Really scared I have pancreatic cancer

how old are you? do you smoke or drink? are you in good health? your symptoms are quite common with indigestion possibly gastritis or GERD or a number of other ailments.

So have you been diagnosed with cancer? Or are you guessing?.

A CT scan should tell yes or no or may detect something else.

Hello Jules, I really feel for you. Anxiety is horrible. So is the wait to see a consultant. I've just been through similar (not the same symptoms as you) and am waiting further tests. I am not medically qualified but I always understood a symptom of PC was pale stools. I have had gastritis before (prob still have) and I had pain across my upper abdomen in a similar area to which you describe and also across my back. Try and take deep breaths and try and calm yourself if you can. You may find if you are a little less tense some of the pain may subside. I wish you all the very best for Monday and will keep everything crossed for you. Try and take care of yourself. D.

May be gastritis or costochondritis. Are they doing an endoscopy? Don't worry, Monday isn't too far away.

hi

thank you all for replying, it means a lot.

i am 57 years old, i don't smoke and i rarely drink.

I am just worried, I haven't been diagnosed with anything yet. sometimes i also get a strange pain in my shoulder, its like a burning pain, or like a graze, but inside , not on the skin...very hard to describe.

My stools vary in colour, yesterday it was very dark.

I am trying to cling on to the thought that a week before i had these pains, i had a raft of blood tests ( fbc, esr, liver, kidney function, bilirubin, creatine) and tgey came back normal. no specific cancer marker tests though).

monday seems an age away ☹️

thank you again

Jules

Thank you for your replies.

I thought it was getting a little better, very little pain in the day, and even the nights were better, but maybe it was because I was taking Valium at night to help me sleep and control my out of control anxiety.

Yesterday I even thought my appetite was returning. So, to prove to myself I ate some oven baked battered fish with oven chips, two chocolate biscuits, and then rather stupidly a small piece of cheese just before bed. No Valium

Well, I didn't sleep at all, the pain was (and still is), quite bad. Now I don't know whether it was the food, or the fact that the Valium was helping me sleep through any pain 😦

just to add, the fish and chips were not a large portion.

hi julie just wondering how your appointment went? hope everything is ok

Hi

thanks for posting. The appointment got cancelled at the last minute. So I went to see someone privately, and I am booked in for a CT scan with contrast on Monday. I don't know how long until I get the results.

My appetite is still non existent, and I have lost almost half a stone 😦

As for my bowels, well they have gone from loose to no bowel movement for 3 days (that is almost unheard of for me).

I am absolutely terrified.

Jules

hi all

I have had my CT scan, and my consultants secretary rang me yesterday to tell me my abdominal scan came back normal!! I could not believe my ears, and asked her to repeat it 3 times. Of course I am so relieved to hear that, but I now need to find out what the problem is.

I think it might actually be my kidney, but there I go speculating again, and I have proved myself to be a rubbish doctor. I do have a follow up appointment next Weds, so I will have to see what the next steps are

I am just holding on to the thought that whatever it is, its not a tumour on my pancreas, liver, spleen, gallbladder or kidney. I'm pretty sure the pelvic organs were scanned too, but my health anxiety brain wont let me thing the words "abdominal scan all normal" doesn't translate as "abdominal scan normal, but next week we will drop the bombshell about your overies/cervix/womb"

Thank you all for your support, I so very much appreciate it.

Jules

Hi all

I have had my follow up with my GI consultant, who confirmed that the CT was normal, which included gallbladder, kidneys, spleen, pancreas, pelvic structures and base of lungs.

I am still suffering pain on left side, sometimes radiating to the front, and sometimes to the back. The next test is an endoscopy, so of course I am really scared that it will be a stomach tumour (don't you just love health anxiety).

It is like torture having to wait another week for this test, and being in near constant pain is really making me feel low. I think I may be slipping into depression.

Tying to stay positive, I had an endoscopy about 18 months ago, and apart from a little gastritis type erosions, it was all clear, and stomach cancers are apparently slow growing; my consultant told me that stomach cancer is "vanishingly rare, and on the decrease"; the pain no longer wakes me up at night, and my appetite, although still not what it was, has improved a bit.

I did also have a lot of blood tests about a week before this pain started, and they were all normal.

Still, 5 weeks seems like a lifetime to be having this pain daily

Jules x