Ovarian Cancer worries - advice?

[megant19]

Good morning -

I have been dealing with stomach/intestinal/pelvic issues for a couple months now. I am unable to get in to see my OB for another month. I am terrified that I have cancer that will be spreading in the meantime. I have had IBS for years and I know how much those symptoms can mimic other illnesses, but this time it feels different.

Bloating - not daily but often
Loose stools sometimes, then will be normal for days on end
Lower abdominal/pelvic aches and pains, sometimes in my hip and groin area.
Lower backache
Frequent urination - but only when I am awake - this is my only saving grace right now as I assume if it was due to a tumor it would not let me sleep without ever having to wake up to pee!
Loss of appetite.

Can all of these truly be anxiety? Can anyone offer some suggestions on how to manage and try to alleviate these symptoms so I don't go completely insane waiting for my annual exam at my OB in a month? More background I am an overweight 36 year old female who has had two children, breastfed but have not taken birth control pills for any significant length of time. No family history of ovarian cancer. Dad had colon cancer - I had a colonoscopy 11 years ago due to family history and all was fine. Could something there have developed since? Any help is welcome, I am beyond stressed out and it's affecting every aspect of my life. Thank you.:bighug1:

[Sphincterclench]

sorry to hijack your thread but funny story, in my unmedicated HA days, I was googling like a man posessed reading everything I could find and stumbled on to a medical page and was reading through and going YES YES YES this is ME....turns out I had Ovarian Cancer.
:doh:

[ellie_C_mason1990]

Hi
I also have IBS and had similar symptoms last year and had this worry. Loss of appetite, bloating, pain everywhere, worried like mad, had tests and nothing came back to confirm my fear of ovarian cancer. I was in a very demanding job (although I didn't FEEL particularly stressed), changed my job and the symptoms went away.

The MOST LIKELY reason for your symptoms is that if you already have IBS, it's IBS. Ovarian cancer is worst case scenario and which we are too quick to jump to as we believe the worst will happen to us. Try imagining that the worst wont happen to us, you will go to the doctors and have tests and nothing will return (or they wont even interpret it as serious enough to have tests) and you will wonder why you wasted weeks worrying about ovarian cancer. Just imagine the likelihood that you will live to a ripe old age but be disappointed that you spent so much of it worrying about your health.

I currently have bleeding between periods which has caused me some alarm but have much better control over my HA. I am thinking about ALL the times I have had 'alarming' symptoms but how many times they have amounted to nothing (it helps to actually write them all out!) With this in mind, I'm reminding myself that I can't do anything about the problem today (doctors appointment on Tuesday) and just to focus on what I can do each day to make me feel a bit happier because it MIGHT be serious, but it probably isn't.

Deep breaths and take care of yourself.

[megant19]

Thank you both for your replies. I am just so terrified. But - I have been down this road before - I have had fears of so many types of cancer, but I'm usually able to eventually rationally look at it and see why I don't have it. In this case I can't. I feel like the pain moves around. Would that happen with cancer? Like I said in my original post, I have to pee all the time during the day, especially when I'm thinking about it, but I sleep all night just fine. That would not match with a frequent urination from cancer symptom would it? I don't know how to tell if I am bloated from IBS symptoms or if I have fluid in my abdomen, since I have a fair amount of belly fat anyway!! Ahhhh. I am spiraling and I feel like I am wasting my life!

[lauren6]

A lot of women with ovarian cancer were told by their doctors that they had IBS. As scary as it can be, get a transvaginal sonogram to ease your mind. Not an over-the-belly sonogram; they're not accurate. If your doctor won't do it, find another. If it is ovarian cancer, you want to catch it early. Better to know than to have this worry.

[ellie_C_mason1990]

I'm not a doctor so I cannot say about pain moving around but my gut instinct tells me it's unlikely. About the peeing I cannot say for sure but people I know who are pregnant wake up in the night because baby is pressing on bladder so yes I imagine if a tumour was pressing on the bladder it would be the same. Remember you are in a highly anxious state and may be misinterpreting things, you're maybe not even peeing that much more than usual but feel you are. Like when I hae scary moles I can see them growing every day because I'm anxious but when in a more rational state I can see they haven't changed a bit.

This is a manifestation of your personal anxieties right now, you are currently not in any danger as there isn't much you can do until the appointment but challenge each thought with a realistic perspective. Have you had cbt?

[Mummybee]

Megant
I had all those symptoms and more. Had a transV ultrasound today, everything completely normal...
Hope that helps