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Thread: Indigestion? Fearing Stomach cancer...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    226

    Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    Hello all,

    Here's a new one for me, worries about stomach or pancreatic cancer.

    I tend to have my "favorite" (ha!) diseases to be worried about, but this one hit me out of left field. I started having some stomach pains in the upper left side last week along with lots of gas and bloating. I started poking around and swore I could feel some sort of mass or maybe it was just harder in general on the left side than the right side. Now I'm obsessively poking and proding (much like I used to do with breast cancer screening) and generally making myself even more sore.

    AND as the extra trigger to fuel my anxiety I'm sitting at home last Tuesday and a commercial comes on for Moffit Cancer Center about some guy who got Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. REALLY?!?!? That was the final straw.

    I've been debating about going to the doctor but it's only been about 4 days of on and off discomfort. My hubby poked around and said he can't feel anything and I'd be crazy to go to the doctor (of course). He's practically a saint having put up with my mess for 17 years now.

    Anyway - anyone dealt with similar fears and how did you handle them? I'll probably head to the doctor if it keeps up through next week (I try to give myself 2 weeks before I make an appointment to avoid running off to the doctor every time I feel something new). I'm definitely avoiding google!

  2. #2

    Re: Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    I'm going through this now with my stomach. Slight nausea. Avoiding food. Not wanting to eat. Terribly bloated. Lots of burping. Some pain. Ugh I'm scared of everything. Ovarian, stomach, etc. I'm on meds and in therapy and am obviously having a relapse. I will be curious to hear the responses. Logically I know anxiety can cause stomach issues. But we both know HA isn't logical unfortunately. Poking and prodding will always get you in trouble. You're prob feeling something normal in your body that you are just not aware of. I hope you feel better

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    226

    Re: Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    *** Merging with new thread I started...apparently NOT a new fear for me, LOL! It's so creepy to see your self from a year ago worried about the exact same thing that you thought was new!***

    OK - so this is a new fear for me.

    I've been having some pains in my upper stomach on and off for a few weeks now (not sure how long exactly), sort of a bloated feeling and some minor pain in my back as well. No other symptoms.

    I've been under an incredible amount of stress and had chalked it up to indigestion and too much carrying around my kiddos leaving my muscles sore. Playing on the slip and slide last weekend probably didn't help either.

    It dosen't seem to be getting better, so I'm starting to panic about it. Of course my mind immediately went to cancer of some type - stomach or pancreas. I've now done the dreaded Google and found people my age (36) that got diagnosed (of course), so now I am really panicked.

    I know that it's not a bad thing to go get checked out considering, but I've already jumped to the conclusion that if they don't do a bunch of tests they are wrong OR that it's already cancer and I'm doomed.

    I did have an ultrasound of my abdomen last year for an unrelated thing that's gone away and everything was normal.

    I can't believe I'm so terrified again...this stinks. :( I had been doing so well with my HA, but when something happens I spiral down again. I can manage the "healthy" times but not the times when something is going on I guess.

    ---------- Post added at 16:11 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------

    So in addition to apparently having this pain last year, I got an ultrasound in June last year that said my pancreas was normal.

    Surely PC doesn't grow that fast?? I've heard it's very slow growing
    Last edited by ktdid2000; 20-04-18 at 19:05. Reason: typo

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    857

    Re: Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    Quote Originally Posted by ktdid2000 View Post

    ---------- Post added at 16:11 ---------- Previous post was at 14:04 ----------

    [/COLOR]So in addition to apparently having this pain last year, I got an ultrasound in June last year that said my pancreas was normal.

    Surely PC doesn't grow that fast?? I've heard it's very slow growing
    You heard? I heard the oposite. What scaremongering propaganda from Google Institute of Medicine told you that?

    Some scaremongering sites have stories about people with symptoms that came and went for many years but ALL of the stories I heard from real life tells me that the when the symptoms come it is at terminal stage and that the victim wont have much time left; maybe weeks. So I question theese stories.

    And remember, getting PC at your age is extremely uncommon. Of course the scaremongerers love to bring up young people who had it; I even seen unconsiderate people on this message board who just had to bring up a story they read about a young person with this death cancer; which is very harmful and should not be posted on a forum for people with health anxiety. After all, such stories are not much more common than stories of young people i their 20s with Alzheimer.

    Remember that the symptoms you describe are common, pancreatic cancer is not.

    ---------- Post added at 22:31 ---------- Previous post was at 22:29 ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Scared2bme View Post
    I'm going through this now with my stomach. Slight nausea. Avoiding food. Not wanting to eat. Terribly bloated. Lots of burping. Some pain. Ugh I'm scared of everything. Ovarian, stomach, etc. I'm on meds and in therapy and am obviously having a relapse. I will be curious to hear the responses. Logically I know anxiety can cause stomach issues. But we both know HA isn't logical unfortunately. Poking and prodding will always get you in trouble. You're prob feeling something normal in your body that you are just not aware of. I hope you feel better
    These are very common IBS symptoms. IBS is common, pancreatic cancer is not. Stop googling. I have googled myself into the rabbot hole and it does me no good anyway.

  5. #5
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    May 2015
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    226

    Re: Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    It's more like, by the time you get symptoms it's hard to treat, but the tumor takes forever to grow (mostly symptomless). I've heard 6-11 years before you get symptoms which of course it's likely spread by then.

