Hi I'm new to the Macmillan Forum here though I have helped out at coffee mornings and cake sale events for Macmillan's.
At 58 I have in recent months faced increasing fatigue and shortage of breath (Covid-19 has been ruled out and I have been tested for that). From casually walking ten miles without a break I find myself having to stop for a sit down multiple times on a 2,000 yard walk to the shops - worse when carrying shopping. My bowel movements were sporadic, and in recent months stained red with blood. Reluctantly I went to the doctors, who arranged blood and Faeces tests with the hospital. They find me dangerously anaemic, short of iron and folic acid. They told me I would be treated fully within two weeks but as the fortnight ended I'm told my Colonoscopy could be any time in the next three weeks. Though not ruling out other possibilities my GP says there is a very real danger I could have bowel cancer and right now just not knowing one way or the other feels worse than 'it is the Big C, you've got about 3 months'. The waiting knowing the problems inside me will be intensifying is horrible.
Hi Forester42 and welcome to the community though sorry to hear about what you have been going through. Even in normal times people get so afraid they might have cancer they resist going to the surgery but add covid to the mix and all bets are off.
Your doctor is right - there is a chance you have bowel cancer and if so you are just the right path to get a diagnosis and then look at treatment options. There is also a chance that you have something else and the sooner cancer is ruled out the sooner they might find out what it is.
My wife's cancer is very different to yours, hers in incurable but is stable and she has been like that for 6 years - definitely living with cancer rather than anything else.
Waiting for diagnosis can be really difficult but there is really little choice. A few cancers grow really quickly but most do not so a few weeks wait is not likely to make that much difference. Treatment options are getting better all the time. There are plenty of people though over on our Bowel (colon and rectal) cancer forum that have lived much longer than 3 months.
I know from some of my wife's treatment that anaemia on it's own is enough to cause all sorts of symptoms, hope they get that sorted soon.
<<hugs>>
Steve
A slightly more modern approach to meditation that hopes to avoid some of the more negative connotations of the past is sometimes referred to as mindfulness. A part of that I found quite useful is conscious breathing. There are a lot of apps for that and one I have been trialling is Chill Panda www.nhs.uk/.../
There are a great many "friends" I know who said "whatever you need" but when I needed from many I got "but not today". There is one friend who was always there no matter what - a true friend in need. I often become emotional when I talk about what they did for us and could never thank them enough.
Janice has had a colonoscopy, it is pretty much the only time I was asked to leave the unit because it was a womens day - despite the fact at that point I had spent about 3 months in a gynae ward and pretty much heard everything under the sun and some beside.
Good luck with the exam and hope it gets you on the right path - whatever that might be.
<<hugs>>
Steve
