Various bowel issues, feeling I’m not emptying correctly. Ideas?

In fall of 2020, I started feeling constipated. It started by continuing to ignoring the urge to go. Since then I’ve been going most days and some days I’ll go decent amounts, and there’s also days I’ll skip and won’t go. I feel like I’ve been going through cycles with my bowels, where I won’t be going for several days, and then I start going consistently for days/weeks, and then when I’ve started getting more out, when I’m on the toilet I feel like I need to go more, but like it’s too hard, painful, or like I couldn’t physically push to get out what feels like more stool in me. When I’m like that, I feel like there’s cramps and kind of like pressure, like I want to push to go but if I did nothing would come out or it’d be loose. Sometimes I’ll have a bowel movement and then feel like I need to go more but can’t, and it’s like a cramps feeling at times.

In I think 2022, there were times when I’d either have a bowel movement or didn’t have one but felt like I needed to, and then all that came out was stool that wasn’t formed. It looked like a pile of unformed stool, and in my mind thought of it as looking like coffee grounds, but it was brown and not tarry. Earlier this year I was walking a dog and after walking, it gave me the urge to have a bowel movement, but when I went at least some of the stool was unformed like it was in 2022. It worried me to see my stool like that because I don’t know if it meant I had internal bleeding, even though the stool wasn’t black or tarry looking.

Around I think summer 2024, there were a few days where it looked like there was a line of blood on my stool. I thought it lasted for a few days, and I was thinking it came back a couple or few weeks later, but I don’t remember for sure. I also thought something similar happened later that year, like In October.

Towards the end of 2025, I started having what looks like mucus sometimes when I use the bathroom. Sometimes I’ll just urinate and there’s mucus in the toilet bowel or what looks like a white stringy object, and sometimes there’s been mucus hanging down the front of me, either after urinating or having a bowl movement. I’ve been worried about this because it’s been happening somewhat often.

I saw a nurse practitioner for some of this in early 2024, and she mentioned to try taking meta mucil everyday for 30 days. I haven’t done that and have been hesitant to because sometimes when I’ve done things to try and get a bowel movement, I start feeling like I have cramps and need to go, and either can’t go or all that comes out is loose or unformed.

I’m not even sure if constipation is the right word to describe what’s been going on because I’m going normal amounts and at times my bowel movements are consistent. I thought constipation can also mean a feeling like I’m not getting everything out, and I feel that way often. Sometimes I think I feel that way out of my toilet habits or stress, and like sometimes it seems like I’m not relaxing enough on the toilet to get more out. At times it’s felt like there’s something more going on besides a feeling like I’m not getting everything out, and like sometimes I’m not sure if I can get everything out on my own. I’ve felt confused at times because when I go, often it’s a decent amount and sometimes thick too, and I don’t really understand how I could be going like that and feel like there’s stool I can’t get out. I’ve wondered if I could possibly have a fecal impaction or hardened stool, or if it’s something else.

Has anyone else experienced something like this, or know what could possibly be going on?