectal stump and acts as a lubricant, so when you have a bowel movement, it helps slide it out. Then there is slough, which is the shedding of old cells in the rectum as new ones are created. The one and ONLY way to stop mucus is to have your rectum and anus removed.