Lauren

Absolutely.

Okay.

So this is coming from Today I Fucked Up titled, Today I Fucked Up Dismissing Bright Red Blood in My Stool for Years.

If you're currently experiencing this symptom, please read.

My experience.

I've had small amounts of bright red blood on my stool for years.

I had always dismissed this finding because I'm young with a horrible diet.

I've always been taught that black stool is the worrisome stool, as that's indicative of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, whereas stool that has bright red blood just indicates hemorrhoids.

My logic for dismissing the bright red blood...

I've had a diet consisting of high sugar, high fat, processed foods with low fiber, in addition to being very inactive, causing constipation and straining.

So bleeding from straining just made sense.

I'm 6'1", at 225 pounds.

Blood was not consistent.

It came and went.

There was not a lot of blood, and when it was, it looked like skid marks on the stool, something I thought was obviously related to hemorrhoids.

I'm young, 29.

Family history of hemorrhoids.

So I thought me having hemorrhoids was just part of the family business.

Also lack of education, especially knowledge relating to polyps, an abnormal tissue formation resembling a skin tag in the colon.

Why did I eventually meet with a GI specialist?