New here and very worried I have colon cancer!

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karlae99
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:18 pm

New here and very worried I have colon cancer!

Postby karlae99 » Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:39 pm

Hello all so I’m new to this and I’m not sure if I’m doing this right I hopr I am though! Anyways let me start with some information about me, I’m a 19 year old female (turning 20 at the end of January) and I suffer from IBS and Health Anxiety.

Now my trouble actually began almost a month ago, I had some brown discharge immediately after my period ended which I tjen thought was Ovarian Cancer since I’ve heard it can be misdiagnosed as IBS. That went away after about a week, but as soon as that went away I began to have to urinate almost every 30 minutes and it would typically come out in very little amounts. So I went to an Urgent Care suspecting a UTI, I was given antibiotics for a UTI and even mentioned the brown discharge and doctor told me it was just from my period and nothing to worry about it it went away. Fast forward to me finishing my antibiotics ten days later, I no longer had to pee every 30 minutes but now whenever I do urinate my urine flow or stream is very very slow and I always feel as if there’s barely anything coming out. However this isn’t anything to do with my colon cancer scare, just something else I’ve been dealing with.

Anyway since I have IBS I’m used to switching between diarrhea and constipation, but usually it will go away for a while. It’s been two years since I was diagnosed with IBS and I really haven’t had much trouble with it up until now, during my panic of Ovarian Cancer I realized that I had constant diarrhea for about two weeks. It has now been maybe three to four and I still have diarrhea. I again started looking up symptoms on google (I know the dumbest thing to do) and began to start examining my stool, which lead me to discover that it has mucus in it.

Now I’ve always consireder having yellow stool as diarrhea and again it always goes away on it’s own, however it’s been consistent now this entire time and it always has mucus in it. I do not have any rectal bleeding that I’m aware of, but I did notice maybe the tiniest red spots on my stool one time but there was nothing on the toilet paper when I wiped so I didn’t think much of it. I also began to notice red like flakes (not sure what else to call them) not on the stool but also coming out with the stool, and very noticable on toilet paper. The consistency of it was not blood like though at all, and I did ask a doctor who told me it could just be undigested food and it has now stopped still scary though. But of course right now my biggest concerns are that I’ve switched between constipation and diarrhea non-stop, it’s mostly just diarrhea. My stools have been very loose and coming out in small pieces, not narrow but just small bits usually. I sometimes have abdominal pain but nothiny consistent or too bad.

The thing really making my anxiety worse is the fact that my uncle was just diagnosed with terminal cancer, and it was in fact colon cancer and his only symptoms were abdominal pain and constipation. I am also sure that another one of my uncles passed from colon cancer too, so the fact that it’s obviously in my family has me on edge. I know I’m still very young but that just makes my risk go up even higher, not only that but I’ve been reading about people getting misdiagnosed with IBS and it actually being colon cancer and at very young ages too! I know I shouldn't assume the worst but it’s very hard for me not to with my hypochondria and constant googling. But I just don’t know what else could be causing all of this anymore, I do have a doctors appointment coming up and I would love a colonscopy to put my mind at rest but my insurance does not cover it and I absolutely cannot pay out of pocket. I’m also not sure wether I should mention I have IBS or not, I definitely don’t want it to just be dismissed as my IBS acting up and not get any tests done.

Also what lead me here is reading several other people’s post about being scared of colon cancer. I am aware that everyone here are not medical professionals but I’d really love to be able to try and put my mind at ease. So please if anyone has any idea what could be causing this other than cancer, let me know because I’m driving myself crazy. I’ve spent so many hours of the day crying because I’ve completely convinced myself that I’m going to die.

KimT
Posts: 695
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 8:53 pm

Re: New here and very worried I have colon cancer!

Postby KimT » Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:39 am

We are not doctors. We are cancer survivors or loved ones of survivors. Any health concern needs to be addressed by a doctor.
2/10 dx colon cancer
right hemicolectomy 3/19/10
Stage 2a 0/43 nodes
Lynch syndrome
3/14/10 colon resection/ removal of metal clips
Nov 11 dx ovarian cancer

Jannine
Posts: 204
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:46 am
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: New here and very worried I have colon cancer!

Postby Jannine » Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:42 am

I'm afraid we really can't offer any advice to you about what it might be. What we can speak to is how to get the care you need to address this.

First off, stop googling. Dr. Google is a hack and will only feed your concerns, and will not give you any answers. I know it's hard when that seems like the only option you have, but it is only going to make those feelings of anxiety worse and will not tell you what is going wrong. Don't do that to yourself.

Definitely give your doctor all the information you have, I'd say print out your post here or write up a summary on paper with bullet points, and make sure you cover everything you talked about here. The better a picture your doctor has, the better able he/she will be to assess the situation. Push for a referral to a GI doctor, because that's likely to be required before you could even get a colonoscopy. The referral to a specialist may be covered by insurance, too; look into that.

Look into your medical insurance options and see if you can get that addressed; it may be expensive but it will be a LOT less expensive than having a health crisis that sends you to the ER. Advocate for yourself; there may be options available to help defray costs for a colonoscopy, but you won't know if you don't ask. Others here may have more ideas for you regarding ways to manage the costs of health care.

Also, colon cancer is a slow growing cancer that can be cured. Leaping to conclusions about your prognosis when you don't even have a diagnosis yet, you are getting way ahead of yourself.

Please don't delay on any of this. The only one who can set your mind at ease is a medical professional.
DX: sigmoid colon cancer 5/2018. 48 F
laparoscopic sigmoid resection (24 cm removed); no stoma.
7.5cm adenocarcinoma -- mod. diff.
1 noncontiguous tumor deposit removed; 0/31 lymph nodes
T3 pN1c M0
5/18 before surgery, CEA 11.2
6/18 began FOLFOX
7/18: CEA 1.9; added neulasta post infusion
9/18: CEA 2.8
10/18: 25% chemo reduction
11/18: CEA 1.8
7/19 CT scan clear


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