Most people that end up in emergency rooms wrongly assume that they are not in any immediate danger because their symptoms are either absent, mild or vague. This illustrates how deceivingly silent and misleading the damage from fecal impactions truly is.

Far too often, the sufferer expects that if something serious suddenly were to happen to their colon, there would be a clear sign alerting them of an emergency.

For example, it is suggested that the most common indicator of a fecal impaction is abdominal pain. So, you might wait for severe pain in your abdomen before deciding to go to a doctor.

However, research indicates that more than half of all fecal impaction patients don’t even experience this apparently defining symptom.

Or, you might assume that if you don’t have chronic constipation problems, you don’t have to worry about a fecal impaction

But did you know that 31% of patients don’t report any chronic constipation before their fecal impaction incident?

The truth is, if you suspect that you currently have a fecal impaction or have had it in the past, relying on your symptoms is the worst way to tell how serious the condition of your colon is.

A single episode of a fecal impaction is enough to establish that your colon has already experienced significant damage and this damage will continue relentlessly whether you feel it or not

In fact, even after your impacted stool is removed, the breakdown of your gut will likely persist and the cycle of damage will go on.

The tissue destruction of fecal impactions is so incessant and happens so silently that you could be at the brink of a near-fatal perforation and not know it. Impactions can go so unnoticed that 7% of impactions are diagnosed after the person has already died and the problem is only discovered upon an autopsy.

Not only are fecal impactions unpredictable and their damage often unnoticeable, they have the capacity to even mislead medical experts.

Take for instance something called paradoxical diarrhea. On its surface, this symptom seems to defy logic…

When a fecal impaction case is at its worst, the sufferer is likely to suffer from diarrhea (the stool pushes so hard against your gut that the inner lining secretes mucus, which then acts like a lubricant and lets liquid stool escape past the hard mass).

Now imagine a doctor being confronted with a patient that has recurrent diarrhea. His first instinct would be to prescribe an anti-diarrheal agent, which will further slowdown the digestive tract, make the stool even harder and worsen your overall problem.

A similar issue can happen if a patient complains of not being able to pass stool. Doctors often recommend laxatives to patients presenting such a symptom. However, research shows that laxative use in severely impacted patients can actually increase the chances of deadly perforations.

These unintended consequences are called Iatrogenic effects where the physician inadvertently makes a situation worse and they are very common with fecal impactions.

These mistakes are not just limited to misdiagnosing the problem.

Even at the advanced stages of a colon perforation where the patient needs immediate life-saving surgery, treatment mistakes are common.

Research has now revealed that prior to surgery, doctors are only right 11% of the time when estimating the extent of an infection along the colon.

That’s why the mortality rate for colon ruptures is so high even after the patient has had a colon resection.

These issues aren’t a reflection of doctors’ lack of ability to diagnose or treat the problem. It is simply proof that fecal impactions are really that notorious for going unnoticed until calamity strikes.

In other words, the absolute best way to avoid sudden, unpredictable complications from fecal impactions is to
rely on medical tests and not symptoms.

Let’s see how getting tested can lower your risk of mortality and what exact tests you should get…