Colon cancer - scared to death

[j2]

I am a long time sufferer of HA and at one time or another have convinced myself that I have about every cancer under the sun. For the last few weeks I have had sporadic nausea. The last 3 or 4 days I have had terrible diarrhea and bloating. I am 37 yrs old and have no history of cancer but my anxiety is through the roof right now think I have colon cancer. I have not had any black stools but I have had what might have been red blood or perhaps remnants from a large slice of tomato I ate. Sorry for all the info but I figured you guys would understand. Someone please tell me this is not cancer or what it could more rationally be. I am not able to think straight right now. PLEASE HELP

[Fingerz]

Bloating isnt a sign of cancer mate. If you had cancer you would have black stools like wet ground coffee. Could be a stomach bug floating about but it doesnt sound like you ahve anything to worry about.

[j2]

Fingerz - i love your quote about crazy people. I just wish I wasn't one of them.

Your data about cancer is reassuring but could you expand a bit. I made the mistake of googling and found that I meet a lot of the symptoms.

[Fingerz]

We are the crazy people my friend! lol. Well when I had my endoscopy done the doctors were telling me my symptoms were the symptoms of cancer or a tumor. I had severe abdominal pain which made me double over, nothing but mucus and blood in my stool, violent diarrhea, i lost so much weight it was ridiculous and severely fatigued all the time. It turned out I had ulcerative colitis which is pretty much nothing these days so if something quite minor can have such horrible symptoms, imagine what cancer would be like!

[suzy-sue]

Sounds like I.B.S. to me, A LOT of people with anxiety suffe with this, and anxiety makes it worse. Stop stressing its not cancer. Take care SUE x

[Fingerz]

And Dont GOOGLE!!! The reason your finding bad stuff on google is because the world is a sick place. When you search something in google, it brings back the results by the number of hits each site has had. And because people are so twisted these days they read the worst case scenario stuff giving it more hits, therefore bringing it back first. And just imagine how many HA sufferers go on them pages a day! Its not worth it j2. If you ever get any problems, come on here instead and use the chat room because its full of people who know what they are talking about and not some randomer whose telling you that sneezing is actually a heart attack.

[viremarthius]

This post sounds like me. I know your pain bro.

[Trixie]

I am a long time sufferer of HA and at one time or another have convinced myself that I have about every cancer under the sun. For the last few weeks I have had sporadic nausea. The last 3 or 4 days I have had terrible diarrhea and bloating. I am 37 yrs old and have no history of cancer but my anxiety is through the roof right now think I have colon cancer. I have not had any black stools but I have had what might have been red blood or perhaps remnants from a large slice of tomato I ate. Sorry for all the info but I figured you guys would understand. Someone please tell me this is not cancer or what it could more rationally be. I am not able to think straight right now. PLEASE HELP

I could write a book on faeces. For over 26 years I have had diverticular disease and IBS (the former being a family trait).

My stomach looks like I am 10 months pregnant at times and I have never been able to eat a lot in one go.

Take my word you do not have bowel cancer.

I had tomato soup for lunch three days running and my stools turned orange:D

Don't worry about it or cancer.

[rhianna]

Please don't google! Have been there done that and heightened my panic to unpresedented levels. Whatever you type in it will lead you to something horrible and it won't be! I have suffered from IBS for years now and have had endoscopies and colonoscopiesm thought I had stomach/liver/bowel cancer. I was absolutely convinced of it at the time I could also see red bits in stools. It was something I had eaten. I asked my husband if he ever saw stuff like it. He said he never looked! - like most of the 'normal' population. HA is horrendous. the thoughts take over and I am sure that you do NOT recolon cancer. You may have IBS or simply stress related gastric symptoms which WILL go away whne the panic subsides. x

[Cags48]

i have flat stools not every time but intermittent it worries me sick also get low back pain I'm scared to scared go to docs :weep:

[katesa]

Hi Cags hon,

This is an old thread and you'd probably get more answers if you make a new one.

That said, I don't think you have anything to worry about x

[made0fscars]

I am exactly like you, bowel/colon cancer has been one of my biggest fears this year. I had LOTS of constipation and diarrhea, and yes it turns out it was completely down to my anxiety. There was some red in my stool once in June and for months after that I was obsessed with my bowel movements, I started a diary and even keep filling it in every day now. Diarrhea is a VERY common physical anxiety symptom, although it is scary and unsettling it is not anything harmful, I have learnt (although I was very resistant to believe it at first) that a one off bit of a red, blood-like appearance in your stool is in fact completely normal, and you should only be concerned when you have it consistently for a long period of time with lots or very dark blood. Just eat well, like a lot of fiber and water and your stools will be back to normal in no time :)