Hello EllieK,

                 l can understand your anxiety and would point out that l can think of at least 10 other conditions apart from cancer that could lead to the symptoms you describe,most of which will almost certainly be made worse or triggered by increased stress. More likely the bowel restriction will be caused by inflammation from a syndrome of the bowel than a physical growth which at your age more likely to be a benign polyp than a tumour.As a former late stage bowel cancer patient l have to tell you l do not recognise flattened thin stools on my run up to the original diagnosis,nor any of your other symptoms,only flattened stools following resection of my bowel.

                                                                                                l think you are doing 100% stress over a 1% chance of cancer,whereas the 99% likelyhood you give no credence too and could almost certainly be provoking that situation to worse situation.Put bluntly, on the greatest outside chance you cannot change what is there,on the odds on favourites you almost certainly can make them even worse and trigger flare ups.

                         The one thing currently in your control is your ability to reduce your stress level and be kind to yourself.l hope you receive the news of your upcoming scope shortly and your mind will find some peace,

                  please stop looking to the unlikely and think about the more obvious,

                                                                                                                            David

Hi gruntifen, 

Thank you so much for responding to my post. Your response was really reassuring to read and has eased some of the stress I'm feeling. I hope you're doing well in regards to you mentioning previously having bowel cancer yourself. I just can't help but stress about what is causing the traces of blood in my stool so hopefully my colonoscopy will provide me with an answer. 
Best wishes, 

E. 

Hello EllieK,

                  thank you asking but l am absolutely fine,important then not to lose sight of the fact that increasingly cancer can be cured,death cannot be avoided,and life is meant to be lived going forward which is bloody difficult if you insist on always looking over your shoulder,pick your options

                                                                                                                 take care,

                                                                                                                                 David

hello again,

                  some years back l had 5,000 pigs scouring with poo hosepiping out of their rear ends with blood.The food we had bought was made from grain that had a microtoxin that ulcerated the bowel. Also had an outbreak of vibrionic scour ,a bacterial infection that causes the lining of the bowel to inflame and detach both resolved with time.The bowel is a wonderfully complex masterpiece we take for granted when its working ,but small things can have big impacts upon it,so remember its often the little things that are overlooked in favour of reaching for the disaster scenario,

                                                                                                                        david

Hi David, 

I'll be sure to monitor what I'm eating now and see if that's the cause of the blood in my stool. 
Thanks, 

E. 

Just an update on what's been going on with me.

Since last posting, I haven't really improved in fact I only started to get worse. I woke up about 2 weeks ago at about 6am due to severe cramaping in my stomach. I ended up having diarrhea for about 2 days. This was the first time since the start of all this in August that I experienced Diarrhea to this extent. Prior to this I had about 2/3 occasions where I would have mild cramping a small amount of loose bowel movement before returning to the thin and flattetned stool 1-2 days later.  I had more diarrhea last weekend and now I have been constipated for about 3 days. I also have extreme pain in my lower back and stomach. My stomach is so sore and tender I can barely touch it.

The worst part of all this (aside from the terrible pain) is that i was told in October that I would be waiting 2-3 weeks for my colonoscopy. 3 weeks went by and I was then told it would happen at the end of November. I've just gotten off the phone with them and have now been told that scopes haves been cancelled fot the last few weeks and that they don't know when they will commence again. Once they commence, the people whose appointments were cancelled will be seen to first so they couldn't even give me a rough guess as to how long I would be waiting. I feel like I am never going to recieve a diagnosis. Not one of the 4 doctors I have seen have told me what they think it might be and I've just been left in the dark. The thoughts of waiting more months is physical and emotional agony. I really don't know how I am going to get through this. I am trying to see the silver lining in this horrible situation but I have yet to see one...

Hello EllieK,

                    just posting to see how you are coping and if you have had any date for your colonoscopy.l realise that you were struggling so l hope you may have been able to move forward with this,

                                                                                   best wishes,

                                                                                                        David

Hi David, 

thankfully the stomach and back pain have ceased since my last post. Hoping it will stay that way! I've no update on when my colonoscopy will be as I still haven't heard anything. I'm simply trying to take this one day at a time and remain positive as much as possible. I'm holding onto the fact that 2 weeks ago I had a bowel movement and the appearance of my stool was the closest to normal I'd seen in months! Other than that one occasion, my symptoms remain the same minus the stomach and back pain so that's a plus. 
hope you're well, 

e x 

Hi David, 

I hope you're doing well! I just wanted to log on really quickly to let you know that I had my endoscopy and colonoscopy on Monday. I am very pleased, relieved and grateful to say that the doctor found absolutely nothing abnormal in my colon. I can't remember the exact words that were said to me because of the sedation but I do remember that both the doctor and nurses several times reassured me that everything looked okay and that I was fine and that he took a few routine biopsies (I remember him telling me he does it with every patient).  As for the endoscope, he said my stomach was inflamed but that it wasn't serious and to just watch my alcohol intake etc. I'll be meeting with a doctor in May in regard to a follow up so I'm going to use that as an opportunity to ask about what else could be causing my symtoms (flat stool, constipation, loose stool etc) but I feel much more at peace now knowing that whatever is causing these symptoms it's nothing serious, thanks to the scopes ️

I just wanted to thank you for your kind words of reassurance all those months ago. I was in a really dark place when I posted my original post; my health anxiety was at an all time high and I was not coping. But your reply to my desperate call for help, helped me in more ways then I can explain and kept me sane during all these months of waiting. 
 

So thank you thank you thank you. 

And to anyone else who might come across this forum topic because they are worried, are waiting for tests to be carried out or tests results, just remember that you can be 100% positive that the worst case scenario is about to happen and be completely wrong.I was convinced that something was seriously wrong with me and it turned out to be absolutely nothing.  Take a deep breath, get whatever is concerning you checked out, reach out to family and friends and even this website for support. You've got this! ️