Terrified I have bowel cancer

Shinamae I can understand your fear, my DDiL's family have the same disease in their country and her father died of the disease when she was 7.

BUT

There is a big difference, you are being regularly checked and monitored, you have had checks in the last year. If you do have cancer, then it will have been caught in the very early stages, so your prognosis will be good. It is now nearly 20 years since your brother died and since then there have been enormous strides made in treating all kinds of cancers, including bowel cancer. The disease is much easier to treat, especially in the early stages.

You also, as you say, have other medical problems in the lower abdomen and the symptoms you have could relate to them and not to cancer.

None of us can say anything to assuage your real and justified fear, but get to your GP as fast as you can and know, in the meanwhile, that we will all be here to comfort you during your wait.

Great post Monica! and Shinamae contact your GP thinking of you .

What Monica said - excellent advice Shinamae try and relax a bit for the rest of the day.

I’ve had bowel issues for many years and yes it can be scary when problems flare up. There are so many reasons for changes in the digestive system other than cancer. Your tiredness could well be caused by your understandable level of anxiety. Anxiety can also make symptoms feel worse. I’m sure your concerns will be taken seriously by your doctor and hope that there will be no sinister cause for your current discomfort.

I think Monica has more or less summed it up but working part time in a care home at almost 70 is bound to make you feel exhausted after a shift! I would consider it normal

I'm sorry you lost your brother too. 49 is no age and must have left an enormous gap in your life. Please be kind to yourself

shinamae there is excellent advice from m0nica The consultant carrying out my colonoscopy last year assured me bowel cancer is very slow growing and there would be no need for a cancer check within the next five years (the GP has dispatched me for one a year for other issues). Of course he was referring to me, not sure if his comments could be generalised. You’ll feel a lot better for seeing your GP, the exhaustion you describe can have a myriad of causes as can the sense of the bowel not emptying properly. Try not to worry today, rest if you can.

Diverticulitis is an inflammatory disease, and fatigue is found among people with it (according to a FDA study)... those most affected are female, 60+ years old.

It can also cause both constipation and the opposite (which I can't spell) - and either of these can lead to the sensation of incomplete emptying.

But you need to get it checked out, obviously. Colon cancer is relatively slow-growing, and highly treatable if caught early and, in my case, also 'just in time'.

I had both diverticulitis and bowel cancer (Stage 3c) in 2010 and am now totally discharged from the oncology unit with no evidence of disease.

Do not fret about it - get into action mode, you'll feel tons better.

... and passing excessive wind is one of the symptoms of diverticulitis.

I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2017 following stomach pains, constipation followed by diarrhoea, and a sudden massive bleed. .The colonoscopy found a large and potentially very nasty tumour I had my entire sigmoid colon removed within 2 weeks of the diagnosis, my feet did not touch the ground during those 2 weeks, with scans and blood tests. I was by then losing so much blood I had become severely anaemic and needed iron infusions. The laparoscopic surgery was a success, I didn’t need a stoma as the surgeon was able to rejoin the 2 ends of my bowel. Best of all, the cancer had not had a chance to spread.

I’m still having regular blood tests and had a colonoscopy last year, all is fine so far.

You are doing the best thing by contacting your doctor. I will keep my fingers crossed for you that it is not cancer, but whatever the outcome there is treatment available.

I’m very sorry to hear about your brother, I and some other survivors are campaigning to raise awareness of the risk of bowel cancer in people under 50.

Shinamae you sound like you may be sufferring with depression and anxiety. Poor mental health itself can cause bowel issues and if you have slowed down your movement that could slow down your bowel too.

Keep getting your physical check ups but maybe you should add a mental health check up too just incase

GP told my husband three times he had piles - it wasn’t! Please press your gp as they aren’t always correct.

I can see how a traumatic past family history impacts the survivors

What M0nica and VS said

... we're all rooting for you - let us know how you get on with your GP... and be insistent (if necessary). Don't let him / her make assumptions because you have piles and diverticulitis.

BTW, have you been eating much in the way of fruit / veg with skins and pips recently? I ask because my consultant told me that these lodge in the little 'out pockets' in the colon and cause a flare-up of the diverticular disease, where they ferment and then give off gasses?

Blossomiong: thanks for telling us your success story with facts we can understand. If people can understand how the disease is treated then they will be less fearful to go for check ups.

Dickens
I worked that out myself some years ago through really ruthless elimination. Tomatoes are the worst.
I’m probably tempting fate by saying this but I haven’t had a bad attack since eliminating tomato pips.

Could not pass this thread by without agreeing with many of the supportive people who have written.
I hope your GP fast tracks the checks needed Shinamae and takes away some of your anxiety.
The diagnosis could be something far less serious than cancer.
My sister had bowel cancer aged 58 (she did not go to her doctor for months as she was scared), and she made a full recovery and has just celebrated her 80th Birthday.

Good luck ? ? ?

Thank you all so much, it really does help ?????

MerylStreep

Dickens
I worked that out myself some years ago through really ruthless elimination. Tomatoes are the worst.
I’m probably tempting fate by saying this but I haven’t had a bad attack since eliminating tomato pips.

... yes, my consultant said tomatoes were an absolute no-no.

Clever of you to have worked it out for yourself - I hadn't got a clue at the time.

Have phoned the surgery and have a telephone appointment on the 20th of this month…

No! You shouldn't have to wait that long! Is your surgery part of the Push Doctor Group? This is a private service which my surgery will pay for when they're overloaded. I got an appointment within 10 minutes of registering, but not every surgery has signed up.

You can find out if your surgery is using Push Doctor by logging on the PD website and typing in the surgery's postcode.

"Got an appointment on 20th" - and a telephone one - this just makes me completely despair for the NHS, although "service" in the title is becoming a joke.

I am sorry you have these worries and symptoms and hope that it can be resolved soon.

I have the phone number of our local out-of-hours GP service - could you look for this and try them in your area? Not the best use of that service, but what can we do?

I spent 12 hours on a trolley in A&E last week with no sight of a doctor - there were 2 doctors on for the entire hospital. What a state it is all in.

Please don’t let your Surgery receptionist think you are ok with waiting until the 20th Shinamae.
You could say you want to speak to a doctor “Today as you have some new symptoms that are worrying you”.
Sometimes you have to lay it on the line and I think this is one of them.

Well put Monica, I hope you can be seen quicker Shinamae but I suppose many people are now laying it on the line. You have made a start which is good.