Nervous with recent symptoms

[jared05]

I had rectal pain that felt like hemorrhoids in July. My doctor put me on cream and suppositories. It seemed to clear up for a few weeks. Now, I'm having abdomen discomfort along with the burning anal pain the last several weeks. I had a CT recently and it showed mild diffusing of my rectum and colon, but surrounding organs had no acute abnormality. I did an at home colon test and it indicated blood in my stool. I have an appointment with a GI next week and hoping to get a colonoscopy scheduled ASAP. I'm freaking out in the meantime, I'm trying to relax.

[I_will_fight]

Hi Jared

Your anxiety is understandable, however remember that the fact that you had blood in your stool is in not necessarily predictive of colorectal cancer (CRC), so even when that test is positive you are still much more likely not to have cancer than to have it.

You can search FIT test CRC positive predictive value to see some figures on your search engine or pubmed...

For example:

This paper shows how if you test positive your chances of having CRC range betweeen 1.5% and 9%

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6144161/
" Because PPV improves as prevalence of disease rises, the FIT PPV for CRC can range from 1.5% in the 50‐54 age range to 9% in the 70‐74 range for the same hemoglobin threshold,"

or this which puts the PPV at 7% for over 50s

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-020-01221-9

or this one which describes a range between 2.4% and 8%

https://ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.20.25416

or this smaller study

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4573202/

See table 3: out of 28 people with positive FIT only 3 had cancer.


So based on that test alone your risk of CRC is limited.

Having said that, getting tested as soon as possible is the right thing to do, do your preparation as thougoughly as you can.

Good luck!

Javi

[beach sunrise]

I pray It's not CRC.
Let us know your results.

[utahgal7]

Jared,

Unfortunately, those of us on this forum, know all too well what you are going through. The anxiety that accompanies colonoscopies in general and a possible CRC diagnosis is unreal. However, until you get the colonoscopy, you will not know whether you have CRC or not. I sincerely hope you have a clear colonoscopy. Until your procedure, you will need some coping skills to deal with the anxiety. I don't know which hobbies you enjoy. But distraction is key here. Participate in activities that you enjoy and it can help to distract your mind. Exercise, therapy, medication, journaling and deep breathing are also helpful.

Good luck, keep in touch and let us know how things turn out,

Paige

[roadrunner]

CT is highly sensitive for colorectal cancer. The finding you mention is suggestive of an inflammatory condition (blood in stool is also consistent with this), but cancer appears very unlikely at this point. I would get the colonoscopy but not due to concern over cancer.