    Since I had a normal ultrasound last year I'm trying to consider that the likelihood of things exploding to the symptom level in a year is low and that small still symptomless tumors would have been detected on last years ultrasound.

  6. #6
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    May 2015
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    226

    Re: Stomach Pain - Here we go again...

    I'm having a really hard time controlling this spiral....

    I managed to postpone my doctors appt that was supposed to be yesterday to late next week. Yes, I called and actually asked for a later appointment in hopes that my symptoms would be under control by then and/or gone. I couldn't bring myself to full on cancel it, but at least I took a small step.

    For the past few days I've been getting really bad indigestion, sort of like when you eat too much and your stomach just feels full and bloated. I wouldn't describe it as painful, just uncomfortable. The more I think about it and focus on it of course the worse it gets. I've felt like this many times in my life, although maybe not all day. Tends to get worse when I am upset or have a nervous stomach of course.

    OF COURSE I did the deadly Dr. Google that says indigestion is definitely a sign of pancreatic cancer. ARGH. Now I feel like I should just start updating my will.

    I'm looking for small shreads of reassurance here to break me out of this. I:

    1) Do not have any changes in bowels
    2) Do not have fatigue, tiredness, etc.
    3) Do not have nausea or vomiting, just bloated feeling
    4) Do not have jaundice/yellowing
    5) Otherwise feel generally fine

    If you read anywhere on the Internet you'll find people who said that they had nothing and BOOM, had PC. Other people said they felt like they were at death's door. Some said they just had pain. Others said their CT showed nothing wrong, then another one like a month later showed PC. Tests are good, tests show nothing, blah blah blah. The Internet really should just go away.

    Anyway, if I'm not able to break out of this cycle I'm basically going to march into my GI next week and flat out say "I feel like this and I think I have that." and see what he says. He might laugh (I hope). I've never taken that approach, but something inside me still knows that all this is super silly and that it's just going to disappear one of these days and I'll be back to my normal. Likely right after I march into the doctor's office and make a fool of myself (I hope). Or maybe after some tests (I hope not, I really don't want to go through all that again unnecessarily).

    I was checked out in June of last year to include an abdominal ultrasound and everything was normal/ok. I'm hanging on to that until I get to the doctor's next week.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    Stomach pains and bloating

    Hi all,

    I had a long stent with lower bowel issues last summer that eventually cleared up (magically!) but had me fearing colon cancer at every turn. It was madness.

    Now I'm having something that I normally have only sporadically. I'm getting a lot of upper stomach fullness/tightness and bloating - almost like indigestion or like you've eaten a big meal. I sometimes get this with anxiety and I have been super stressed at work, but it's weird that it's gone on almost solidly for about 4 days now. The more I think about it of course the more it bothers me. I have the tiniest bit of heartburn and of course I haven't really been hungry at all.

    Now I'm fearing pancreatic cancer or stomach cancer. I'm having some back pains on that left side but that might be from a pulled muscle - not sure. Otherwise I feel fine, not tired and everything else is normal. Pancreatic cancer scares me since it's such a silent disease and doesn't cause many symptoms at all when it starts. I'm really hoping this is just anxiety and will go away after this big deadline next week. It's hard to focus when all I can think about is DOOM. I have a GI appt next week.

    Anyone else get stomach fullness/bloating with anxiety?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
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    117

    Re: Stomach pains and bloating

    Hi

    I've had lower left bowel ache for 3 months now. put myself into a right panic

    About 2 months in I started getting bloating across the top (just under my ribs) constant bloating/swelling..I thought it was due to some grapes but it didn't seem to ease off much. It also moved to my back, between my shoulder blades (this was when I was convinced my bowel cancer had spread to my liver..or done something to my gallbladder)

    What I found is when I experienced another symptom to focus my attention on (in my case it was my new found headache) the bloating and things seem to disappear

    I had my colonoscopy this afternoon. I've been panicking it about none stop for a few days. I've still had the occasional back ache but my bloating seems to have magically vanished once I turned my mind to something else! ..so yes I would say you definetly can, I don't know how but..I certainly did.

  9. #9

    Re: Stomach pains and bloating

    I had the exact symptoms last year. They were relentless and I thought there had to be something physically wrong. I had bloating, random pains, hunger feeling, acid etc etc. I went on an anti depression medicine and everything went away as far as those symptoms. It was all anxiety!

  10. #10
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    May 2015
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    226

    Re: Stomach pains and bloating

    Quote Originally Posted by Anxietyslayer View Post
    I had the exact symptoms last year. They were relentless and I thought there had to be something physically wrong. I had bloating, random pains, hunger feeling, acid etc etc. I went on an anti depression medicine and everything went away as far as those symptoms. It was all anxiety!
    Thank you! I feel like I'm going nuts because I'm having all these symptoms at the same time. I can't tell if I'm hungry, not hungry, stuffed, have heartburn, etc. etc. It's like my stomach is just as confused as I am.

    I'm not quite ready to resort to medicine, but I'm going to work on my anxiety and see if I can help the symptoms improve. Not quite ready to give up my GI appt next week but with any luck I can get things to improve with self (mental) care.

    I just know if I go there he'll order a bunch of tests just to be safe that won't show anything. It's such a waste of money/time and stresses me out just to find out nothing was wrong. Went through that last year and I def don't want to do it again. Maybe I'll just march in there and tell him what I'm feeling and what I'm scared of and he can either reassure me, order tests, or tell me I'm nuts.

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