Postby Lee » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:57 pm
OKAY, 1st, breath in, breath out, repeat.
The chances of you having colon/rectal cancer is VERY low. Not impossible, butt VERY unlikely. I've been on the forum for 10+ years, I only know of one other teenager diagnosed with this cancer and believe me, we've had many people your age grp come here concerned they have colon cancer. Your symptoms could be caused my many things, cancer just being one possible cause. So please don't jump to the worst case situation (cancer). And avoid Dr. Google!!! You can diagnoses yourself with anything with Dr. Google. Hang around here if you need support and info.
Have your noticed any itchiness after passing a stool (hemorrhoids probably). Do you know if Crohn's disease or IBS runs in your family? Yes I understand you don't know your mom's family history. But you could be dealing with something like Crohn's disease or IBS Not life threatening, butt something that should be monitored. My mother had bad eating habits for many years and ended up with diveticulosis.
Are you in the USA? Do you have a primary care doctor? The best way to determine what is ACTUALLY going on is a colonoscopy. That will give you a true diagnoses, anything else is just a speculation. Many doctors will not refer you to a GI based on your age, butt by the shear fact you passing blood, a colonoscopy should be done. If you are in the USA, can you sign up for Obamacare? If you want to get the scope out of your own pocket, I'm sure you could have one done for about $2000.00. Yes a lot of money, butt peace of mind. And compared to a lot of procedures down today, down right cheap.
Give up a little more infor about you? You talk about a job, can you get medical insurance thru employer?
Again try to worry,
Lee
rectal cancer - April 2004
46 yrs old at diagnoses
stage III C - 6/13 lymph positive
radiation - 6 weeks
surgery - August 2004/hernia repair 2014
permanent colostomy
chemo - FOLFOX
NED - 16 years and counting!