# Stool hardness not consistent



## Dan1025 (Aug 28, 2011)

Does anyone else get this? The thing that keeps happening is I keep having stools that have parts of the stool which are MUCH firmer than the rest of the stool and are also darker. Not dark as in black, but dark as in a darker brown. It seems to be mostly around the ends of the stool or one end in particular but other times it's been in the middle. I don't know what could possibly be causing it. Is this typical with IBS to have a piece of stool that has hardness on one end or hardness in one spot and then is softer in the other areas? There is also ALWAYS undigested food in there, which i'm sure IS indicative of some form of IBS but the other thing has me puzzled. Like just now I had a piece of stool that was light brown and then had 2 darker brown spots at the end that were much harder than the rest of the stool. What the heck?


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

> There is also ALWAYS undigested food in there, which i'm sure IS indicative of some form of IBS


 Actually no it isn't indicative of IBS. EVERYONE has undigested bits in their stool if they eat vegetables/fruit.Studying your stool with your issues isn't too wise hon. What you have described is completely normal and everyone has those variations from time to time. Stop looking at it.


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## peaches41 (Nov 26, 2008)

A doctor once told me - "Wipe and walk away!" Quite good advice, I think.


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## Dan1025 (Aug 28, 2011)

peaches41 said:


> A doctor once told me - "Wipe and walk away!" Quite good advice, I think.


Generally, yes, but not always the case. If you take that advice you may miss some warning signs like black tarry stools. I still am not getting hungry (or thirsty for that matter). Still can eat a decent amount of food when I eat just because, but still not getting hungry. Was constipated and 2 Small pebble size stools came out today, had some black on the side of one of them, wasn't tarry though (ie didn't look like oil), also didn't seem like it was food or anything. Dunno if it was blood or something else. Will have to see if it persists. 6 days till my appointment with the GI doctor. Woke up last night sweating with a pounding heartbeat, though the pounding heartbeat suggests it might have been something else. Maybe a panic attack (I never had one, but the subconscious concern about all this might have triggered one, who knows). General soreness last night under my left ribcage and the side of my body. Keep getting general soreness that moves around also, sometimes the top of my wrist, sometimes my left kneecap, sometimes the right one, sometimes the top of my foot where the leg meets the foot. Lot of minor symptoms but i've been keeping track of all of them so I can report them to the GI doc. I am only paying attention to all this because I want to be thorough when I report to the GI doctor. It seems getting an appointment takes considerable time so I want to make sure I cover as much as I can right off the bat.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There is a lot of normal variation in stool colors, consistencies, etc in normal human beings. You may have parts of different meals mixed just a bit into one stool so that can look a bit funny.For the most part an in depth study doesn't tell you much as you never really looked at your stool before the IBS symptoms so you now can use every bit of normal "weirdness" as something to get worried about.A quick look for blood or black tarry is one thing, but analyzing each stool to see all the color variations and see how well you did or did not chew really doesn't do much for the information the doctor needs and can cause a lot of worry that isn't helpful.Stool does have a natural color change as it goes through and constipated stools tend to be much darker than stools that pass through a bit too quickly.


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