early days

Hi and welcome to the board. You are more than welcome to vent, moan, shout or ask for a virtual hug - all emotions are welcome and we’ve all been in your shoes at some time and know how stressful it is.

First piece of advice is do not google! The information is out of date, mis-leading and downright scary in places. There are a lot of issues that can cause symptoms similar to Bowel cancer so please try not to jump to conclusions. If you are diagnosed with Bowel cancer then be reassured that it is slow growing and very treatable nowadays. 

The waiting for various tests and scans is the worst part but once you know what you’re dealing then you will have a treatment plan put in place and things will start to move quite quickly. You’ve not mentioned what symptoms you have but my doctor had a tick-list and because I ticked 2/5 of the boxes of symptoms then I was fast-tracked under the 2 week rule and everything was done within a 2 week turnaround. Perhaps if you rang your doctor they could push things through for you? I was told immediately after my colonoscopy that they were 99% sure it was cancer and the official biopsy took about a week to come back.

Please feel free to post on here whenever you want - there is no question too daft or embarrassing. We are all at different stages of treatment and happy to share experiences and advice. If you click on people’s names then you can see their profile page which may show their treatment so far - in a nutshell I was diagnosed in july 2016 and had my op in the November of that year and my last scan at 2 years and 3 months showed no evidence of the disease. 

Bowel Cancer (if that’s what it is) is very treatable - it’s tough going at times- but doable and we’re here to hold your hand and get you through it.

Please let us know how you get on and keep posting

Take care

Karen x

thank you. i am so weepy and up in the air right now. I know it can be other things but there is a strong family history. Youre right about pushing my GP I noticed on my path form that the urgency was routine! 

My symptoms are constipation, abdominal pain, especially lower left, loss of appetite, nausea and back pain. No visible blood. No mass found on ovaries. 

i ll certainly keep in touch with this forum if it indeed turns out to be colon cancer

Hi ,

I'd recommend pushing your GP for this to be done as an urgent referral, and if not, they need to specify why. Particularly with the strong family history. The single most important factor in beating any sort of cancer is early diagnosis. My understanding is that the urgent referral is when there is a SUSPICION that it may be cancer, not if it is CERTAIN. Let's hope it is not, though!

Re your symptoms: Sounds broadly like my symptoms, apart from the back pain. I also had no visible blood and no mass found anywhere. No family history and "too young". To be honest, it was not until after my emergency colostomy that I even began to suspect that it may be cancer.

You can read my profile by clicking on my name. Be wary of the constipation, particularly if it should get to the point that you start to dread eating.

All the best, and do let us know what happens!

Yolande