cannot stop checking

[pete24]

Ijust cannot stop checking my stools and if its not perfect i check as much as 20 times a day.I have a dread of bowel cancer as i know 2 people died recently.Ialso know that there are other symptoms but i have tunnel vision and cannot calm down.I am starting to see things that really arnt ther iam sure.Am i going over some edge ?

[Rennie1989]

Bowel cancer symptoms are not in the stools but how you excrete them. If you are really concerned about it then you need to see your doctor.

[pete24]

hi rennie i have no other symptoms but how do you mean excrete them?

[Rennie1989]

If you have a regular pattern I which you excrete, with no changes to diet and no stress and axiety, it can be a cause of concern, and especially for those who are over 60. If you have no other symptoms then you should be fine

[alicegreen]

How do you mean that you are checking 20 times a day?
Are you going to the toilet that may times, or are you saving your stools to examine?!

[pete24]

i save on tissue to examine

[alicegreen]

It sounds to me more like an obsession than bowel cancer.

Have you any physical symptoms that would actually indicate anything pointing to a problem like blood in your stools, or a change in bowel pattern?

[Rennie1989]

Pete, unless you have equipment in the labs to test stools you won't get much information from simply looking at a stool, believe me.

[pete24]

It is an obsession i know as i have been like this for 18months plus but unless the stool is perfect i have to keep looking......i have tried just not looking but then i think i have suspious stain on my hands when i wash them afterwards.....or a mark on a towel after a shower then we change all towels to black ones and it just goes on and on...so that its not just going to the loo but afterwards i start doubting myself

[olderfella]

Pete you realy should go and discuss this with your gp,its not healthy to have an obsession like this,your gp would be able to sort out a lab test to reasure you you dont have bowel cancer