Hi, I have not been diagnosed with CF, but my GI has mentioned it often as something to rule out.
Anyway, I stopped by the board, I'm always looking for good information. I post a lot on the IBS and Crohn's boards.
I am doing this dang test this weekend, what an Easter, huh. I am finally in the homestretch 17 hours left. It is not as horrible as I expected, but it isn't a pretty walk in the park either.
I have a lot of Diarrhea, so that makes you go more and makes the test more annoying to do cause you have to collect more often.
Here are some tips I would like to share with you.
1) If the lab doesn't give you one, be sure to ask for a specimen cup for collecting stool. Like they use in the hospital. I found the farthest out you can place the cup under you, the better.
2) You have to keep the specimen cool, so get a tossable cheap styrofoam cooler. Freeze up some empty plastic bottles with water so that you have easy tossable ice packs.
3) Place a piece of sewer or duct tape (a few inches) on the lid of the can, so that you can easily get the lid off.
4) Buy some cheap deep soup ladles, so that you can quickly and efficiently scoop the stool. No holes or slats, so that nothing drips.
5) Keep the cooler as close to the toilet as possible so it's the easiest to get it in quick.
6) Have some disposable gloves handy in case of emergency spills or nastiness.
7) I cut two small (about dime size) holes in the bottom of the specimen cup. That way I could immediately after collecting, pour some water into the cup and rinse it out. This keeps it cleaner and the water and anything remaining in the cup rinses right out into the toilet bowl below.
8) Keep an empty 2 liter or large bottle handy so that you can easily fill it up with water and have it handy to rinse out the cup. Also, as the frozen bottles melt, you can use that water too.
9)Keep some newspaper around so that you can put the newspaper on the floor. You can set the ladle scoop on it and also it is handy to have if you need to remove the specimen cup out of the toilet, for others or so that you don't have it there when you don't need it.
10) RELAX. I imagined it a lot worse than it has been. Think it all out ahead of time and have things handy. Also, if the lab doesn't give you instructions, you can look them up on the LabCorp website. It has all the collection rules and whatnot.