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Worried about esophageal cancer, scared i am dying

d1214
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Hi, i'm a 21 year old man quit smoking for around 10 months and i am overweight, not the unhealthiest person ever but not the healthiest either. 

i am horribly scared that i have esophageal cancer and that it has spread to my liver and i'm dying. for the past 9 months i have had a lump in my throat, food getting stuck while i am eating, heartburn and indigestion, pain when swallowing and ear pain, and a visible swelling when i tense my neck. I have spoken to the doctors about this and was sent for a transnasal endoscopy had the procedure done and was told everything was okay. I was very happy and felt a weight lifted off my shoulders, and everything was left as it was,  but as weeks went on my symptoms haven't changed, i get the same symptoms i can't really tell if they are getting gradually worse or not. A couple of months ago i started getting this horrible pain in my top right rib next to my armpit and under my armpit too, i thought i had pulled something but clearly haven't as the pain is still there. 

while i was in the shower a few weeks back i was washing my neck and felt 2 rock hard lymph nodes above my right collar bone. in the supraclavicular region, i googled my symptoms as most people do who are worried and to my suprise it said i most likely have esophageal cancer, the lymph nodes haven't gone down and are still here it has been around 4 weeks now.

so i spoke to my doctor he ran some blood tests (full blood count and others) and my liver function test came back abnormal, he wasn't concerned as the rest were fine and said he will send me for another in late december time.

Does this sound like cancer to anyone here? i've convinced myself i am dying and nothing can be done as it has such a low survival rate, i hate living with this worry all the time and i am so scared to go to the doctors again, and think they probably think i am a hypochondriac. is there any way they could have missed something on the endoscopy?  someone please reach out and tell me their thoughts it would be a giant help and nice to just have  someone to talk to about this, thank you so much . 

  • Hello d1214,

    Unfortunately we cannot diagnose you on the forum, only a doctor can. As you probably know, looking for answers online can end up increasing anxiety rather than making you feel better. If you have concerns before your next appointment, it's best to contact your doctor. It's also important to look after your mental health in the meantime and mindfulness can help with that.

    I hope you can get an appointment date soon,

    Moderator Anastasia

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    Hey, just wanted an update. How are you doing now? Did you find out what was causing your problems and are you feeling better now? Please update us. Hope you're doing good now!

  • Offline in reply to nideba

    Hi! i'm good thankyou how are you? i still haven't found out what is causing my problems, they seem to be exactly the same and haven't progressed really, it's been a year and 3 months almost. I was sick and tired of doctors not listening to me/believing me and keep telling me the same things over and over again saying "it can't be anything bad because of your age" so i decided to give up trying to find out what it was and to just get on with my life. It left me in a really dark place for a long time constantly scared and worrying myself all day everyday and since i've just not thought about it and carried on with my life i feel much happier! and i never wanna go back to that, i don't recommend not finding out what is wrong with you i just felt it was a personal decision for me that i needed to make to be happy again. Hope everything is well with you!

  • Offline in reply to d1214

    I'm glad to see your ok. I just want to let you know, you shouldn't want to worry about esophagel cancer especially at your age. Esophagel cancer is extremely rare for ppl in their 20s. Approximately 1 in 50 uk makes will get esophagel cancer in their lifetime and 41% of esophagel cancer cases are diagnosed to people at the age of above 75. So what I'm trying to tell you is, the chance of esophagel cancer is really low and if you do think you ever have it, just know there's a 2% chance. Also there's many other diseases which cause the same symptoms as esophagel cancer.  Glad to see you doing good mate.

     

    also if you had an good endoscopy and blood tests results you should be fine. In an endoscopy they literally look inside you with a clear camera. If they couldn't find anything suspect with that then I highly doubt something is wrong with you. I'm no doctor, but you could just have acid reflux or gerd. The symptoms you have are similar.

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