Hey all, 38 year old male. My name is John. In 2013 I had a couple months of bad constipation and mucus. Begged the gastro to do a colonoscopy and she did in July 2013 to make me feel better. Aside from some internal hemorrhoids and a little colitis, completely clear. My symptoms vanished.

Fast forward to March 2019. Since April of 2018 I've had almost daily symptoms: sometimes weeks of constipation (never gone longer than a day without a bowel movement but they're clearly hard dried stools), sometimes ragged looking stools, sometimes mucus, sore achy lower back and sides, and constant, CONSTANT, daily gurgling and noise in my bowels. Constant. The gurgling is either this sort of low rapid feeling in my upper right abdomen, or a popping noisy gurgling in my lower gut. Like every damn day, off and on all day. I don't remember experiencing that in 2013. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've had a totally normal looking stool since last April. Nothing I've tried helps. Went back to the gastro in July and she was adamant I didn't have bowel cancer. Then I went again in December. Kept saying "you had a colonoscopy in 2013. We drew blood this year and you have no inflammation. This isn't how bowel cancer works. You have IBS and it can last for years, unfortunately". Over the past few weeks I started noticing off and on smears of bright red blood on the toilet paper. Went back to the gastro two weeks ago and she said "well hey let's just do another colonoscopy and check for inflammation or more hemorrhoids, ok?" I asked if she was giving me another colonoscopy because she's afraid something deadly is going on and she said "no, this is to reassure you". But what if she's doing it because she's really concerned and doesn't want to freak me out?

Guys I have to ask: having a colonoscopy free of polyps in July 2013, what are the odds I now have bowel cancer? Because I've lived in a prison of fear for an entire year now. Not a day goes by where I'm not thinking about this. Everyone from my GP to my therapist to the gastro to my wife insist I don't have bowel cancer and I don't believe them. I need to hear what other anxiety sufferers think. Please.