Posts by Scott Jackson40

So, here’s my situation—I’ve got a desk job, so I don't move around much, currently sitting at about 230 lbs and 6'5" (though I'm a pretty active guy otherwise :-)). Back in April last year, I dealt with some nasty diarrhea with quite a bit of blood; my doctor figured it was Salmonella since I was running a fever. We did a colonoscopy, and man, the lining looked seriously damaged. No other issues at the time, though. About 20-25 days later, once things settled down, the doctor ran another colonoscopy and concluded the lining had recovered incredibly fast—like nothing had even happened. Since then, I’ve had two instances where there was a bit more blood after a bowel movement (you can see it in the toilet), but both were last year following weddings—specifically in August and November—after I went a little too hard on the Jagermeister and God knows what else. So, that's the brief history to give you some context... The thing actually bothering me now is that every 10 days or so, I get a dot or two of blood on the toilet paper (nothing more), but you can clearly see it's just tiny fissures (about 1mm) around the anus. That area gets itchy sometimes, and when you combine that with hard stools, you get those little spots of blood (though since I stopped using softeners, the itching has basically vanished). I went to the doctor and had my blood work, CBC, and urine tested... all the results came back fine, except my white blood cell count was 10.7 (the normal range goes up to 10.0), but that's likely because I have a slight bacterial presence in my urine (white cells were 2-4, which is fine since the limit is 5, plus some mucus and "something" regarding bacteria... whatever that means). Everything else looks solid—Sed rate is 4, lipids are good, liver enzymes are fine, and my lymphocytes on the CBC were 41 (range is 20-40), but the doctor said not to sweat it. Basically, looking for opinions. To put it simply: every 15 days or so, due to hard stools, I see a speck or two of blood on the paper, but it's visibly from an anal fissure. When my stools aren't that frequent or hard, the problem disappears. I had two colonoscopies last year, and the results were fine. Should I be worried, or should I just lose a few pounds? :-) Maybe drop another 10-15 lbs, move around a bit more, and eat lighter. Cheers and thanks to everyone for the input...

So, I figured I’d throw my question out here too. Just saw my urologist, and apparently, I’ve got a varicocele on my left side—nothing major, but since my wife and I are trying to conceive, I’m going to get a sperm count done first to see if we even need to mess with it... but that's not actually why I'm posting. I have these two little spots, about 2mm each, just below the head (I was circumcised when I was a toddler), that tend to turn a bit red during sex. Both my dermatologist and my urologist—who are both top-tier specialists, by the way—think they’re just some minor depigmentation issues. I’ve already had an ultrasound on my testicles and penis, plus a blood test for LDH (which I think is what it's called) to rule out testicular cancer, and everything came back totally fine. Here’s the kicker, though: I keep getting this intermittent pain—ranging from my right heel all the way up my leg to the head of my penis. On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s barely a 1.5, just a light annoyance, but it's constant enough to bug me. Even though these two experts agree on the diagnosis, I still can't shake the anxiety. To make matters worse, I deal with this weird burning sensation on my tongue (still undiagnosed, despite being swabbed) and occasional shortness of breath—though that’s improved since I started smoking again :-( so I’m thinking maybe it’s a mix of stress, carrying extra weight, and just being a couch potato. Has anyone else dealt with anything similar? If you've been through something like this, please reach out—just looking for some friendly advice. Thanks.