Convinced I have bowel/colon c....
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hi guys,
This is the first time I'm posting on here as I feel like I cannot cope with one more second of this.
I suffer from severe anxiety, depression and OCD. I take 10mg of escitalopram but used to take 20mg for 6 years however I have now reduced it to 10mg by tapering slowly.
The reason I am writing this is because I am convinced, in fact I feel like I just know I have the terrible illness we all fear. I am convinced I have colon/bowel c. I don't even like typing out the word. What doesn't help me believe this is the fact that precious family members have had it.
I have been experiencing extreme stomach grumbling, constantly passing gas or trying to, abdominal discomfort and pain as well as nausea sometimes. I've been told I have ibs in the past and I am aware that anxiety does affect your digestive system however I know doctors can get it wrong and diagnose patients with ibs when it is actually something much more serious.
I am going to see an emergency doctor today and see what they say but the problem is I've been to the doctors countless times for different things in the past 2 months and it's just really hard to get them to always take me seriously.
Can someone please help me? I am actually on the verge of just going mad, I can't cope with this, I can't put my symptoms off to anything else. It's like this time I know. I'm so so scared and I hate living like this as I am only 24.
Someone please 
0 likes, 7 replies
susan21751 kylie29566
Posted
You probably have high anxiety and IBS -if your doc thinks you need an investigation he will refer you for a colonoscopy to see what is happening-it may not be as bad as you think.
You don't always have symptoms of bowel cancer-I didn't have any just bit of constipation -You are very young and over-worried by the sound of it.
Talk to the doc ask questions - -ask everything you can think of -(write the questions down in a book!) I still do this myself. (I am over 70) !
Don't be afraid to ask - if you don't ask you won't know!
Regards
Susan
kylie29566 susan21751
Posted
Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for your reply and apologies for the delay in responding to you.
I went to an emergency nurse practioner because my next GP appointment is not until 3 weeks from now - ridiculous! My medical centre here in North London is absolutely horrendous.
The nurse practioner literally just told me to stand up and lift my shirt to see my belly and said I wasnt bloated (yet I am very skinny so its hard to tell unless he actually feels the stomach which I asked him to and he didn't). I mentioned my symptoms to him and he said to relax and to take one thing at a time and prescribed me with Omeprazole (again, this hasn't worked for me in the past and I've heard dangerous things about the side effects of this drug on the heart).
So finally I asked if he could please do a stool sample, just to ease my mind and he refused and said to wait and see if this goes away as it hasn't been too long since the symptoms started. I left the practise feeling hopeless, annoyed and depressed.
You're right about writing things down, I will definately do that from now on cos once I'm in there I'm so nervous that I forget half of it!
So yeah, no colonoscopy, not even a stool sample! I'll see what happens but 3 weeks from now seems too long and it worries me
Regards,
Kylie
shazsilverwolf kylie29566
Posted
It does sound as though your symptoms are typical of IBS. I'd say your anxiety is a big part of this problem. You would be on the far outside of the normal age range to have bowel cancer, and doctors are definitley going to send you for a colonoscopy if they had even the slightest suspicion that there was a problem. I also wonder if your tapering off of your medication is a part of the increased anxiety? Did you do this with medical supervision, or just by yourself? Even though you did it slowly, this lesser dose may not be adressing your problems. I really would suggest you talk to your GP about this, and whether the lesssening of the medication could be the cause of your increased anxiety. Remember, they would have prescribed a suitable dosage for you at the time.
Finally, like Susan, I had no symptoms either, except for one morning I passed a lot of blood. That was it, but my tumour was very large by then. So, don't think your symptoms mean cancer, and please don't Google medical symptoms- if you type in 'frequent headaches,' the internet will say it's a brain tumour! In the case of medical issues, Google is most definitely no-ones friend!
But please, speak to your GP about how you've lessened the dosage of your medication- it really is the most important issue here.
kylie29566 shazsilverwolf
Posted
Hi Shaz,
Thank you for you reply and apologies for late response!
