I can understand how scared you must be, but at your age, bowel cancer is not common and I suspect many other things could cause your symptoms. A polyp, for example, has lots of the same symptoms as bowel cancer. It's probably FAR more likely that you don't have bowel cancer than that you do.

One thing I read online (so not sure of accuracy) that might be some consolation was that narrow stools are apparently far more usually caused by diarrhea than by cancer. So if you have also been having diarrhea, that could explain those. And all the other symptoms could be caused by many things from IBS to Crohn's.

Davechrisr

Hi Davechrir

I can truly understand your worry, the more you go on finding your stools this way ,and with dioreah presenting itself  and stomach cramps to ,your only human and bound to be worried. 

I know too how devasting a suicide death in the family can be, through experiencing this myself,my husband  commited suicide in 1997,I found him. It truly is a big shock to your system and it in itself can upset your body with the stress of having to come to terms with it,which in all honesty I don't think we ever do,we just learn to push all the hurt and grief into the back of our minds and sort of box it up,yes its always there but we put a lid on that box ( if you know what mean) but it does come off from time to time,like a memory,a special occasion when you think of them and wish they were there to enjoy it as well, birthdays  anniversaries, Christmas  ecspecialy.  

I'm.sure without you realising it,your brothers passing the way he did will have put you and your body through some drastic changes .

But you have done the right thing by going to your gp and getting some blood tests is a good start.  There could be a number of reasons why your bowels and stools have changed  ,you could of developed IBS( irritable bowel syndrome( this in itself can be stress related but excact cause is not realy known, but its does produce all the symptoms you are experiencing, and believe me when I say the pain is excruciating at times and your belly can swell up like a football sometimes. Another reason why stools are sometimes long and thin is because you may have  polyps,or internal hemoroids ,internal hemoroids don't always bleed but can cause an obstruction, as can polyps or cysts. I have always had troubles with my bowels,I have IBS,I have also had ulcerative colitis, which they thought was  hrons diesese   at first  ive had many polyps  that have been benign  and cut away. I've had 39 colonoscopys,and the one in 20i5 I had a flat sessile polyp,that had to be cut away in seven sections  it was tested and contained high grade dysplasia ,( pre cancerous cells) not actually cancer,but cancer cells which could have turned cancerous, there is  lot of cancer in my family so I  was advised to have a right side bowel resection,  ( the whole of my right side of my bowel taken away, along with my appendix  and small piece of stomach intestine )  in 20i5  ,I got through it. What I'm.tryimg to say is ,try not to worry ,it may not be half as bad as you are  imagining it to be,and if it did turn out to be anything sinister  try to look at it in a positive way try to have the positive mind set that if it is  then the earlier its diognosed the better the outcome for you. But as I said " it could be a number of things ,considering what you've been through with the loss of your brother, you.have been under a lot of stress ,and it could simply be related to that. Don't be so hard on yourself, crying is good  it's a natural way to release pent up worries and emotions.  I do hope you get your blood test results soon,I'm also waiting on blood results and I'll be praying that we both get the results we'd wish for.  I'm always popping on here from time to time,do keep in touch on here, and im sure others will reply to your post and hopefully help to ease your worries.  Try to stay positive, it realy does help. Big hug   sent your way.

Hi Jassoscared, thankyou for your kind response! :happy:

My biggest concern is if the results come up negative for everything. I know 'Dr Google' isn't the best thing to consult, but I've read that blood and stool tests can often be negative; and still, bowel cancer can be present. This creates a predicament with my age too, because I'm not sure I would be offered a colonoscopy or CT... certainly not if my results come back clear. And then I wouldn't know for sure.

I am lucky in the regard that my partner is a nurse (stroke ward), but of course when she's at work, my worries can get carried away! 

Kind regards,
Chris

Hello, :happy:

Still awaiting results from the bloods/urine/stool I provided last week. Going to call tomorrow to try and find out. For some reason they asked for another stool sample the other day which I need to take in.

Apart from that, the narrow stools I'd been experiencing has changed, and now I just have really bad constipation. But I think i'm feeling a little better. It's one of those things though, it's hard to tell If I'm better because I'm eating more at the moment and my energy is up, or if it's because I've actually got better. 

Guess we'll see how it goes :confused:

Thankyou for asking :happy:

Chris