Dobbiedoo
09-02-14, 14:22
I really thought I was done with health anxiety and this forum after being given a clean bill of health on 2 counts but I'm still worrying.......
My health anxiety only started in November with some mid cycle bleeding and I became terrified I might have womb cancer. Around the same time I noticed I sometimes had small amounts of mucous in my poo and also became worried about colon cancer as I have a family history, despite having no other symptoms.
1. I saw a gynaecologist about the bleeding who diagnosed fibroids as the cause. They were removed by hysteroscopy at the beginning of January. This also involved having a good look at my womb with a camera and was told all was fine. The fibroids were biopsied and were benign, as expected. The bleeding has now stopped, fingers crossed.
2. I saw a gastroenterologist about the mucous. She said she was certain I didn't have bowel cancer but said she would do a colonoscopy to check for polyps, given my family history. This was done 10 days ago and was normal - no cancer, no polyps, no nothing, just a healthy colon.
Initially I was jumping for joy, relieved it was all over and I had a clean bill of health. However, then the doubts started creeping in - what if she missed something? (a note on the consent form triggered that as it mentioned "missed pathology" as well as the risk of perforation, although the dr did say "we have to say all that"). I also worried that maybe the problem was with my small intestine instead as the colonoscopy only looked at the lower part of that.
Anyway, I managed to put all the worry aside and had a really good week focussing on work, going out, planning holidays, going to exercise class etc. Then yesterday I went back to square one with the reappearance of the mucous after an absence of more than 3 weeks. Even though I knew there had been no sinister cause found for it, I couldn't help myself. Without going into detail, it's now looking highly likely that the mucous never came from my bowel in the first place and has been coming from my vagina all along. If that's the case, then there's definitely nothing to worry about. But what if I'm wrong...?!?!
God, I hate health anxiety :-(
My health anxiety only started in November with some mid cycle bleeding and I became terrified I might have womb cancer. Around the same time I noticed I sometimes had small amounts of mucous in my poo and also became worried about colon cancer as I have a family history, despite having no other symptoms.
1. I saw a gynaecologist about the bleeding who diagnosed fibroids as the cause. They were removed by hysteroscopy at the beginning of January. This also involved having a good look at my womb with a camera and was told all was fine. The fibroids were biopsied and were benign, as expected. The bleeding has now stopped, fingers crossed.
2. I saw a gastroenterologist about the mucous. She said she was certain I didn't have bowel cancer but said she would do a colonoscopy to check for polyps, given my family history. This was done 10 days ago and was normal - no cancer, no polyps, no nothing, just a healthy colon.
Initially I was jumping for joy, relieved it was all over and I had a clean bill of health. However, then the doubts started creeping in - what if she missed something? (a note on the consent form triggered that as it mentioned "missed pathology" as well as the risk of perforation, although the dr did say "we have to say all that"). I also worried that maybe the problem was with my small intestine instead as the colonoscopy only looked at the lower part of that.
Anyway, I managed to put all the worry aside and had a really good week focussing on work, going out, planning holidays, going to exercise class etc. Then yesterday I went back to square one with the reappearance of the mucous after an absence of more than 3 weeks. Even though I knew there had been no sinister cause found for it, I couldn't help myself. Without going into detail, it's now looking highly likely that the mucous never came from my bowel in the first place and has been coming from my vagina all along. If that's the case, then there's definitely nothing to worry about. But what if I'm wrong...?!?!
God, I hate health anxiety :-(