My brother

Hi all,my brother called me last night and explained he hasn’t been well over the last few months and like most men has kept it all to himself until on sunday he had an incident which made him go and visit the doctor.

He has had blood in his stool,lost a lot of weight he’s fatigued all the time,gets full quickly when eating,bloated and generally feels ill.The doctor examined him and said he must go for tests for bowel cancer.

My question is,why didn’t the doctor suggest other things it maybe.Can they tell if it is cancer just from symptoms,she just said he had to tests for bowel cancer????

 

  • Hello Ricky71, 

    I am sorry to hear abour your brother's symptoms. It's good he finally decided to go and visit the doctor about this. It must be all a bit frightening for him at the moment to be told that he has to go for tests for bowel cancer. I think what the doctor meant was that they need to do further tests to know what is causing these symptoms and many different things could cause these but they need to investigate further. I imagine he will be having a colonoscopy and this will allow them to see if it is bowel cancer or if there are other causes which may explain these symptoms. 

    The best thing to do at the moment is not to anticipate what it might be - I know it is really hard to do - until you have had the results from all tests. 

    Best wishes to you and your bother during this stressful time, 

    Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator