Diarrhea

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What to Expect at your Health Care Provider's Office

Your doctor will take a complete medical history and do a physical examination, paying careful attention to your abdomen.

Questions that the doctor may ask include:

• When did your diarrhea start?
• How long have you had diarrhea?
• What is the color and consistency of your stool?
• Do you have blood in your stool?
• Are you passing large amounts of mucus with your stool?
• What other symptoms do you have?
• Do you have abdominal pain or severe cramping with the diarrhea?
• Do you have fever or chills?
• Are any other family members sick?
• Have you recently traveled out of the country?
• What makes your pain worse? Stress? Specific foods?
• Have you had abdominal surgery?
• What medications do you take? Any recent changes to your medications?
• Do you drink coffee? How much?
• Do you drink alcohol? How much? How often?
• Do you smoke? How much each day?
• Are you on a special diet?

Your doctor will ask you to obtain one or more stool samples in special containers to test for signs of inflammation and infection and to identify the organism causing infection.

• chem-20 (to check electrolytes)
• urine specific gravity
• BUN and creatinine