Hi everyone,

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this as I know I'll have to wait until all the tests are completed, but I feel like I need to vent.

I'm a 40 year old man. I've been feeling ill for some time, there was some concern that I could have MS, although that has now been ruled out. While I was being investigated for MS, my GP prescribed some medication which didn't really help, but I started having some digestive issues around that time, the most troubling being bloating and constantly burping. I stopped taking those tablets, but the symptoms continued and progressed to alternating constipation and diarrhoea.

After about two months of this, I went to the GP who tested for helicobacter pylori, which came back negative. I continued with this until one evening I suddenly felt tremendous pain around my appendix (I had appendicitis when I was young resulting in an appendectomy). I visited the out of hours GP who arranged for a Fit test to be completed. For some reason I'm not entirely clear on, after I had sent this test away, the hospital sent a second test for me to complete.

Now this morning, I had an appointment with a colorectal surgeon at my local hospital. He didn't give me any actual results, but told me the tests showed a "very large" amount of blood in the tests. I have to come in for a colonoscopy in the next two weeks.

I know that the odds are still on my side even after a positive fit test that it's not cancer, but at the same time I suspect given the symptoms I've had over these last months there's a good chance it could be more serious.

I'm not actually concerned about having cancer as such - I work with someone who had bowel cancer several years ago and he made a good recovery after treatment. My biggest concern is actually for my husband and how he'll cope with this news. He seems to have been followed by cancer his entire life. His mother died of ovarian cancer when he was 20, we had to delay our wedding because his sister was diagnosed and subsequently died from breast cancer at 41. Various other of his family members have also passed away following a cancer diagnosis. I'm also concerned for my elderly parents and how they will cope.

Like I said, I'm not really sure what response I'm hoping for from this post, I just feel like I need to get all of this off my chest.