Have I got rectal cancer?

[Toby2000]

I don't think there's really much point in going back and forth about this though, when I visit my GP on Friday I'll ask about therapy and ask about the sigmoidoscopy, if she says no then she says no, which I'm sure she will! It's just worth a try

[Toby2000]

You will never get that elusive 100% certainty though. Even my dad's post mortem was flawed.

Enough to move on though, and oh, I'm sorry that he passed.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I hope your GP refuses this test and doesn't just try to shuffle you our of the door putting the work onto someone else or delaying the inevitable.

Already yo have wrote off that test. Can you see the cycle? Now you want another guarantee but as pulisa has explained the test you won't isn't the one that checks as far as it could and so you will just want a colonscopy next. Remember, before you started focussing on the signmoidoscpoy you were talking about a colonscopy. It sounds like you are spending time reading medical sites and deciding what you think is the right test but you just don't have ther trainined or experience to make that call, let alone the objectivity.

Please re-read the last few pages and try to accept you are falling back into the cycle. You are. We should expect it, it's part of how these disorder work and we can only try to show you this.

Remember, and here's some myth busting stuff, NO test is 100%. None of them. Why? The tester could mess it up, interpret it wrong, mix your results up with another patient (many a Hollywood movie plot), some admin bod could lose it and then lie to create a new one, the manufacturer might have made a duff piece of kit, someone who makes them might be a nutcase who revels in churning out the odd ineffective kit for giggles, etc. These might sound extreme but I've seen almost all of these mentioned, threads about HIV/AIDS spring to mind.

If other OCDers can go to those lengths, why not you? The subconscious will blurt out all possible options and it's only limited by your creativity.

[Toby2000]

I hope your GP refuses this test and doesn't just try to shuffle you our of the door putting the work onto someone else or delaying the inevitable.

Already yo have wrote off that test. Can you see the cycle? Now you want another guarantee but as pulisa has explained the test you won't isn't the one that checks as far as it could and so you will just want a colonscopy next. Remember, before you started focussing on the signmoidoscpoy you were talking about a colonscopy. It sounds like you are spending time reading medical sites and deciding what you think is the right test but you just don't have ther trainined or experience to make that call, let alone the objectivity.

Please re-read the last few pages and try to accept you are falling back into the cycle. You are. We should expect it, it's part of how these disorder work and we can only try to show you this.

Remember, and here's some myth busting stuff, NO test is 100%. None of them. Why? The tester could mess it up, interpret it wrong, mix your results up with another patient (many a Hollywood movie plot), some admin bod could lose it and then lie to create a new one, the manufacturer might have made a duff piece of kit, someone who makes them might be a nutcase who revels in churning out the odd ineffective kit for giggles, etc. These might sound extreme but I've seen almost all of these mentioned, threads about HIV/AIDS spring to mind.

If other OCDers can go to those lengths, why not you? The subconscious will blurt out all possible options and it's only limited by your creativity.

I need them to because I keep falling into this trap of doubting and sometimes I force myself to google, which sounds weird because I don't WANT to google, but it's like my mind won't give up unless I google. Like seeing a sweet on the side which is someone else's and your mind keeps telling you "Go on, eat the sweet" until you give in and do it

I just hate that overwhelming feeling of doubt and distress when I read about someone with the exact same symptoms as me, at a similar age, who was diagnosed with colon cancer that GPs thought was hemorrhoids. I desperately don't want that to be me

I went outside for the first time in a couple of days today and it was a beautiful day. I thought, how beautiful is life and how lucky am I to live it? My dog was running around in the garden and rolling around. But then I remembered this stupid sickening stomach churning scary doubt of "Why am I not seeing blood on the paper more often if it's hemorrhoids?" "What if the tumour is just a little higher up?" "I read on a site today that increasing constipation can be a symptom and I'm here with just that!" "Why have I never had mucus before now?"

I just want to restart life, without all of this crap, I want a definite answer because I just HATE going through the same s**t (literally) everyday. I want to start focusing on my education again, I want to take more care in my appearance, I want to lose a little weight, I want to start being optimistic. I want to work on my anxiety

A sigmoidoscopy, a flexible one, would be enough to reassure me 100% because I wouldn't have bled from my rectum after a bowel movement if it was all the way up in my ascending colon, so if it's anything at all, it would be able to be seen by a flex sigmoidoscopy

I know it's annoying but please bare with me, it's so difficult with HA, you have to fight every day to convince yourself that you're going to live and that doesn't last long at all

I'm sure the GP will say no or deflect away from it and start talking about my diet or something anyway, which is understandable

[BlueIris]

Getting a handle on your anxiety would help you deal with the lack of certainty that's a fundamental part of life. It doesn't matter what tests you get if the faulty thinking patterns are still there and you fall down the same hole next time other symptoms come up.

[Carys]

Getting a handle on your anxiety would help you deal with the lack of certainty that's a fundamental part of life.

She's spot on Toby.

[Toby2000]

I know I know she is but ahhhhh

I had some peas with my dinner and had a banana too to add some fiber to my diet

Why am I still kinda constipated over an hour after having the fiber? My stools always seem to be hard

I read that this can have some connection to colon cancer, but the NHS site says constipation is rarely caused by any serious bowel diseases

But then other sites say constipation is one of the key symptoms?

What is the truth here?

[Carys]

Why am I still kinda constipated over an hour after having the fiber?

Seriously? for someone who has read up on bowels for so long, your grasp of the alimentary canal is startlingly bad Toby

Food can be in your stomach for about 5 hours (maybe more), then it passes through the small intestine, in another say 2 hours, 40 hours travelling through the colon....maybe more maybe less. Basically, food can take between 24 -72 hours (according to most sources) to be ready to come out the other end. If you are constipated though it could be backed up a bit anyway, and be even longer as it 'queues up'. So, fibre eaten today might start having an effect in 3 or so days ! BY the way, totally non-medical assessement made by me then about 3 or 4 days, just going by my own observations. Oh and one banana and a portion of peas isn't enough in one day anyway.....its a start.....but not enough....

[Carys]

What is the truth here?

WHo knows, and you shouldn't care, as you don't have it.

[Toby2000]

Seriously? for someone who has read up on bowels for so long, your grasp of the alimentary canal is startlingly bad Toby

Food can be in your stomach for about 5 hours (maybe more), then it passes through the small intestine, in another say 2 hours, 40 hours travelling through the colon....maybe more maybe less. Basically, food can take between 24 -72 hours (according to most sources) to be ready to come out the other end. If you are constipated though it could be backed up a bit anyway, and be even longer as it 'queues up'. So, fibre eaten today might start having an effect in 3 or so days ! BY the way, totally non-medical assessement made by me then about 3 or 4 days, just going by my own observations. Oh and one banana and a portion of peas isn't enough in one day anyway.....its a start.....but not enough....

I don't eat veg/fiber as often as I probably should so I was expecting everything to come bursting out really quickly

And I had the peas with a meal (pie) not on their own, my mum isn't that cruel to me although I do occasionally like eating frozen petit pois from the bag