Hiya.
I was diagnosed with stage 2 bowel cancer (T3N0M0) in Jan 2019 aged 38. Had a Lower Anterior Resection. No lymph node involvement and therefore no adjuvant chemo needed. My tumour was less than 50% mucinous adenocarcinoma and so I am on a robust surveillance plan.
My last CT scan was in Jan and was all clear. I am very lucky to feel that thr surgery has been curative.
Fast forward to now. Over the last few weeks I have been experiencing occasional constipation (harder to pass but the stool is soft) despite drinking 3 litres of water a day, exercising a lot and eating a high fibre diet. This week I had 3 occasions of blood on the toilet paper after wiping and tonight I am experiencing griping pain in the tummy. I feel really triggered. It has brought be back to my symptoms that I had for 8 mths and I always thought it was something I ate.
I have contacted GP and he's going to give me an examination, FIT test and blood test on Monday and he said it's unlikely if my scan was clear 4 mths ago that it is a recurrence. But I am so worried. I have started to put cancer behind me and truly believed I was one of the lucky one to have had an early diagnosis and I feel so worried that it might be back. I know the chances are only 5-10% of recurrence but my risk of getting bowel cancer at age 38 was so small I can't really rely on statistics.
I have two small children and I keep thinking omg what if it has come back
