Buckle up - it's story time!

I've been having stomach problems since April 2019 - Ranging from long bouts of stomach pain and frequent diarrhoea (sometimes it was up to 7 times a day) to most recently ‘flare ups’ of vomiting bile and constant burping.

The diarrhoea and stomach cramps were how this started a few years ago (I was even having cases of bowel incontinence which isn’t normal in a then 27 year old) however these symptoms have eased from what they were. The upper stomach ‘flare ups’ started in the November of 2020 and I get them every few months. Each time it starts with me vomiting bile for approximately 9 hours straight (can’t even keep water down) and constant pain, burping and watery diarrhoea until there’s nothing left to go through me followed by a week of constant nausea and ‘thickening’ diarrhoea until I’m able to eat normally again. 

My doctor referred me to a gastroenterologist in June 2020 and I was then an a long waitlist. It was a long wait with changing symptoms and I finally had my first gastroenterology appointment at the end of December 2021. He referred me for a gastroscopy in March which I struggled with as I didn’t have sedation. They did it as quickly as possible as I kept gagging and heaving but they found that my duodenum was flat and inflamed. They took biopsies and the consultant on the day stated she thought it might be celiac disease as it doesn’t always show up on blood tests. Fast forward to two weeks later and I get the results which state that despite the lack of the normal villi pattern and the inflammation, the biopsies were normal so they referred me for a colonoscopy.

I had the colonoscopy almost 3 weeks ago and again opted without sedation but this was perfectly fine with just gas and air. They found five polyps which they removed for testing - he said he thought they were hyperplastic but they needed to test them for certainty. I had a 7mm flat elevated polyp in the caecum next to my appendix, a 5mm sessile polyp in the distal sigmoid colon and three 2mm flat elevated polyps in the rectum. They also took four additional biopsies. I spoke to my consultant after the procedure and he reassured me that my colon looked fine except for the polyps and that if the results were normal then we’d book me in for another gastroscopy but it would be sedated so they could get a better look. 

Fast forward to 2 weeks later and I still hadn’t had the results. I phoned the hospital and the receptionist said that they still hadn’t gotten the results and they would chase them however within an hour of me calling, I received a text message stating that I had a telephone appointment booked with my consultant for 3 weeks time. I tried calling them back but the department was then closed and it was then the Jubilee weekend.

Yesterday, I called my doctors surgery to see if they had the results and the receptionist advised that I needed to phone this morning to make an appointment to speak to the doctor as she couldn’t tell me anything (the receptionists previously have been able to give me results by telephone and when my mum had similar procedures, they told her all was fine without having to speak to the doctor) so I was a little concerned. I called and had a telephone appointment with my doctor this morning and he advised me that they’d had a letter from the hospital and it advised them that there were two polyps of concern and that I would need to wait to my appointment with the consultant as he couldn’t give me anymore information. He did advise that it’s not unusual to find them in older patients but don’t usually see so many in someone of my age and proceeded to ask if I had any family history of this - unfortunately I don’t know as my mum is adopted (she had a colonoscopy recently but only had three small polyps under 2mm) and I don’t have a relationship with my dad. 

So it looks like I have a few weeks of waiting and I don’t know if I’m now unnecessarily concerned as the long wait for these tests has caused me general health anxiety. For context, I’ve just turned 30 and I know I’m probably overreacting but I don’t seem to have the best luck. 

So my question is, has anyone got any experience with this that can confirm that I’m just completely over reacting and put my mind at ease? I’d like to think that if there was a serious issue, it would be a face to face appointment and not a telephone call but I also know that they’ve changed procedures since Covid and know people who have been given bad news via this method. 

I think I’m also slightly freaking out as I have to have another smear test next month too as I’ve tested HPV positive for two years in a row (haven’t been sexually active since before my last negative smear 6 years ago) and if the one next month is positive, I’ve been told I’ll need a colposcopy. Needless to say, there’s a lot on my mind at the moment!