Before I jump to conclusions

  Again, first let me thank you for your informative and timely response.
  I would like to address a few of your comments...
  The significance of guiaiac positive stool is uncertain. If you had the guaiac positive stool not associated with macroscopic
  bleeding ( i.e. you did not have visible blood during the week prior to the stool guaiac)thenI would be more concerned about
  conditions such as polyps.
  Let me clarify the bleeding ... The notice of blood after a bowel movement on the tissue
  was not often, and has not happened in two years or so, the incidents of (what appeared to me)
  large amount of blood has happened only twice in the past year, once last week (the day before
  the occult test was done) and about 8 months ago.  When the large amount of blood appears
  it is gone as fast as it came.  
   The bleeding that you describe
  in this and the subsequent postings could be due to polyps or
  hemarrhoids. The history of diarrhea, pains etc also made me
  think of conditions such as Crohn's Disease.
  Not diarrhea, but soft stools...that are sort of triangular shaped,
  and thinner than they use to be when I was say...twentyish.
  HFHSM.D.-rf
  *keywords: colorectal cancer, bleeding
  Now my question, is there any significance to the fact that you chose
  these key words?  :-)  (I could not help but notice)
______________
Dear Theresa,
The keywords were chosen for other readers who may be using the Forum as a source of medical information.  By searching the keywords they will obtain a wide range of information about a specific sublect.  Bleeding was chosen because it was the reason for your posting and is  a common problem.  Colorectal cancer was the second choice because of the importance of this disease and the need to emphsaize that bleeding may be a presentation of cancer.  There was no intention to suggest that this condition may be the cause of your bleeding.
HFHSM.D.-rf