When to see a doctor about loose stools?

Sarah94 said:
Refer adults using a suspected cancer pathway referral (for an appointment within 2 weeks) for colorectal cancer if:

............
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I wouldn't have been on the suspected cancer pathway, then, as I didn't meet any of those guidelines and I waited a good couple of months for the lower endoscopy the first time around. I can't recall the second quite as clearly, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't within a fortnight (I'd have been worried if the appointment had come through that quickly!).

Hope you manage to make progress on it – fingers crossed.
 
Arnie Pye said:
Fecal occult blood tests can give false positives and false negatives under quite a lot of different circumstances. It is possible to reduce the risk of false positives and false negatives but, strangely, patients aren't very often told about them.
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Yep. I even asked my GP if the iron tablets I was taking at the time could cause a false positive. She assured me it wouldn't. I was referred to a specialist who wanted to rerun the test and gave me a list of food and supplements to avoid completely in the couple of days prior to the new test. (Similar to the list in Arnie Pye's post above).

I told him I had been taking iron and regularly ate at least one item on the list (often more) daily and had done prior to the first test. He just laughed and said that happened all the time! :banghead:
 
Invisible Woman said:
Yep. I even asked my GP if the iron tablets I was taking at the time could cause a false positive. She assured me it wouldn't. I was referred to a specialist who wanted to rerun the test and gave me a list of food and supplements to avoid completely in the couple of days prior to the new test. (Similar to the list in Arnie Pye's post above).

I told him I had been taking iron and regularly ate at least one item on the list (often more) daily and had done prior to the first test. He just laughed and said that happened all the time! :banghead:
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I had a false negative on testing, despite being able to see dark red blood in my poo. I had been taking vitamin C.
 
Sarah94 said:
Please don't just reply saying talk to a doctor; I will probably do that, but I don't know whether I can trust the doctor to assess me correctly anyway (after all, the guy I know who died of bowel cancer had been told by his GP that his stools probably weren't anything to worry about), so I need to know what their response ought to be, so that I'll know whether I need to get a second opinion!
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I hate to say this but you are asking for medical advice. I could give all sorts of rules of thumb but they are all easily enough misinterpreted. The only answer is that if you are worried you should see your doctor. Forums can so easily become places where people falsely reassure each other or encourage others to pursue unnecessary or baseless tests or treatments.
 
Arnie Pye said:
Fecal occult blood tests can give false positives and false negatives under quite a lot of different circumstances. It is possible to reduce the risk of false positives and false negatives but, strangely, patients aren't very often told about them.

The following advice comes from labtestsonline : https://labtestsonline.org.uk/tests/faecal-occult-blood-test-and-faecal-immunochemical-test
Click on all the + signs to see more detail on the above link, except for the first + sign next to "Choose Topic+" which takes you to the search page.

I've actually seen more detailed and specific advice from other places than labtestsonline but can't remember where it came from. It would be worth doing more research on false positives and false negatives in FOBT - Fecal Occult Blood Testing.
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Dang, well I certainly didn't stop my vitamin C supplements before doing the test, so that means a false negative was possible.
There's still my low calprotectin though. :)
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
I hate to say this but you are asking for medical advice. I could give all sorts of rules of thumb but they are all easily enough misinterpreted. The only answer is that if you are worried you should see your doctor. Forums can so easily become places where people falsely reassure each other or encourage others to pursue unnecessary or baseless tests or treatments.
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I know. I will see the doctor. But I feel like doctors are so unreliable that I won't know if I can trust them anyway. I know a bloke who went to his GP about persistent loose stools and GP said that it was probably stress related and didn't refer him on. A couple years later he died of bowel cancer. If it had been caught earlier then he may not have died. So how can I trust the doctor to be right?

Thanks to the cuts to the NHS necessitating reductions in referrals, his two small children are now growing up without their father. :(
 
Sarah94 said:
I feel like doctors are so unreliable that I won't know if I can trust them anyway.
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I do know what you mean. On the other hand....think of all the times they do get it right. We don't always hear about that. I'm not a huge fan, as many of you probably already know, but some are genuinely very good.

I always have to talk myself into going and will admit that I have caused myself needless suffering by dragging my feet. Reliable or not they definitely can't help if you don't consult them.

I do sympathise with how you feel though. :hug:
 
Sarah94 said:
I know. I will see the doctor. But I feel like doctors are so unreliable that I won't know if I can trust them anyway. I know a bloke who went to his GP about persistent loose stools and GP said that it was probably stress related and didn't refer him on. A couple years later he died of bowel cancer. If it had been caught earlier then he may not have died. So how can I trust the doctor to be right?

Thanks to the cuts to the NHS necessitating reductions in referrals, his two small children are now growing up without their father. :(
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I understand as I feel the same to. I've had stomach problems all my life but recently they've got worse in my upper stomach, also loose stools and pain. The GP refused to refer me, saying I need to take hi strengthPPIs for a few months before they even consider it. And even then, only refer me to indigestion clinic, not even a full gastroenterology appointment! They also refuse to Refer me anywhere except my local hospital, and my local hospital is from my experience bad in terms of care or even investigations. I think some doctors do restrict referrals and it's awful.

In my case I will be seeing a Specific neurogastroenterologist privately when I can, one who was recommended to me, as I just cannot cope with my GP and my local hospital anymore.

I think whether or not there is a suspicion of bowel cancer, it's still worth pushing for a referral. I say that because , even if it is something like IBS or “stress”, there are medications for that that can help loose tools - amitriptyline, mebeverine, etc. Although I think for IBS some doctors do fob you off, don't let them! Things like diet can help to, example low histamine diet I found helpful. Or it may be something else altogether causing loose stools!
 
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Invisible Woman said:
Sometimes GP referrals are refused or limited higher up the chain by the CCGs or the regional authority is. So while it may well be the individual GP, sometimes it's not their fault.
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Yes it can be the fault of the CCG or someone higher up, my GP has told me that before about not referring to other hospitals - I’ve been told it’s too expensive. Same with Some pain relief. Funding cuts are to blame in many cases definitely. But the end result is the same :(
 
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