how pale is pale for BM?

[Eek]

I have been getting pale stools now since about October. I mentioned it to my GP and he asked me where they white, I said no, pale yellowy brown and sometimes a dark beige. He then seemed to think it odd that I was worried but did a liver function test which came back normal and I'd recently had an abdominal ultrasound and CT that showed that my bile duct wasn't blocked at all so he seemed to think everything was all right. There was also normal readings for bilirubin in my blood. I mentioned it again a few months later and he did another liver function test to put my mind at rest - again it was normal as was the bilirubin.

My question is, how pale would your stools need to be to be worried, is he right by saying they'd be white or almost white?

[Tessar]

hi eek. I find that the colour of my stools depends a lot on what I am eating. You could always try eating something like dark chocolate or maybe beetroot which can change the colour of them? That way you'd be able to see relatively easily that the colour is dependent on your diet? Don't be alarmed if beetroot makes your wee change colour too because if you eat say 2/3 of them it can make it go a pinky colour. I find if I eat several of them, I can indeed see a change in the colour of my poop. Again if I eat something with a lot of red in it, then again this can affect my poop. Hope this helps & really do try not to worry (easier said than done I know) but you have had all this checked out & all was ok. See if you can focus on the positive of that rather than thinking the worst. It is very unlikely this is anything out of the ordinary & as I say you could experiment with things that might change the colour. Not that I am encouraging you to be obsessing over it, I'd rather you were able to move on & take heart from the clean bill of health you were given.