Hi

I have recently being diagnosed with a GIST in my stomach.
During mid 2018, I had occasional discomfort under my ribs on left side and a couple of bouts of nauseau - very intermittent, about 3 months apart. As part of checkup with GP, she booked me for an ultrasound - which was clear apart from small gallstones and endoscopy to check out any issues in stomach. I had a long wait for endoscopic appointment but wasnt too concerned as had no recurrence of issues.
Had endoscope on March 23rd - showed Haitus Hernia, gastritis and helicobacter pylori infection - all possible causes for the few symptoms I had. Also showed an abnormality in stomach wall which doctor described as something pushing in against the stomach wall - which was not that helpful - but he couldnt say what it was.
I had a ultrasound endoscope about 10 days later and doctor identified it as a Gist - approx 2.8cm by 1.3 cm in upper wall of stomach close to duodenum.
I had never heard of a GIST before so only question I had was if it is malignant. He answered that it was not malignant but that they do typically become malignant and so should be removed - CT scan was arranged. I was just so relieved to hear "not malignant" and still a bit groggy from sedative that I didnt get much more info - apart from lymph nodes are fine.

So I have since read up on GIST and would now question how he came to the "non maligant" decision. My GP had to google "GIST" when the report came through, so not much more she can tell me.

Anyway so have been trying to process this over the past few weeks and have been doing ok. I have had a few wobbly days but am working hard on my mental approach and not letting my mind rush to the worst possible outcome. At this point all I know is that I have a smallish gist in my stomach which needs to come out. I have been focusing on the most positive outcome: get it removed, find out malignancy potential and deal with follow up scans/treatment as necessary.
If the CT scan shows something different - i.e. further tumours elsewhere, then I will try to deal with that as best I can.

Apologies if thats a lot of detail. Because I am not yet sure of the full extent of my GIST, I havent talked about this to anybody else so is good to get it all out here. My wife was with me at the time of diagnosis - she is focusing on the "not malignant and remove it" prognosis given that day. We have spoken about it but she hasnt searched up detail on GIST, perferring to wait and see what the whole picture is. I think that has been a help actually as it has helped me focus on the more positive potential outcome. I have booked a session with a counseller on Thursday to help me deal with all of this.

Today was a hard day as it was my CT scan. That brings up the fear that there is more involved that just this one tumour.
It has been hard to stop my mind rushing to the worst scenario. Hence my reason for posting here, to get some of it out of my head.

So now its the waiting game to get CT results.

Thats it for now - it has been a help already to express all of the above.
One thing that I have found to be of huge benefit is starting to do some meditation - it really has helped when my mind starts panicking and rushing to the worst possible scenario. It does help to get me calm again and carry on. I would recommend it to everyone - there are loads of tips online about how to start it.

Thanks all