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- Path: sparky!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
- From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
- Newsgroups: sci.med
- Subject: Blood in Stools
- Message-ID: <69985@cup.portal.com>
- Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 17:46:08 PST
- Organization: The Portal System (TM)
- Lines: 25
-
- I am under the impression that blood in the stool is always a symptom
- which should be checked out for the possibility of intestinal cancer.
- Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to the seriousness of this
- symptom.
-
- Yesterday I ate a whole box of Triscuit crackers (a type of whole
- wheat cracker high in fiber), and this morning when I passed it
- out, what seemed to be blood came out after the cracker waste.
- The amount of blood was quite small, at the most perhaps half of a
- small thimbleful. Subsequent bowel movements showed no blood.
-
- I've noticed this on rare occasions in the past, but I always
- dismissed it because I usually could think of something red like
- a red bell pepper that I had eaten recently. But this time I was
- pretty sure I hadn't eaten anything red recently.
-
- Still, I'm suspicious it might not be blood because it was so
- bright red. The last two times I went to the hospital for something,
- they turned out to be false alarms, so I don't want to bother with
- it unless it seems like a serious indication. Especially considering
- what sort of diagnostic procedure they would be likely to use.
-
- I plan to call the hospital and ask them whether I should come in for
- an examination, but I'd also like to hear from people on the net
- who know about this subject.
-