Have I got rectal cancer?

[Toby2000]

Hes had investigations and they just say ibs. My friends husband is going through exactly the same and again they just use the blanket term ibs as they can’t find the cause. It really gets him down and he’s struggling as lot as he does suffer from anxiety himself but not to my extent. So every so often when it’s bad he will panic it is cancer. I can see it’s worse because he’s ate lots of cheese the day before or he’s incredibly stressed. It’s easy for me to say though as I can see it but when that doubt creeps in it’s hard to not panic.

I really think all your issues are related to diet and stress from the anxiety. Our stomachs are so in tune with our minds. As soon as I get a bad episode with my anxiety I will have terrible cramps and loose stools. The more you panic about being in pain tomorrow the more likely it will happen. My mind has created so many physical symptoms since my anxiety started. The more I fixated on it the worse it gets. I have had terrible breast pain in my right breast for a few months. I was convinced it was cancer. Yesterday my left breast had these huge veins come up. Because I’ve fixated on the veins I’ve had no breast pain in my right breast at all.

anxiety is a really scary thing.

Did he have a colonoscopy or anything?

I definitely think my symptoms are diet and stress related, stress especially, I find as soon as I stop worrying and stop eating junk my stools go back to normal but obviously when you're caught in a cycle it's hard to get back to normal, and you find yourself jumping from the extremes, constipation to diarrhea, very quickly

[Toby2000]

You are not being argumentative, you are simply fighting against anything rational as HAers do in their various levels of intensity. You've already completely undermined your GP's analysis with the help of the odd user story on the internet.

Let me ask you this. Have you read every single user story on the internet where they have had blood higher up and it's just as your GP says or something else other than cancer? If not how can your research be valid? You've completely biased it on a possibility and ignore probability. In which case why not be worried about being stabbed in the street tomorrow or a car mowing you down on the pavement? These are also rare yet they are possible and have happened.

Your main focus is part of the problem. You are prioritising chasing a test your GP has just assessed your new symptoms against and still agrees with a previous GP and specialist. All you have is your fear and some odd stories off the internet out of millions of people you haven't checked to see what their causes were.

I mean, you definitely have a point. But I just think if they don't mention they have hemorrhoids then we should assume they don't have hemorrhoids or anything

and now it's clicked what you meant in the second paragraph, I get it, I've just read so many stories where they all mention having tumors found in the bowel during a colonoscopy, not a rectal exam or the exam I had, and they also had "rectal bleeding", it's infuriating because they don't go into much detail

[Toby2000]

Well the interesting thing about not having enough detail is often a clue into the person. Journalists often will skim over things because they are too much detail for the readers, as unicorn has mentioned, and they aren't trained in the same way a doctor is to question things. Journalists will also leave details out that dumb it down as that won't sell clicks and they can get away with making it scary through lacking detail more easily than if they make false claims.

Back to the person though. There is a very good chance the person doesn't know enough about their condition to explain every symptom they have experienced. Throughout their illness they will have experienced other illnesses that anyone can get as well as co morbid conditions (just look how many have mental health conditions...and these have their own symptoms including all the GI stuff, this alone proves your claim false) but when did having cancer make you an oncologist or any other "ist"? When did it make you an expert in bowels?

You leave detail out because it's details that often catch you out. The person may give a user story that is incorrect when examined by the more analytical raises concerns about the media outlet peddling false facts.

I agree, in these "young person diagnosed with bowel cancer" stories, they often fail to mention that it's incredibly rare in younger people

I did the calculations yesterday and:

Just less than 0.2% of bowel cancer cases diagnosed each year in the UK are in people 20 or under.
= there are less than 100 new bowel cancer patients each year under the age of 20

Slightly unrelated but obviously that wouldn't scare people, it would make them think that they're immune to it if they're young, so you're right they obviously have to make it all SHOCKING!

[Toby2000]

I know no one asked for an update and no one wants them but luckily I managed to go to toilet earlier, I even looked and there was no blood or anything that I could see

[pulisa]

You are right. We don't need an update on your bowel habits and you don't need to update either.

[Toby2000]

You are right. We don't need an update on your bowel habits and you don't need to update either.

Sorry it just makes me feel like, if something positive happens, it's almost reassuring and uplifting for me when I post about it on here. It makes me feel like something small at least is going right

[Toby2000]

I know it's bad too but I've been addicted to the series GPs: Behind Closed Doors that airs on Channel 5 in the UK, I've been watching it loads on catch up

I don't really find it triggering, but weirdly I LOVE the GP environment and I just find medical related stuff so interesting. Plus the GPs are soooo lovely. I really only have happy memories from there, I associate it with the overwhelming feeling of reassurance. I know that probably sounds weird but I'm so used to it there now and the kindness of GPs warms my heart

[Unicorn1985]

Did he have a colonoscopy or anything?

I definitely think my symptoms are diet and stress related, stress especially, I find as soon as I stop worrying and stop eating junk my stools go back to normal but obviously when you're caught in a cycle it's hard to get back to normal, and you find yourself jumping from the extremes, constipation to diarrhea, very quickly

Yes he did have one and they found no cause. He’s having old and new blood as well. He hasn’t had a “normal” stool in the past 5 years yet it’s still not cancer.

Youve been this this morning and all looks normal. If you had bowel cancer it wouldn’t be normal. It is diet and anxiety.

Please try try and enjoy yourself and if you eat out choose something you know won’t bung you up or make you loose. Jacket potato with salad or something healthy. You’ve got to help yourself with this Toby and the better you eat, the more normal your stools, the less “evidence of cancer” if you get what I’m saying.

[Toby2000]

Yes he did have one and they found no cause. He’s having old and new blood as well. He hasn’t had a “normal” stool in the past 5 years yet it’s still not cancer.

Youve been this this morning and all looks normal. If you had bowel cancer it wouldn’t be normal. It is diet and anxiety.

Please try try and enjoy yourself and if you eat out choose something you know won’t bung you up or make you loose. Jacket potato with salad or something healthy. You’ve got to help yourself with this Toby and the better you eat, the more normal your stools, the less “evidence of cancer” if you get what I’m saying.

Oh that's good

Yep it was looser (not watery) but I was expecting that since I ate a lot to try and make it all leave quicker which backfired, but it was a normal colour and no blood to be seen which is always reassuring, so I'm not worried

I will try and enjoy myself today. I'm excited to spend time with family and go out for lunch. Usually certain things stop me enjoying even the routine things I do outside of home on the weekends etc but I'm feeling better today. Hopefully I'm in the same mindset on holiday in late July

[Unicorn1985]

It will take time but keep trying. Eat better and you will find most of these bowel issues will go.

After i started spiralling yesterday I had a family day out at a theme park. I cried in the car there despite a nice lady giving me reassurance on here. Then I gave myself a talking too. Reminded myself I’m missing out on so much happiness. Even if I had cancer nothing could be done about it yesterday and ruining my day out wasn’t going to change if I had cancer or not. So I relaxed (it took a few hours). I laughed and smiled. Im so glad I did now.