With one obvious exception, blood normally
remains out of sight. Its appearance may not be ominous but always requires an
explanation from someone with more experience than you. Here are some pearls.
Bleeding gums. Asked for the cause, doctors think of
leukemia and other sources of clotting deficiency. It’s true that if your blood
clots poorly, this is often the first sign. However, the most common cause of
bleeding gums is poor dental hygiene.
Coughing up blood. Anyone who reads the
classics knows that this means you have tuberculosis. That’s rare these days.
I’ve never seen it. Mostly it’s the result of an ordinary respiratory
infection. Coughing up a few flecks of blood is usually not worth pursuing, but
don’t make the decision on your own.
Blood in the stool. Accompanied by pain this
usually means an anal fissure, a crack in the skin. Blood in the stool is one
of the seven warning signs on cancer, but I encounter bowel cancer as often as
tuberculosis. The blood I see is from a fissure, hemorrhoids, or colitis.
Vomiting blood is a serious matter and also
urgent. I send guests to an emergency room although a few flecks may
be the result of stomach irritation. When that happens, I may make a housecall,
and sometimes what I see in the toilet is not blood. Again, don’t make the
decision on your own.
What types of bleeding are always ominous?...
That’s a question too depressing for this blog. Google it.
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