Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Is my Bowel habits normal?

Please help - Stool is abnormal


Age: 15

Sex: Male

Height/weight: 5’8”/130

Health conditions: None (nothing that I know of)

Location: Abdomen, colon

I don’t drink, smoke, or do any drugs

With the current state of the world, my parents are hesitant to go to the doctors to check this out.

Symptoms: I have some abdominal discomfort (dull pain, sharp pain, irritation, twitching) and my stool is abnormal. Now I do not know if my stool was always like this since I’ve only started to notice a few months ago.

History: On January 9th, I had really bad abdominal pain (I just thought it was a really bad stomach ache) but it lasted for more than a few days. On the third day, I woke up midnight to go to the restroom and it was just liquid. Now I figured it was just fecal impaction as I usually hold in my poop a lot (I don’t anymore since this incident). For the next few day I continued to strain a lot. (Multiple times a day, nothing came out) so I knew I had to get stool softeners, which worked. Ever since then, I’ve paid more attention to my bowel movements and abdominal pain. I get abdominal discomfort every day and my bowel movement frequency turned to once every day (like I said, I didn’t want to get fecal impaction again). My worries really began when I started to search up the symptoms and I’ve came to IBS and Colon Cancer. Now they have similar symptoms (from what I read) but Colon Cancer has internal bleeding (I’ve always pushed this idea away as it’s a really really small chance to get it at this age, but now I’m reconsidering it). So every time I go to the restroom, I always check for blood. Occasionally, I see black specks/flecks which I thought it was just some peppers/seeds/something I ate. But what does show up most of the times is darker spots on my stool. I’ve read stools should be uniformed in color so this caught my attention. Picture: (https://imgur.com/a/28t9gSX) as you can see there’s a huge dark spot on the stool and there seems to be mucus on it. I don’t know what blood in stool looks like, and google gets me nowhere. I’ve been told it’s probably just food, but it happens quite occasionally. There’s no online resources that helps me with this. It’s my main concern. (Also there’s a little red on the other piece) This also leads to another concern which is stool structure. It’s not firm and sausage shape. I get the sausage shape once in a while, but recently, my stool have been more wet and break easily, when flushed, the water turns color. (Like the picture) the next concern is that I see undigested food in it. people say it’s just my diet, but i don’t know.

I’m really scared, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Other symptoms: anus twitching and lower abdominal twitches. Left abdominal side pain. Cramps. Anus itching. Pelvic pain. Want to poop, nothing comes out(Not anymore). passing gas (more than usual, or maybe I just noticed it more). Stool floats.

Happened ONCE: Colon (left side pain) when pooping.

I will provide any other information in needed/asked.
1 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
973741 tn?1342342773
It would be really unlikely that you had anything like colon cancer at your age.  That is fact that you don't fit the usual demographics which makes the odds next to zero. IBS is something though that many have.  It's manageable.  And the things people do on their own without medication include keeping a food diary and looking for triggers, then avoiding them and managing their stress.  There are a lot of normal things we eat that result in black specks in stool.  Banana for example.  Or it can be bacterial in nature.  Or parasitic.  Any other issues like foul odor or weight loss?  https://www.healthline.com/health/black-specks-in-stool#treatments
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Gastroenterology Community

Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Learn which OTC medications can help relieve your digestive troubles.
Is a gluten-free diet right for you?
Discover common causes of and remedies for heartburn.
This common yet mysterious bowel condition plagues millions of Americans
Don't get burned again. Banish nighttime heartburn with these quick tips
Get answers to your top questions about this pervasive digestive problem