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newbie, hypocondriac, now it's colon cancer!!!

RobbyH

RobbyH

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have you been eating a normal amount and have you been eating quality food? as long as you are having a normal formed BM and without pain, I wouldn't worry. Amounts vary from day to day - you probably have always been this way but just now noticing it
 
F

Future PA with HA

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@vinbaker the same thing happened to me too when my scare was at its peak. I reckon it’s because you’re hyperfocusing- maybe your bowel movements have fluctuated in size in the past? Have there been any changes to your diet or fluid intake? From my research stool amount is not an alarm symptom for colon cancer either.

Recently I’ve been a mucus machine so that has spiked my fear as well. It really is a roller coaster for us since anxiety and stress is very directly involved in bowel movement formation
 
RobbyH

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Worried about the quanitity if it is loose or pencil thin - otherwise, I woudn't give it another thought. I ahve struggle witht eh fear of colon cancer on and off for years and so i have read tons of stuff on it. i have never seen "amount of BM" as a symptom. It is more the quality than the quantity.
 
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vinbaker

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RobbyH said:
Worried about the quanitity if it is loose or pencil thin - otherwise, I woudn't give it another thought. I ahve struggle witht eh fear of colon cancer on and off for years and so i have read tons of stuff on it. i have never seen "amount of BM" as a symptom. It is more the quality than the quantity.
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well, i also read that the "pencil stool" symptoms is more of a myth : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18683051

Future PA with HA said:
@vinbaker the same thing happened to me too when my scare was at its peak. I reckon it’s because you’re hyperfocusing- maybe your bowel movements have fluctuated in size in the past? Have there been any changes to your diet or fluid intake? From my research stool amount is not an alarm symptom for colon cancer either.

Recently I’ve been a mucus machine so that has spiked my fear as well. It really is a roller coaster for us since anxiety and stress is very directly involved in bowel movement formation
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your questions are good questions, the problem is i don't have the mental clarity to answer. for example, in these days that i was a little more "focused", i remember having a conversation with my dad about having "looser stools in the morning" and that was 15 years ago, so probably is something i often experienced in my life.

anyway, i hate this situation. i just know i will be blocked mentally til tomorrow morning just to wait to see my stool...what an ugly perspective
 
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Future PA with HA

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@vinbaker i totally 100% understand the mental clarity thing, and it’s very frustrating when your bowel movement dictates how your day is gonna go.
 
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Future PA with HA

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I accidentally posted a second post instead of editing mine but just try to think about the times you had clarity and convinced yourself you were fine. It’s hard but that helps me sometimes

I miss the days where having a bowel movement was just a normal part of life and not the focus of it
 
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vinbaker

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Future PA with HA said:
@vinbaker i totally 100% understand the mental clarity thing, and it’s very frustrating when your bowel movement dictates how your day is gonna go.
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And i just did another silly thing. I started to read stories of "bowel cancer survivors", just to search for them to see how they go now and a lot of them has dead...
i feel like ****... i feel embarassed also to do this with these poor persons' stories
 
RobbyH

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I will go back to one of my earlier post in this thread - I think if you have anything, it is IBS. IBS symptoms can mimic colon cancer symptoms BUT IBS is MUCH more common than colon cancer. I understand the concern but if the only issue i had right now was the stool was smaller than normal i wouldn't give it much thought. Again, when it becomes loose on an almost constant basis OR you have long term constipation, thats when i would start worrying more. You read all the time about "change in bowel habits" which is very vague but I asked a doctor one time what that means in terms of CC and he said - a change from what is normal for the person such as diarrhea or constipation.

BMs quality/quantity are determined by many factors - diet, water intake, fiber intake. etc.
 
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Hi guys,

today i finally saw a gastroenterologist, a kind, patient man. I told him about my bloating problems since i traveled one month ago, i told him they get better when i don't eat pasta and bread, he had me a bowel ultrasound and also checked my prostate, liver and gallbladder.

Everything came out perfect, he said the bowel "walls" were beautiful, and everything was fine. He gave me some probiotics and a blood test for celiac disease just in case.

I obviously feel better but as you can imagine, the fear doesn't go right away. Also i'm mad at myself cause i forgot to ask him about the quantity of stool.. today when i came back i went to the bathroom as usual and i feel today the total quantity was not enough...

just to let you know...
 
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triceps

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I'm so sorry vinbaker. The testing showed that you don't have an obstruction and have "beautiful bowel walls" (a great complement I might use with my wife). As I suggested before, challenge yourself to not look at your stools for even two days and see if you don't feel better about things.
 
RobbyH

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vinbaker said:
Hi guys,

. Also i'm mad at myself cause i forgot to ask him about the quantity of stool.. today when i came back i went to the bathroom as usual and i feel today the total quantity was not enough...

just to let you know...
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As i mentioned earlier - quantity of stool can be effected by several things - diet, exercise, fiber intake adn IBS among others. As long as your stool is normal in formation, I wouldn't pay a lot of attention to the quantity.
 
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triceps said:
I'm so sorry vinbaker. The testing showed that you don't have an obstruction and have "beautiful bowel walls" (a great complement I might use with my wife). As I suggested before, challenge yourself to not look at your stools for even two days and see if you don't feel better about things.
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i guess it's our pity reality lol, we feel sorry when they find we don't have nothing hahahahaha

so if i had an Obstruction it would be possible to see it in the ultrasound?
 
RobbyH

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vinbaker said:
so if i had an Obstruction it would be possible to see it in the ultrasound?
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Yes, it should have shown up had there been an obstruction. If the doctor had ANY reason to believe you had an obstruction or something he thought was serious, he would have sent you for more tests
 
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triceps

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Yes, it would show up in an ultrasound. I hope you can get to a better place with those outstanding test results but health anxiety is very powerful
 
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vinbaker

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RobbyH said:
Yes, it should have shown up had there been an obstruction. If the doctor had ANY reason to believe you had an obstruction or something he thought was serious, he would have sent you for more tests
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thanks Robby, you always are here to answer me
 
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vinbaker

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Now please both of you guys get anxious with something i can help you with!!! :joyful::joyful::joyful::joyful::joyful::joyful::joyful:
 
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triceps

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Yes, vinbaker you can help me figure out how to push myself off of my property instead of having my agoraphobia and GAD make me a hermit.
 
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vinbaker

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triceps said:
Yes, vinbaker you can help me figure out how to push myself off of my property instead of having my agoraphobia and GAD make me a hermit.
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you really want me to help you with that? It's so cool to be a hermit lol
 
RobbyH

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vinbaker said:
thanks Robby, you always are here to answer me
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No problem. I have been struggling with HA for most of my adult life so I understand how important it is to hear someone else think that I am ok when dealing with an issue
 
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