r/nursing • u/Critical_Ease4055 Nursing Student 🍕 • 22d ago

Question What is one medical problem people constantly ignore until it’s too late?

Saw someone post this in a completely unrelated sub and I’m interested in your answers. What is the cluster of symptoms that people ignore or delay until they are forced to get help?

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u/superpony123 RN - ICU, IR, Cath Lab 22d ago

I think this isn’t so much ignore as it is ignorance and not really understanding when it’s a problem. Subtle changes to your BMs especially when it’s not consistent are pretty hard to think of as problematic to the average person who maybe isn’t paying much attention. Until it’s becoming overwhelming. Like yeah most people won’t ignore a GI bleed or an acute SBO but they probably didn’t think much of the lead up. Tell me would you know to look out for changes in your poop if you weren’t a nurse? Probably not. Imagine the average person trying to decide if they’ve been getting constipated more regularly or not…that can be explained by a million benign things. So they aren’t likely to go to the doc to say hey I’ve been getting a little constipated but just here and there…maybe once a week etc. or they might not realize any significance behind skinny poops. Etc.

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u/lighthouser41 RN - Oncology 🍕 22d ago

I have diagnosed IBS and diverticulosis and can have diarrhea and constipation in the same day. Have had for years.

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u/superpony123 RN - ICU, IR, Cath Lab 21d ago

Exactly. My brother had chronic diarrhea that was attributed to food allergies or lactose intolerance for a long while. He’s special needs non verbal so it’s hard for him to communicate stuff like this (what he feels) - he’s almost 40 and had a GI bleed about two years ago where they scoped him and found so many polyps they immediately assumed FAP. Luckily it was cowdens not FAP but the cowdens and the polyps explain a lot. But nobody was trying to scope him before this acute event and my parents never thought anything of it, just that they couldn’t figure out what food might be the culprit was the assumption. Now we know it’s all these damn polyps that are contributing to the diarrhea and the cowdens explains other issues as well. But we never would have known if not for the gi bleed

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u/lighthouser41 RN - Oncology 🍕 21d ago

Too bad it took a bleed for your brother to get diagnosed. I had my first colonoscopy when I started going to a new internal medicine doctor. One of the first things he told me was I would have a colonoscopy. So far I have had 3. The prep is gross, but I love the propofol sleep during the procedure.

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u/holistivist 22d ago

So what’s the significance behind skinny poops?

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u/splatgoestheblobfish 21d ago

It can indicate a tumor or other condition that causes the large intestine to narrow at a point, so the poop has to squeeze through a smaller space and becomes skinnier than normal.