34 years old: CT scan with contrast and an ultrasound

hi I am a 34 years old mum with three young children. I have been experiencing rectal pain on and off for around 3 or 4 years.When there is severe pain in the rectal, I even couldn't move. I had very light rectal bleeding.Sometimes I have dull pain in the rectum and mild pain in the left abdomen and I have to rush to have a bowel movement. I have constipation and thin stool once in a while. My GP referred me to see a colorectal consultant. After a rectal examination, my consultant told me everything seems fine, but I will need a pelvic CT scan with contrast and an ultrasound. For some strange reason I didn't even ask the consultant why I need ct and ultrasound if everything seems fine. I started to panic when I get home. Does this mean I have cancer and need further tests?? Will the consultant tell you if he suspects something cancious? Please help me. thanks a lot

Hi, you may get more replies from the colon cancer group, it's busier than this one. I unfortunately cannot help you much as to why they are doing a ct. Was it a full colonoscopy they did? Other than that the symptoms can be many other things too, for example diverticulitis, or just because of giving birth three times plus stressful life with three young ones (I have two...). I had a full colonoscopy because of a bit similar synptoms but they didn't find anything. Have to eat more fibre they said among other things... Try not to worry and if possible phone the doctor's office to get the answers to your questions. All the best, Mousey

I'm assuming by a rectal examination you mean that the doctor did a digital rectal exam.  Remember, if that is what the doctor did, he/she didn't feel anything as far as his/her finger could reach  - which certainly isn't that far up for most people.  Tumors/masses or polyps are oftentimes out of reach of the DRE (digital rectal exam).  Also, please keep in mind that unless the tumor is large and not fixed, it could easily be missed with the DRE as the only test.  A CT with contrast "may" give some more answers, however, if there is a tumor (and not all tumors are necessarily malignant) in either the rectum or the colon, unless it is quite large, a CT won't show it.   I'm guessing from your vocabularly that you aren't from the USA or Canada.  Guessing here but either England or possibly Australia???  I don't know what the protocol is but, with your symptoms, you really should have a full colonoscopy.  Don't settle for a sigmoidoscopy either.  That particular test doesn't go all the way through the entire bowel.  Do you have any family history of colorectal cancer??  Do you have any family history of colorectal polyps??  These two questions are very important.  If ANY blood relative (mom, dad, brother, sister, grandmother/father, aunt, uncle) has had colorectal cancer make sure to TELL THE DOCTOR.  That should send up a red flag to him/her and make ordering a colonoscopy a necessity.  Oftentimes medical professionals don't want to order a colonoscopy on patients younger than 50 which is just ridiculous, UNLESS there is a family history or either colorectal cancer and/or colorectal polyps (either benign or precancerous). 

Ordering these two tests doesn't necessarily mean that he suspects cancer.  Unfortunately, neither one of these tests will adequately tell the doctor if you have, for example, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, etc.  He is probably looking for other things to rule out and will proceed with more testing if nothing shows up.   Remember that a CT scan will generally NOT show colon or rectal tumors unless they are quite large.

Jaynee