New Here and scared.

hi everyone, I’m new here, so firstly wanted to introduce myself and say hi. My name is Mary, I’m 37 and a mother to 4 beautiful children.

I wanted to ask some experienced members about tests and symptoms as I’m currently being tested for bowel cancer and am extremely scared.

At the beginning of last year I began getting an extreme pain in my lower back on the left side. This was put down to an offset of a slipped disc I had previously had, I was given a pain management special and it was put down to chronic pain, although they didn’t know what was wrong as the pain was in a different place to my slipped disc. What ensued was ALLOT of heavy pain meds. Fast forward 3 months ago. I started to notice a huge lack in appetite, which has now resulted in me being unable to eat at all and 7 kg weight loss in the last 5 weeks! 

My bowels are now extremely loose and painful, I have extreme pain on my lower left side, exactly in the spot where the back pain is but on the front! I have a killer headache and blurred vision and weirdly am lactating even though not pregnant. My stomach sounds as though there is a marching band set up and playing in my Bowles! And I have some not much blood in the stools. I am beyond tired, white, shaky and always knackered. Also I’m writing this now, as I just woke up and have pooped myself with runny poo with a red blood like tinge (sorry to be explicit!) 

i had a positive fob test back, a heap of bloods done and several external examinations.

i have been transferred to have a brain scan as they believe I have a tumour in my brain (due to the lactating) and am waiting on a colonoscopy. I’ve been cleared for anything Geonological. 

I went to A&E yesterday as I’m so worried about not eating, pain and feeling so dizzy all the time. But they were CRAZY busy!! And focused on my neurological signs not my bowels. My bloods cleared me for any infection, coeliac, diverticulitis etc

mu GP has pushed the colonoscopy to an emergency, however even as an emergency I’ve been told the wait can be up to 6 weeks!! In the mean time I have to sit and wait, but I’m fading fast! 

I don’t know what to do or if there is a way to get them to hurry up a bit? I’m seriously concerned, so is my gp, partner and family, however I feel stuck to do anything else to help.

could anyone please tell me if my symptoms are similar to theirs, or if anyone knows of something else this could be? I feel so unwell and am terrified that this is cancer and I’m just sat here doing nothing. Bowel cancer runs in my family in a big way. Also could anyone please let me know if there is a different root I can take to get the colonoscopy faster? 

Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this, much love and peace to you all.

Mary x

  • Hi I don't know what area you are in but could your doctor get you in to a nother hospital for a quicker appointment it's the only thing I can think of. Good luck, try not to panic. I now it takes some doing. 

    Billy 

  • Hi Mary. How are you now? I wanted to reach out to you because I had similar problems with my bowel and went through scans etc. I had severe pain under my right ribs, bowels that were either one way or another and bleeding. My awful Consultant made out that I had mental issue problems due to a breakdown I had 14 years ago. I ended up, politely but very firmly telling him that I was genuinely ill and a lot more. It's too long a story but last year I got pneumonia and the Xray showed that I had a tumour on my upper, right lung. My so called treatment before that was an absolute fiasco and if you would like to know more it is on my profile.

    Your symptoms sound awful and I really feel for you as our hospital was appalling. It might be worth calling for an ambulance or getting your husband to take you to A. & E. If you don't want to do either of those would somebody push your Dr. for you? My G.P. fought for me to get treatment because like you, I felt and looked so ill.

    Hopefully you won't have cancer and it could be Diverticulitis or some other horribly painful bowel problem but with your family history they really need to do something quickly which is why I thought that maybe you could call an ambulance. Like you, I thought I had bowel cancer but didn't. You sound as though you are a lovely person but I know it's hard to get the energy to push but you have to. I didn't scream, rant, rave or swear but I ended up being very firm with my Consultant. Please let us know how you are and I will be thinking of you. You shouldn't need to battle to get treatment but the N.H.S. is on it's knees so I'm afraid our only option is to keep nagging. Offload on me if you want to and hopefully you will feel a little better. Take care and remember that people care about you.

    All the best,

    Danni88 xx