New Pancreatic Cancer Fear

[Willtyler]

Hi,

Thank you for clicking on this and reading it, means more than you think.

I have been a hypochondriac for at least 2 years (maybe more). I know I am a worrier, but sometimes it makes no sense, like how I feel right now.
I am 21 years old, 160 pounds, 6 foot, have a desk job (so I look at computer screens all day) and have a young daughter. I don't eat the healthiest, and am not as active as I use to be ever since my daughter was born.
I mention this to help you get a perspective of what I do and who I am so you can understand.

I've had problems my whole life, whether it be pain, mental health, etc. I'm not going to mention these and just focus on the past few months.
I have had swollen lymph nodes for a few months now, and feel like I've had a sore throat on and off this entire time as well (spitting up yellow, green, and sometime bloody mucus everyday). Most of the lymph nodes are by my neck, but I can feel them in my neck, armpits, and groin area. Some are big, but haven't seem to grow a whole lot in the last month or two. This concerned me so I went to doctor.
I had a colonoscopy before my lymph nodes started to become noticeable (I had bad constipation, and still have it a tiny bit now) and they wanted to check me out. They found nothing, again, i'm mentioning this so you get the whole story.
For the lymph nodes, they did a CT scan with contrast (twice) and saw some swollen lymph nodes, there were some that you couldn't feel that the scan showed. They sent me to a different hospital to get a biopsy as the wait time at this one was over a month and I didn't want to wait. It was a needle biopsy, which time and time are proven to be a hit or miss. Mine had no signs of cancer, but they ruled it inconclusive (meaning they don't 100% know). The radiologist talked with me and mentioned this, and told me himself he has never seen a patient with lymph nodes like mine that ended up being cancerous. He said most lymph nodes are typically easy to tell if they're cancerous or not, which gave me a little relief. One doctor mentioned it could be a bacterial disease, but my primary doctor said it most likely wasn't and could prescribe me some antibiotics but i didn't want to take them if it wasn't needed.

The colonoscopy was probably 8-9 months ago, and the CT scan and biopsy was probably 3-4 months ago. During this time I've had stomach pain and back pain, and I mentioned this. They didn't really have an answer, just said it could be this or that. However, recently it's gotten worse. I know the more you think about it, the more pain you feel, however when i'm in the moment not thinking about it whatsoever I can feel it. Sometimes it's a spurt of intense pain, other times it's constant dull pain. The stomach pain is more so in the center, and I have side/back pain by my liver and pancreas. Being the idiot I am, I looked up my symptoms and found stories of peoples pancreatic cancer symptoms, the really really early symptoms. They all fall into my category for the most part. I now think I have some sort of cancer that has spread to my lymph nodes, and the doctors misdiagnosed me. The hardest part about pancreatic cancer is it's almost undetectable until late stages, and the only real way to diagnose it is biopsy. I tried to reassure myself that the CT scan would of caught a tumor, but they miss pancreatic tumors all the time (so I've read).

I haven't seen a doctor about the stomach and side pain yet, since I mentioned it in all my previous visits, and have done tests on me that have them think i'm healthy.
I am scared. Scared of dying young, leaving my daughter behind. Any input would mean a lot to me, so thank you again in advanced.

Here are the tests I've had done in the past year:
- MRI (no contrast) of Brain
- 2 CT Scans with contrast (groin area to neck)
- Colonoscopy
- Many, many blood tests (probably every blood test known to man)
- Ultra sound on neck and upper back (for lymph nodes)

*Edit*
I forgot to mention one of the newer symptoms is constant stomach pain, and it hurts more after eating.

[WiseMonkey]

Pancreatic cancer can be detected on an ultrasound or CT/MRI scans... but it does come down to how good the radiographer is and most are very well trained, then the scan is read by a specialist in that field. There are blood tests that can gives clues to pancreas issues, they are lipase and amylase enzyme levels in the body. However, these can be raised and it may be to do with bowel, stomach, gall bladder or small intestine issues (celiac).

There are other signs with pancreatic issues like jaundice, white floaty stools and orange urine. I know it's hard but it's best to stop reading Google as you can get the worse cases of any disease which increases our anxiety.

[Careful1]

You are far to young to be worrying about pancreatic cancer!!! Most people who develop this type of cancer are older then 45 years old.. In fact 90% are older then 55 and 70% are older then 65. Is it possible? Yes, anything is possible but its EXTREMELY unlikely.

[Mostu]

"When compared with other imaging modalities, CT performs well in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. A large meta-analysis comparing various imaging modalities for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer found a combined sensitivity and specificity of 89% and 90% respectively for CT" source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5960811/.

Also, if you had a tumour that is causing symptoms, it would have to be a big tumor, which would be seen on the scan. I think that anxiety might cause your symptoms, because I was going through pancreatic cancer fear as well, and when I was worried about it, I felt pains in different parts of my abdomen, with different intenstities. As soon as I got an all clear from the MRI, suddenly my pains went away, appetite went up and so on. My uncle is a surgeon in one of the biggest hospitals in my country, and he told me that the youngest person he has seen was a 31 year old man with a family history of PC. It's a really unlikely disease at our age, and you already had clear scans. You don't have pancreatic cancer bro.

[O_O]

Did you ever resolve this, Willtyler?

Hope you're ok.