Hi all,
I have posted on here before but I’m having quite a bad day and could use some advice/help.
I’m a 26 year old male, 5ft 10” weighing 13st 12/13 - so slightly overweight. I have no bad health history, no family history of anything. My worrie started about a month ago, when I started getting severe chest pains etc and thought I was having a heart attack. This led me to the GP multiple times and to A&E where I had multiple tests including ECGs which all were fine. Mind at ease!
Then now for about 2 and half/3 weeks I’ve been having some issues with my bowels and it’s causing extreme anxiety. Basically, I’ve started having a bowel movement as soon as I wake up now - where as before it’s be after my morning coffee/tea. I will then go again 2/3 times in the morning - again this is actually normal for me as I’ve always been someone who has frequent bowel movements. Normally the stools are easy to pass and have varied from small broken up flat pieces, to well formed snake style. I also seem to be quite constipated later in the day and find it hard to pass stools normally small dropping pieces, sometimes small flat pieces. I did have slight bleeding on toilet paper but this has completely gone for the past week after I introduced toilet wipes and used germoloids cream. I’m still having the same issue with bowel movements though. I seem to have a very noisy belly (lots of rumbles) I haven’t had much pain, though I have had it now and then. More so after I added fibre supplements. I seem to be burping and farting a lot also and I have passed Just mucus when going for a bowel movement maybe 2/3 times over this period. I also have frequent urination. No fatigue, no blood in stool, no weight loss (stayed 13st 11 - 14st) over the period fluctuating daily. No loss in appetite, if anything I’m eating more. However, I have switched up my diet a bit - cutting out a lot of rubbish I’d eat..
Now I’ve been to the GP multiple times, first time I had bloods done, came back and were perfect bar infection showed as raised but still normal (10 - when the average is 8) they put this down to me having a chest cough/cold at time of bloods. No anemia, all over bloods perfect. I have then been in touch with GP again, who reaffirmed to me that it isn’t my fear (bowel/colon cancer) and my bloods were extremely reassuring. Diagnosed with Health Anxiety and have been recently prescribed Sertraline (2nd day of tabs) and also said symptoms sound like IBS as Anxiety can cause this.
I’ve been obsessed and convinced myself I have bowel/colon cancer - Googling for hours a day (Symptoms, Forums, Stories) inspecting stools etc. Constantly worrying about it.
So recap symptoms;
1. Change in Bowel Habit
2. Flat stools and Formed Stools
3. Blood - Treated via. Wipes and Germoloids - No More Blood
4. Occasional abdominal pain
5. Excessive flatulence
6. On Anxiety Ames’s (Hasn’t altered bowel movements currently)
Has anyone dealt with something similar? I’m scared the doctors are missing something? I’m an anxious mess and would benefit from any advice/help.
Thank You and sorry for the long post!