Fear of Pancreatic cancer

[jerseygirl1]

I am new here and have been struggling with health anxiety for almost four years. Over the last 4 weeks, I have been experiencing pain below the left rib, left side and back. I have had an EUS (Endoscopy/ultra sound) done by my gastro dr., all was good but have also seen my colon/rectal dr. He suggested I get a petscan which sent me right over the edge. My gastro dr told me nothing to worry about and he saw my pancreas and to not think about it again. He said the petscan was a waste of time. The colon dr. didn't say what he was looking for but said he could think of a few cancers that present like that. Please understand I have had acid reflux for years and also IBS. My big worry is that having a weight issue all my life and never able to lose, I am eating like crazy and not gaining which I told my colon dr so with that and upper left back pain and the others pains, I am a wreck.

I refused the test but now am petrified that I made a mistake. I think I burned a bridge with the colon dr. because I called back to say I would have the petscan but they haven't responded. Looking for any advice, comforting words etc.

[Parabola]

Hey there,

I reckon your colon Dr is needing to take a hard look at how he deals with patients. Even if he did think there was a possibility of anything sinister, I'm not sure that would be the way to go about it.
I've dealt with a few people who have had PC and it didn't present the way you've described. There are lots of things that do present with that - the main one being likely being IBS or musculoskeletal - but very few of them tend to be in any way bad long term, just uncomfortable. Your Gastro Dr would have checked pancreas during the ultrasound and also if it was shot it'd have shown in your bloodwork.

If you feel you need the petscan, then get it done to put your mind at ease. Whether you do or don't though write down how you feel right now - all the stuff going through your head. The next time something like this happens you could try and use it to help you to remind you that you've been in the position before and it was health anxiety. I got CBT for my health anxiety and it helped massively.

Hope you feel better soon. :)

P

[jerseygirl1]

Thank you so much! The thing that scares me is I haven't lost weight but I can't gain weight if that makes sense. In the past if I thought about food I would gain weight but now I'm eating so much without a gain.[COLOR="blue"]

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