As I have sometimes diarrhea I want to start a habit of documentating my toilet visits every morning. I however don't know how to categories it.
Are their notation systems or categorisation scheme used by medical professional that are recommended for patients gathering information like this?
The bristol chart is commonly used for describing the texture and consistency of stools. See chart and details below.
By Cabot Health, Bristol Stool Chart (http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/46082.pdf) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Quoting the wikipedia article linked above
The seven types of stool are:
- Separate hard lumps, like nuts (hard to pass)
- Sausage-shaped, but lumpy
- Like a sausage but with cracks on its surface
- Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft
- Soft blobs with clear cut edges (passed easily)
- Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool
- Watery, no solid pieces, entirely liquid
Types 1 and 2 indicate constipation, with 3 and 4 being the ideal stools (especially the latter), as they are easy to defecate while not containing excess liquid, and 5, 6 and 7 tending towards diarrhoea.
