What were your symptoms prior to diagnosis of bowel cancer?

I had had an increasing problem with diarrhoea over quite a long period of time, no obvious blood and no weight loss. I am a nurse and should have known better but for a long time I just pretended it was IBS. I only informed GP when symptoms were getting harder to manage. It was in 2020 when I let GP know, no face to face appointments but GP was great. After a stool sample showed up blood I soon after had a colonoscopy which showed a large tumour. Soon after this I had surgery followed by chemotherapy. 

Yes, I initially thought it must be IBS. In fact, a friend who suffers from this, & at that time, was advising me on the best medications to buy. In fact, I remember buying a few.

Looking at many of these posts, it seems that IBS symptoms are very similar to those of bowel cancer - & can in fact be a major deterrent to many not presenting early....which is such a shame. I suppose that we all hoped that we would be diagnosed with the less serious illness.

Marianne

For sure.

And I guess it's tricky when someone does have IBS and then also gets BC. I assume that was the case with Mum as she had IBS for.the best part of 20 years and, I assume, she wouldn't have had incorrectly diagnosed BC for that amount of time?

Not that anything could be done by the time she was diagnosed with a severe blockage and metastases 

I thought I had food poisoning from a dodgy Chinese one night. I had pain in my right side. I never have Chinese but decided to for a treat. So glad I did as it was a complete coincidence and that’s how my bowel cancer was found as I called the doctor. The pain was from the tumour being so large, S3 advanced it was pressing on a muscle 

My husband became breathless walking up hills, perfectly ok on the flat. We live on a hill. I persuaded him to go to doctors after a few months. He was severely anaemic, doctor fasted tracked him to a colonoscopy which found tumour in caecum. He had done two fits tests at 60 and 62 but negative. At this time he was approaching 64 but was diagnosed prior to next fit test. A tumour on the liver was found too. If we had ignored these symptoms for too long he may not have had a chance. Thankfully has had both removed with clear margins. Now on adjuvant chemo, I did not realise breathlessness was a possible symptom for bowel cancer.

Hi Buzz K

Breathlessness is a symptom of anaemia.  It was how my Dad was diagnosed too, 25 years ago!  He had been an asthma sufferer all his life and, initially, the breathlessness was put down to that but he was eventually given additional blood tests which highlighted the anaemia, followed by a bowel investigation. That showed numerous polyps several of which were malignant.  This was long before bowel screening was introduced.

As BlueBlue said earlier, Breathlessness is not a symptom of Bowel cancer, but of Anaemia. However, if Anaemia is diagnosed - that itself can be a reason for the possibility of the presence of bowel cancer.

Best, Marianne

Hi Marianne

Thank you for sharing your story, it is incredibly helpful.

I am currently experiencing symptoms.. it began with a dull sensation in my right side abdomen, it felt “active” (not sure how to explain this part). I started having diarrhea, severe nausea, lack of appetite due to nausea, substantial weight loss, trapped gas, flatulence.

I got a contrasted CT scan and it showed faeces in the ascending colon and trapped gas everywhere else in the large intestine. 

I was diagnosed with IBS 10 years ago, however, it turned out to be a gluten intolerance. Unfortunately, my doctor jumped to conclusions this time and said it must just be IBS.
It is not behaving totally as such though.. The FODMAP diet doesn’t seem to change anything either way, and the symptoms are constant and seem to be progressively getting worse. 

A calprotectin test showed no inflammation. But I continue to lose weight. 

I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy next week. My symptoms began around Dec 2022. My CT was in Mar 2023. It is now Feb 2024. I’m 46. 

I’ll report back once I get my results. I’m praying for good news. 

Started getting frequent digestive issues Sept 22. I asked for investigation as my digestion system had changed. Dr thought maybe a hernia or gastritis. Will never to know if it was from cancer. But it was when I started to think I had cancer.

Mid 2023 started with diarrhoea but after a few weeks it seemed to have corrected itself. Doctor waved me away. 

Then I did the screening and it was positive for blood. But only one sample out of quite a few over the last 5 years did show blood. Have had diarrhoea ever since. 

Surgery this month. Fingers crossed. 

I had none. My bowel cancer was only picked by a FIT test I took as part of a routine medical. My bowel cancer was unusual in that it spread like sheet rather than formed a mass, which might explain why I had no symptoms.

Maninbath