I have a friend that has been having bowel problems for the past 6-7 years with no significant changes. He has trouble having an urge to go to the bathroom and feels more comfortable developing an urge when he is not around anyone. When he does go to the bathroom, he is generally in the bathroom for 3 hours and even has a set schedule of when he goes (which is normally once every 3 days). The stool is normal color and is not hard, but each time he does go to the bathroom there is a lot of mucous and blood present. Afterwards, his stomach is cramping and bloated and cannot lay down. He often has to sit up for hours in order to rest his stomach. He does not experience any sharp pain but more of achiness and discomfort. He describes it as "armor being pushed into his stomach." There are no other symptoms generally associated with this. I am studying nursing and know that a person should have 5-30 bowel sounds per minute. He generally does not have many bowel sounds and today I counted for a full five minutes and could not pick up any bowel sound at all in any of the four quadrants of his abdomen. I was just curious if anyone had any input or ideas of what this could be. He has not seen a gastroenterologist yet due to no health insurance so there haven't been any tests done to rule anything out. Thank you so much.