diarrhea for almost a month... What could it be?

[mojo101]

tan colored stool??

[Flamingo13]

OP hasn't come back

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by AnnieA

Some months later, I am better now and symptoms have abated but I believe the ordeal left me in poorer health than I was before. And, I also believe that I may have brought the original health onslaught on myself. I don't have a gall bladder. At the time it started, I was consuming a lot of fat products, cream cheeses, deli sandwiches, just really consuming a lot of unhealthy things to excess, almost an obsessive episode. I was going through a lot of personal stress. I read up a lot on my symptoms, etc, etc, and the results of various blood tests and, I wondered if I overloaded my liver with fatty and processed foods and my liver and my gastro system just rebelled. I believe so. I haven't done that again.

Re the bolded, I wouldn't be surprised. It's great that you figured it out on your own. I didn't know this before I got liver disease myself, but the liver really doesn't like processed foods or a lot of saturated fat. I'm sure you're being kind to your liver by eating foods with fiber, fatty fish like salmon, whole fruits and vegetables and drinking lots of water.

[mike1003]

Originally Posted by HappyFarm34

So for about a month, I've been having consistent diarrhea, usually twice a day. It happens in the morning and then in the evening. The color is usually brown or tan.

I'm in my early 40's, never had a colonoscopy yet. There's no history of cancer in my family so I don't think it's that but ya never know....

I'm just nervous going to the doctor getting it checked out.

Diarrhea for a month, GO SEE MD!

[Medical Lab Guy]

They are long gone.

Reminds name though of people on Amazon selling T-shirts for National Medical Laboratory week that says

"I'm a proud Medical Laboratory Scientist

Without me your doctor is just guessing"

A little over the top that I found funny.

There's nothing we can do without somebody seeing a doctor and people would be just guessing. The number of tests that I can think of is off the charts depending on the medical history and social history and physical. A test for enteric pathogens along with ova. and parasites would be appropriate. Other people have mentioned steatorrhea (fat malabsorption) and fecal fat content tests are available for quantitative and qualitative fats present in stool associated with pancreatic insufficiency. One important question that is easy to determine is stool containing increased fat is very light and hard to flush down the toilet. Test for causes of osmotic diarrhea like with lactose intolerance are not very good because one needs liquid stool and not simply soft stools for adequate analysis. Hydrogen breath test is best for that. Stools for C diff are often rejected because the stools submitted have been solid with no diarrhea present. A fecal leukocyte test is a test for white blood cells in the stool and is seen in cases of colitis both infectious and autoimmune. A stool for blood is also helpful for that. The blood tests are needed to make sure there is no electrolyte imbalances as potassium is often lost with diarrhea. One can do an acute abdomen blood panel that includes pancreatic enzymes and liver enzymes. Those are starting screening tests and there are secondary and tertiary tests that would include some of the weird stuff.

The doctor and anyone else is a disadvantage without testing in order to find out what is going on. You don't want it to get out of hand because one can end up with an arrhythmia caused by the an electrolyte imbalance as a result of the diarrhea.