How do you palpate for stool on physical exam?

[Hemichordate]

What is stool supposed to feel like? I could never quite figure it out.

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[SurfingDoctor]

Wut

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

Bags of sand.

 

[WheezyBaby]

Pushy pushy mushy mushy.

Ok really, it feels like a mass in the abdomen of variable firmness size shape and nodularity that tends to be in the LLQ or pelvis. There's nothing characteristic about it to confidently distinguish it from another abdominal mass just by exam. I've diagnosed at least 2 malignancies that were initially thought to be stool

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Basically if I feel a mass in the LLQ, there isn't much else there. Then add the history and I call it constipation. Outside of the LLQ mass, I don't feel for it and would never reliably say it is constipation in other quadrants without further consideration.

 

[DeadCactus]

Better to just directly visualize. That way you don't fall on your butt.