Stool samples seem to be one thing that the docs are persistent on me doing but I don't want to I find it invasive and I get very upset and annoyed when people talk about it, I try to joke about it but I hate it. Any tips about calming myself?
Thanx for reading x
As I replied to the post above, people pick this career and look at/hear about stool, butts and gas all day every day. Nothing unique, unusual or disturbing to them. So don't be afraid to supply your stool. It's probably not that different from other IBS samples.
Its not intrusive at all - very easy to do and you should get easy instructions. It's a very quick was to check for blood in stools, which can have several causes, so well worth doing. I'm 74 and I've had to repeat routine screening samples several times - there are much worse things happening all the time!
I see stools as a research tool, as scientific data I produce every day. I look behind me in the toilet bowl every day. I even poop in a bit of toilet paper that I hold at my exit sometimes, so I can have a look. It has told me so much about my digestive tract and it has helped me figure out my problems.
The colour tells about bile and fat digestion. The consistency tells you about how your colon is doing. Any bits in there give clues about what is not properly digested by your system (nuts, tomato skins) and these things annoy your intestine walls a lot so better avoid them.
I gave stool samples once, to have it examined for bacteria colonies. I can imagine you do not like that procedure one bit. It's icky. But it's not very often you have to do that. My tips for you are: 1. just suffer it occasionally and think about the nice thing you are going to reward yourself with afterwards. or 2. tell your doctor: "what are my other options?"
Best wishes, Anna
I've said about other options they are testing bacteria but they said that same bacteria can be detected in a hydrogen breath test (what I'm trying to go for) I was thinking that if the hydrogen shows up with nothing wrong I will think about stool samplaing but if it comes back as something wrong and we can treat that then I'm sorted and can spare the anxiety of it all x
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