Waiting and worried

It's been a really tough year with everything but I've also been so unwell. In February I was fast tracked for possible colon cancer, I had a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, both thankfully clear but it was done due to severe abdominal pain and severe anaemia. I had lots of other tests then referred to gastroenterologist. Then I passed blood and I saw my GP who fast tracked me again due to that and at my nurse appointment the same day I found out I had lost a stone and I'm still having symptoms of anaemia. They did a sigmoidoscopy which was clear and then 3 weeks ago I had a CT scan. I am genuinely concerned it may well be cancer but I also am aware it may be Crohn's disease, but I just don't know how long I am going to be waiting. It's making me extremely anxious because I don't have a number of someone to contact to chase up my scan results so I'm in limbo. Does anyone know the rough timescale of results in these 'covid' times?

  • Hello LizzyH78, 

    I just wanted to welcome you to our forum. I hope you won't have to wait too long for your CT scan results. I can imagine it must be a very stressful time for you while waiting for these important results and as you said during these covid times it can be hard to know how long these take to come through. I think you could perhaps get in touch with your doctor's surgery to try and find out whether they can have access to these or if they can tell you more or whether they have a number to give you to enable you to chase these.  Waiting is often described here as the hardest thing and many on the forum will understand how you are feeling at the moment. 

    I know it is really hard but try not to worry too much or anticipate what it might be. The best thing to do to avoid thinking too much about this is to keep busy and distracted if you can and avoid looking things up online. I can imagine it is hard for you to do this at the moment but it will help you feel a little less anxious. 

    I hope you will also hear from others here who have been through all this before and that they will be along soon to share their story with you. 

    Keeping everything crossed for you that everything turns out fine. 

    Best wishes, 

    Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Thank you for your help, last week I rang the colorectal nurses as it was the head specialist nurse who wrote to me to refer me for my CT scan. The nurse I spoke to gave me my consultant's name and his secretary's number because my scan report is on the hospital system but the consultant wants to talk to me. I've left countless messages on the answer phone but the consultant hasn't contacted me, it's over 4 weeks since the scan.

    To be honest the pain I'm in is so debilitating, being busy isn't an option and I think that this lockdown and the worry around covid is a huge challenge for many of us. The only hope which I guess turned into an expectation until the last week, is to have a few days over Christmas where pain is under control and I can be a mum