Eww! Help! Stool sample!??! ugh!?!
Question: My Dr. wants a stool sample cuz he thinks I have a parasite from my trip to the Philippines recentlly... stupid, I know. I don't think it's a parasite!!
nevertheless, i have NEVER had to do this! It's so embarassing!!! HOW do I do this?? I need it by 8am tomorrow and I'm not supposed to eat cuz he's also doing blood work and I don't have to go!! AH!
Answers: My Dr. wants a stool sample cuz he thinks I have a parasite from my trip to the Philippines recentlly... stupid, I know. I don't think it's a parasite!!
nevertheless, i have NEVER had to do this! It's so embarassing!!! HOW do I do this?? I need it by 8am tomorrow and I'm not supposed to eat cuz he's also doing blood work and I don't have to go!! AH!
There's supposed to be a paper that you put down in the toilet to catch the sample. If they didn't give you one I suggest using wax paper so that the paper doesn't dissolve in the water.
You put it down on the water, go, and collect.
If you're not allowed to eat and you don't have to go I don't' know what to tell you. Can you call your doctor's line - they usually have people who answer after hour questions. ask them if it's ok to take a laxative or something.
ew. that is really weird i have never heard of that! i can't really think of what you could do, unless its okay for you to maybe take a laxative, but once again, ew. he's your doc though, he should be able to understand if you cannot get it to him by tomorrow.. good luck really i am sorry. don't worry i'm sure it will work out fine :-)
you could always get a latex glove and stick you finger in, then wipe the finger off in a plastic bag or pull the glove off inside out and just take that to him. they don't need much, just some to smear on a test slide
You should have a cup from the lab to do this- but any small clean container will do. You will also probably feel more comfy in the catching position if you have on a pair of gloves. The rest, as they say, should come naturally. If you can't provide the sample right now, then of course you will have to wait until you can. Just don't get so worked up over this that you constipate yourself. It's really not a big deal. Stool is just dinner, revisited. It's not a stupid test, as the tropics are host to a great number of parasites, and that category doesn't just mean worms dear. It can be amoebas and such as well- anything that survives off you is a parasite. Given your history of a visit to the Philippines, and obviously you are now ill, it's a senisble place to start looking. If you can drink liquids, I suggest you start drinking. The action of swallowing stimulates the colon to ripple and move matters down the line. You may have to strain a bit, but one time won't hurt anything. If you catch tonight, store it in a plastic bag in the fridge until morning. You don't want it out room temp for long, trust me. And if you think it's ewww- just give a thought to the lab tech whose job it will be to inspect it. Now that's a real ewww, and why I am a nurse and not a lab tech.
There's this hat-shaped device you can get to put in the toilet that makes it easier to get the sample. If you use one, it's easier to relax and let nature do its thing, instead of having to hold a cup in place or something, which can make you more tense. (You should be able to ask the doctor for one of these things, or they may sell them at medical supply stores if there's one near you.) Normally, I would recommend eating to help things along, but since you can't do that, try drinking some water (one thing about that- make sure you pee before you collect the stool sample, since you don't want to get pee in the sample container) and excercising, since both of those things should get things moving. When you try to collect the sample, be sure to relax; give yourself as much time as you need to do it, make sure people leave you alone (you don't want to get shy bowels because of people bugging you), and if it usually helps you to read, listen to music, or whatever else, go right ahead. The thing you don't want to do is try to force it- all the tension from doing so can often just make things more difficult, and if you already could have some problems, straining may make them worse.