A few years ago I noticed my stool was unusually dark (sorry for too much information). I did some googling and discovered this was an indication of blood in s

A few years ago I noticed my stool was unusually dark (sorry for too much information). I did some googling and discovered this was an indication of blood in stool. I went to the pharmacy to buy a fecal occult blood test - a strip of paper that you add to the toilet bowl and it changes color if it detects blood in the water. When I got a positive result I retrieved my strip with tweezers and put it in a ziploc bag and went to go see a doctor. The doctor decided this was an ulcer and said the ulcer could be bacterial, viral, or idiopathic (meaning without a cause). His solution was to prescribe an anti-bacterial and a steroid and to take both. I asked if there would be any complications or drawbacks to taking both, and he said there would not. I asked if I should take one first and then the other so I could narrow down whether the ulcer was bacterial or viral. The doctor thought this was a good idea and said I could do it if I wanted. I asked if I should take the medications in any specific order and he said it did not matter. I went home and read up on the two medications he had prescribed. Sure enough, the steroid would make a bacterial infection worse. Following the doctor's advice, without my own research, could have made things worse. Without doing my own diagnosing and testing I would have had a much longer time to treatment too. (Wound up going away with the anti-biotics)