28 years old and scared i have colon cancer, please help.

hello, i am not sure whats going on with my body but bare with me as i try to explain as simple as i can. i went to see a doctor about a month and a half ago bc i was noticing blood when i wipe after a bowel movement. i had a ultrasound on gallbladder, liver, pancreas, spleen. they said it was normal. blood work was normal. they did a rectal exam and said it was no tears, no hemmroids, i wasnt iritated. just told me that sometimes its normal. the past week ive had atleast two bowel movements a day and one of them is bloody, its in the stool, in the toilet and on the tissue when i wipe. i called today and made another appointment to be seen again bc im really starting to worry bc i know cancer has no age limit. any info would be greatly appreciated. what are symptoms that any of u experienced with colon cancer? what else could this be? thanks so much.

Hi - So glad you have made another appointment.  I had the same type of bleeding in 2008 and was diagnosed with stage 2 colorectal cancer.  Good that your ultrasounds have come back normal on your other organs.  They did my surgery and found that lymph nodes were involved and upgraded me to stage 3.  If your doctor won't do more testing, get another doctor.  My doc sent me for an emergency sigmoidoscopy (within an hour of seeing me at her office) where the gastroenterologist biopsied the tumor and made an appointment with a colorectal surgeon for a colonoscopy to be sure I didn't have more tumors elsewhere in my colon.  All these tests make you very worried and nervous, but that's what they need to do to check everything out.  You want them to be thorough.   Talk to your doctor about having a colonoscopy asap. I had many CT scans, 3D ultrasounds, and PET scan before they decided what treatment to use. Hopefully it's not colon cancer, but the colonoscopy should be able to tell that.

On Nov 16, 2012 5:18 AM dsgran wrote:

Hi - So glad you have made another appointment.  I had the same type of bleeding in 2008 and was diagnosed with stage 2 colorectal cancer.  Good that your ultrasounds have come back normal on your other organs.  They did my surgery and found that lymph nodes were involved and upgraded me to stage 3.  If your doctor won't do more testing, get another doctor.  My doc sent me for an emergency sigmoidoscopy (within an hour of seeing me at her office) where the gastroenterologist biopsied the tumor and made an appointment with a colorectal surgeon for a colonoscopy to be sure I didn't have more tumors elsewhere in my colon.  All these tests make you very worried and nervous, but that's what they need to do to check everything out.  You want them to be thorough.   Talk to your doctor about having a colonoscopy asap. I had many CT scans, 3D ultrasounds, and PET scan before they decided what treatment to use. Hopefully it's not colon cancer, but the colonoscopy should be able to tell that.

thank u so much for ur reply. i know that i wont stop demanding tests until they get to the bottom of it. how are u doing now and dealing with things?

Thank you so much for replying.  My appointment is on tuesday and i guess we will see where it goes. Did u have any other symptoms other than the bleeding? i dont, i dont even have any pain anywhere. I know that dont really mean anything tho. just curious. How are u doing? 

Am doing fine now. Am in my 4th year of recovery. Don't have to have any more scans, but still see my oncologist and surgeon every 6 months and my radiologist once a year.  Will have to have colonoscopies every 3 yrs.  Didn't have any pain either, but had the bleeding and then diarrhea the last month before my surgery.  I was anemic too, but that had been blamed on other things for a few years.  Am twice your age, so if I can get through it, you will do just fine.  The testing takes a lot out of you.  It's emotionally draining.  A lot of tests have to be done "fasting", so I always kept some "Ensure" or similar product on hand and took one with me so I could drink it after the test.  You don't feel like eating much going through all this stuff, but you have to keep yourself healthy and have make sure you eat nutritious food any way you can.  I will check back to see how you are doing and how your testing went.