What is gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding?
Gastrointestinal (gas-troh-in-TES-ti-nal) bleeding may happen when you have another disease or condition. The gastrointestinal (GI) system in your body includes your stomach and your intestines, but GI bleeding can occur anywhere in your digestive (deye-JES-tiv) tract. The digestive tract is the path that food takes through your body as it is digested. Your digestive tract includes your esophagus (e-SOF-ah-gus), stomach, and the large and small intestines (in-TES-tins). The esophagus is the tube that carries food from your mouth to your stomach. The intestines are the tubes that carry food from your stomach to your rectum and anus (rear end). How is a GI bleed described? Caregivers will check to see where you are bleeding from. They will try to find out how long you have been bleeding. They will also check to see how much blood you have lost. From this information, caregivers may describe your GI bleed as follows: • Upper GI bleeding: Bleeding in the esophagus, stomach, or the beginnin
