Hey, so I've had iffy bowels for quite a number of years and every time I go to the hospital about it I'm given some silly excuse to explain away my problems - mostly that it's "just your period" (it's got absolutely nothing to do with me menstruating) or that it's anxiety related (it's not). My family has a *long* history of bowel cancers and doctors don't seem to care about that at all.
In the last few months, but moreso in the last few weeks, I've noticed a few things - I'm passing these weird stringy and dark blood clots in my stool alongside a strange amount of mucus, I'm bleeding every time I have a bowel movement (not a lot but not bright red/fresh blood), I feel sick absolutely constantly with this weird dragging sensation in my stomach as if I'm extremely hungry (even after I've eaten), I've lost about a stone in less than a month despite not trying to lose weight, I'm constantly tired to the point where even walking downstairs feels like running a marathon, I get more headrushes than usual (I thought it was anemia, turns out my iron levels are fine and the dizzy spells have just been dismissed as nothing), and I've been getting these *intense* pain scale 9/10 bouts of abdominal pain that come on like a hot poker being shoved up my torso, then subside after an hour or so. I tried to contact my university GP about this and got exactly the same dismissal - that it was all in my head. I had a colonoscopy about 4 years back that couldn't be completed due to extreme discomfort around halfway through (no anaesthesia), and despite being uncompleted it was marked as totally normal/no cause for concern, and I think this is the main reason why doctors aren't listening to me anymore.
I'm really nervous and frustrated, I'm 21 and I'm too broke to afford private, and I don't like going to the doctors unless I think it's serious. I spoke to an older ex work colleague of mine who had bowel cancer when he was my age and he described virtually exactly the same symptoms to me. I want the doctors to help me figure out what's going on but I don't want to push the issue. What can I do? Have any of you guys experienced this?
