Cartoon#043: Stool Type 5
Meet Stool Type 5... the one that looks like it escaped from a low-budget horror film
Jokes aside, this is exactly why knowing your stool types matters. A Type 5 stool is soft with ragged edges and can suggest that food is moving through the bowel a little too quickly. It isn't usually a cause for panic, but if it becomes your 'normal', it's worth asking why. Diet, hydration, medication, stress and illness can all play a part.
For spinal cord injured people and those with neurogenic bowel, recognising these subtle changes can make the difference between tweaking a bowel routine early and dealing with much bigger problems later. Your stool is giving you feedback every single day—the trick is learning to read the message.
That's why we devote time to bowel management in the Fellow Carer training. We don't just teach what to do; we teach carers how to spot the warning signs before they become complications.
Next week in Life of Lionel: Things start falling apart with the type-6.
Before you go, have you ever noticed a change in stool type that turned out to be your body's way of warning you that something else was going on?
I think it’s a really good point. Knowing your stool type can tell you a lot—it can even help protect your health and, in some cases, save your life. If we can use this knowledge to better understand and support people with SCI, we can potentially help them too.
Many people tend to ignore this topic, but sometimes, what’s in the toilet can tell us more than we think! 😄 Thanks, Marc, for raising the stool topic. It’s definitely something we should talk about more!