So I'm a 23 year old male who earlier this year had a bad health scare.
Now because of this Ive become hyper self aware about anything I may feel in my body.
Last week I was diagnosed with gastritis, and have been getting the proper medical help necessary. But, being the paranoid child I am, I had to go to Dr Google to make sure all was well. Evidently as some of you may know, I got everything from stomach ulcer, to cancer, to spontaneous combustion. So I decided to just straight out and ask.
I read that black ground coffee like substances in stool can be a worry or it can just be pepper and undigested food and nothing to worry about.
Warning things are going to get gross here
Ever since I read those articles I became hyper aware of my stools, to the point where I would regularly (with a gloved hand) scoop up my poop and check it.
To date I have yet to really find any sort of black ground coffee bean types that I've seen in pictures on Google, but, I did notice once or twice a pepper like substance on my toilet paper when I wipe, but not on or in the stool, again these don't look like the extremely black tarry flakes I see online and if anything look like bits of pepper that just came out and there isn't much of it, maybe a tiny dot here and there but it's obviously very pepper like in nature (it doesn't dissolve in water and can be grabbed etc etc). Plus there hasn't been any other signs of bleeding, no anemia, no feeling faint, that sorta thing.
And as stated before they are only really noticeable when I wipe and even then after one good wipe they aren't there anymore (9/10 times they seem more very dark brown than black).
So should I be worried? Or should I just assume it's food and spices? To reiterate
-they are very VERY miniscule and you can really only see them on a white piece of toilet paper and even then are still very tiny where you'd have to actively look for them and again look like pepper (very flat black like paper and brake a part like pepper usually does.
-i have had no prior history of ulcer or stomach troubles (nor does my family)
-ive had no symptoms that point to anything other than my gastritis (I know symptoms aren't always a good indicator but, work with me lol)
-Ive also had no pain in my abdomen or rectum during a bowel movement
- my bowels are still a healthy brown with occasional darker shade of brown (basically compare caramel and chocolate thats the shades)
-there has been no RED or bloody stools (I did have a mini dot of red but has since concluded it was due to my anus having a tiny cut that we all get)
-and the flakes don't look anything like the shape, sheen (all the pictures show the flakes have a very shiny color almost tar like) consistency (a lot of the flakes I've seen seem almost clay like or dough like) or volume that would usually be associated with bleeding. They are matte like pepper or other spices
As previously stated this new hyper awareness to it could be chalked up to my health scare earlier in the year, in fact if I could go back in time I feel like these black specs have always been there and I just never paid them any attention until now since I've had tummy troubles.