Worried about colon cancer- positive test...

[Nordvest]

Hello,
Since this february I have been struggling with various degrees of HA. It kind of started when my denist found some white patches under my tongue which had to be evaluated by an oral surgeon. At app. the same time my 5 year old niece, my father-in-law and a friend`s brother was diagnosed with different cancers. My friend`s brother is sadly dead now but the others seems to be doing fine. Anyhow; this hit me like a ton of bricks and ever since I have had this dread about me having cancer too.

I have had a CT-scan of my abdomen, MR of my head, x-ray of my chest and pretty extensive blood work. All of which turned out fine. This made me relax a bit and I was starting to get better.

But now I took one of those three days stool sample tests because my stomach has really beeen acting up lately.
It is the kind of test where you smear a bit of the inside of your stool on a cardboard folder for three days and it is then analyzed for presence of blood. I couldn`t see any blood when I took the samples but when it got analyzed yesterday the sample from one of the days turned out to be positive.

This scared me no end and here I`am again back to square one: terrified of cancer.

Has any of you ever taken this kind of test and it turned out positive? If so; what turned out to be the cause?


BTW: I`m 35, male, 1.94m and about 100kg.

[j2]

My turned out positve because of some mild bleeding that was occurring my throat. If only one turned up positve and all the other tests were fine then I don't think you have much to worry about. Do the due dillegence and follow up with your doctor about the positve test but I am sure you will be fine. Try to break the anxiety cycle with some exercise or a funny movie. Get some sleep and avoid google. Good luck

[nataliean1982]

i remember when it was colon cancer month and they were giving out those tests at the hospital, they said only about a quarter of the tests that come back positive lead to something serious, so most of the time there is another reason for the positive result. also, when its just pollups, they are very very easily treatable, and colon cancer has one of the best survival rates of all the cancers.

[nataliean1982]

...and you are very young, they dont even suggest tests for colon cancer until around 50 (i think), so i wouldn't be too concerned.

[Nordvest]

j2: Thank you for the reassuring words. I sort of know with my logical senses that it is unlikely to be anything but I just can`t communicate that to my anxiety.
It is kind of ironic that I was on my way out of this mess when those tests came back. I have been worrying about a lot but I didn`t worry about those tests because I didn`t think that there would be anything wrong with them. I have been terrified of brain cancer, tongue cancer, melanoma and lung cancer but those tests didn`t woory me at all. Probably because I`ve taken them before and there has never been a problem with them. And what do you know; the only thing I didn`t worry about turned out to be the only thing that came back positive!!

I guess it`s like in The Godfather: "Just when i thought I was out, they pulled me right in"....

Nataliean: You`re right. I am very young and it`s very unlikely that it is cancer. The problem is that it is not impossible... It seems I keep searching for a guarantee that I can never get...

[happyone]

Nord,
it is extrem,ely unlikely that you would have colon cancer under the age of 35 if there wasn't a gentic link.
I know this is a worying time for you but when this is all over, maybe you can put it to one side and reassure yourself that sometimes, although we get a scare, everything can be ok. I had a scare re cervical cancer but it was absolutely fine. If I get called back in the future, I will probably just think "Oh, it will be the same as last time"
Good luck.
Happyone

[j2]

Nice Godfather quote, I didn't know it played in Norway. As for the battle between logical and illogical, I fight that everyday. There is a good book by Asmundson entitled "It is not all in your head". It hasn't cured me but it has helped. Good luck.

[IJJ]

I had a positive result for blood in a stool sample and was referred on for a endoscopy and colonoscopy. I was absolutely convinced it was bowel cancer. It turned out the blood was caused by an irritated stomach lining caused by too much acid in my stomach. The excess acid was, surprise surprise, caused by me being in such a high state of anxiety!

I am sure everything is absolutely fine with you but pop to the docs just so you can put your mind at rest

[spacebunnyx]

hi, all it would take is to have a tiny little tear in your bowl/rectum to give a positive result. I can't tell you the number of times I have been to the loo and seen a drop of blood when i wipe - caused by fissures because i dont eat enough fibre. Also, my gran had a positive result for the same test and it was nothing - I think that happens alot.

Anyway, its good you have been screened and even if its bad news chances are its v early and can be easily treated.

:hugs:

Jess xxx