Am I going to die? Pancreatic cancer fear is ruining my life

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Female, 55, BMI of 30. No other issues.

Please help, i have never felt like this before. I love my life and I don't ever usually worry about death.

Since June 2021, I have had pain in lower ribs and back and some digestive issues (mild). CT scan in September showed extensive diverticular disease and follow up colonoscopy confirmed this. scan and colonoscopy were otherwise unremarkable.

Pain never goes away tho...bloods in Jan showed slightly high ALP, uric acid and cholesterol. Dr just suggested repeat in 3 months. Thinks its IBS which is fine but why now, out of the blue at 55?

I keep waking middle of night with stomach pain saying out loud "I'm dying", but then manage to visit the gym, or eat a full meal. Haven't lost any weight.

But I cannot shake the terror I have PC and the Dr's have missed it. equally I cannot bring myself to go to Dr again as I'm terrified of what they will find now, after nearly 10 months of symptoms.

Can anyone help? surely I'd be much more sick by now if it was cancer? I'm going mad and it's totally unlike me!

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1 Reply

  • Posted

    I think what’s going on is that you’re over thinking all of this and have convinced yourself that you have PC. Even convincing yourself of that does not make it true you have to remember that.

    You have extensive diverticular disease which can cause all of your symptoms including pain. that’s your diagnosis. And nothing more. you have to go with that.

    People with health anxiety allow fear to control them and how they think. But you can turn that around. Instead of fear which is completely non-logical and non-factual, think of the facts. The fact is you already have a diagnosis. You are not losing weight. Stop looking for things like this. You have to get tough with yourself.

    another thing people with health anxiety do is they always think the doctor missed something. you will make yourself completely miserable with this kind of thinking.

    if you had PC you would not be able to work out at the gym or even eat a full meal. you would also be losing weight. all of this began in June 2021, there is no way you would be functioning as well as you are if you had that dreaded disease. I actually know somebody who has PC and she’s been losing weight steadily ever since the diagnosis last October. She can’t eat, or do much of anything. There’s a big difference between you and her. So get tough with yourself and be grateful that you’re going to be OK. I had a lot of your symptoms and I am in my 60s and I suddenly developed gastritis which is very painful. So there’s a lot of things people can get when they get older that are not deadly. hope this helps a little bit! Have a great day.

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