The Ibs thing just reall really worries me because as I said so many people are diagnosed with IBS and it ends up being the worst. I just feel like how can they know it's IBS just by listening to you describe symptoms without doing a physical exam. Ofcourse I am aware that some people do have IBS and it may just be that, but ofcourse it's hard when it's happening to you and it's impossible to convince yourself you are okay.
With regards to the medication, my psychiatrist is aware I started lowering it but ne never suggested it himself. I decided to taper off slowly in October where I went from 20mg to 18mg for a whole month, then next month from 18mg to 15mg, so on and so forth until I stopped at 10mg 2 months ago and have stayed there as I feel I shouldn't lower it anymore. The psychiatrist told me I could actually lower in higher doses but I was not comfortable with that.
Now that you mention it, the reduction could well be contributing to the increased anxiety however the anxiety sky rocketted last September after a bad experience travelling alone for 2 days away from home. I will definately not be lowering it any time soon but upping the dose isn't appealing either because I know how detremental this drug can be on your health long-term. I feel like 6 years of taking this medication at a high dose is enough. I also feel like my way of thinking and my perception of things has been altered so much with this medication, it's scary how I feel like a completely different person.
I'm sorry to hear you guys had to go through it but really glad you guys are here and are able to talk about your experience and have recovered.
All in all, sometimes it just feels like doctors here in UK don't really care enough and just assume it's anything other than the worst and that just scares me you know. I mean I've tried to cut down on looking online but it's so hard - I was woken up this morning by an incredible itch and pinching sensation on some parts of my body and couldn't help but looking online and ended up reading an article about a young girl who had cancer and her symptom was an incredible itch all over her body and ended up passing just 18 months later. Now my whole body is itching which I think could be psychological however this morning I wasn't aware of this itch so it wasn't in my head which really worries me even more now. Eurgh!!
I will be returning to my home in a month so I will definately discuss the dosage with my GP back at home.
Thank you again for your response.
Kylie
juan43900 kylie29566
Posted
you are not alone. i have been experiencing sharp pain in my rectum and what seems like inside my GI tract. Honestly its not abdominal pain from a stomchache, in fact the pain seems to come from even more under. perhaps my intestines?
throughout my life i have experienced constipation and some sort of bleeding from time to time but when i started doing uber i started getting this sharp pain by anus and up all the way by belly button level. This pain was inside which is what scared me. It wasnt the usual stomach aches or diarrhea. also, this pain tends to come at most random times however majority of the time it happens when i am sitting or when i lift or play intense sports. the pain is very weird.
I went to see a specialist who performed a sphymoidoscopy which is half of a colonoscopy and apperantly found very small internal hemorrhoids. Nothing else was seem or felt.
even though everything turned out to be normal under the results, i still feel a lot of stomach grumbling and contantly passing gas or trying to, as well as feeling a but of nausea in the morning.
I am 26 and i am not use to this type of eperience specially if a digestive problem.
i have been eating alot more fiber and drinking more water and it has decreased the constitpation and has increased the amount of times going to the bathroom compared to when i use to every day or 2.
please let me know how you are doing. I feel we can support each other since we both are having the same symptons at the same age.
PS i hope what we are feeling is what the kind people in this thread said it is that we are experiencing or have.
kylie29566 juan43900
Posted
Hello Juan,
Thank you for your response and do not worry about your grammar, mine is all over the place when I'm typing so fast on these forums!
It seems we are experiencing similar symptoms! I also have developed pain under the ribs radiating to the back and sometimes affects my breathing too. Do you get really loud gurgling noises coming from your stomach that can go on for minutes at a time? These really worry me and make me feel uncomfortable. Do you also suffer from anxiety? It really affects your quality of life when you have tummy troubles doesn't it? I'm glad the fiber has helped, I am trying to do that myself now.
How did you manage to get sent for a sphymoidoscopy? The nurse practioner didn't even accept my request (twice) to have a stool sample taken. I was really really annoyed and felt hopeless.
And we can deffo support eachother, that's really sweet of you! I'm here if you need to talk or express any worries! I am however a nervous case myself so I'll probably worry with you! Haha.
Thanks again for your reply.
Kylie
juan43900 kylie29566
Posted