I'm a 20 year old male, and I know colon cancer for someone my age is very rare, but I have let Dr. Google get to me and now I'm worrying.
For months now I have been having GI issues. It started back in February where my main symptom was constipation and occasionally got a pain in the upper left part of my abdomen and that went on for about a month. One night I ended up getting really sick, throwing up, diarrhea, and all that. I went to the ER and they said it was probably the stomach flu, which I suspect probably was the culprit because that was the other time in the months I've had these issues that that happened and I felt really sick like that. But that didn't explain my other issues, which I told the ER about and they said it could be gastritis and prescribed me some medicine for that. A few weeks went by and nothing improved so I scheduled an appointment with a GI doctor, which I had to wait until toward the end of April (at this point it was March) to go to because it was tough to get an appointment as I was away from home at college.
The first appointment, the doctor, like the ER, suspected it could be gastritis, and prescribed me with a different medicine. She also told me to start taking stool softener and fiber supplements to help with the constipation. She also sent me to get a blood test and an ultrasound of my liver, pancreas, and galbladder. The blood test was normal except high bilirubin levels, which they couldn't figure out what that was about. The ultrasound came back normal.
So the medicine I took from the doctor was for gastritis, ulcers, and other things. When I was taking that I will say the pain in my abdomen was relieved some but would still be there sometimes. The next visit to the doctor was last week and she said since the medicine didn't really help and I am still having the upper left abdominal pain I am going for an upper endoscopy next week.
So basically where I am now is I am having BM every day with the stool softener and fiber supplements, sometimes after a BM it feels incomplete like I still have to go. I still have abdominal pains, most common in the upper left abdomen area and I think more noticeable after I eat. But one thing I have also noticed is that my stool is often long and thin, not usually pencil thin, but still thinner than I used to have before these problems came about, and I have read that that is a big sign of colon cancer. Has anyone had these symptoms but it turned out not being colon cancer?
I guess if the upper endoscopy doesn't show anything than that will tell me it's something going on lower and I should ask for a colonoscopy. I just keep telling myself that I am only 20 so the odds of it being colon cancer are so low, and there are plenty of other things it could be, but I can't help but in the back of my mind worry about it.