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

Hi guys

how are you doing? I've been trying to go over my colon cancer fear. I can say i felt better for some days, then something trigger my anxiety back, i start reading the stories of colon cancer survivors, and i start to think again "i am sure i have it too".
As always, what triggers my fear is the stool appereance and consistency. I still go twice a day, and again, in the morning the stool is 8 of 10 times mushy. I started again eating long leaves vegtables two nights ago, rocket salad (arugula) especially. Yesterday in the afternoon i did good with well formed stool, perfect brown color, and i thought "WOW, maybe i just needed more of these vegtables". So in the night i ate more, and this morning i had an horrible looking mushy stool, a small quantity, greeny (i guess from the vegtables), with some gases, and that just was sufficient to make me feel horrible again, i started to think that something must be wrong, that i cannot have my stool changing so much without having something serious. And then...Dr Google did his job.

It's so hard. I think i may ask for a colonscopy to the gastroenterologist that saw me, but he was the one saying i don't need one.

Sometimes a voice rationally tries to speak to me, asking me "do you really have any bowel cancer symptoms?" . I have no blood in the stools, i did a quick anemy test (the home made kits you buy online) one month ago and came back negative, no weight lost.

Do i have what may be called "change in bowel movements"? From what i read, a change is really going more, or going less, and i go like always, twice a day, morning and afternoon. Yes, my stool has been varying from 4 to 6 in the bristol scale, but as a doctor told me "unformed stool are not pathological", and also i must say, maybe i've always gone like that and didn't notice, didn't pay attention to it (i remember always going soft more than hard in my life). And sure, cancer does not show many signs, but if one that way, then i could be having in this moment brain cancer, lung cancer etc.

My mind is exploding. I live waiting for the next bowel movement to feel better or worse. I don't want to live like that, i can't even work.

RobbyH said:

You’re eating too much fiber at one time and your body isn’t used to it. That will cause mushy stools

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thanks for being there for me robby.

the funny thing is in the afternoon my stool is almost perfect. Guess it really must be IBS

Future PA with HA said:

@vinbaker i agree with RobbyH- overdoing it on the veggies makes things mushy and green for me as well. I have been doing better taking nightly Citrucel and slowly adding fiber into my baseline diet. I recommend the Citrucel!

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hey, thank you

i don't think we have citrucel here in italy, i have to find something similar

notnew said:

Hi Vin,
I'm pretty new here too. I've been reading this thread. I just got a colonoscopy a month ago. I was sure I had diverticulitis or IBS or something. One time I bled about a raquetball size on tissue and a little in stool. I'm 47 so my risk might be a little higher, not sure. Here is the thing ... most people I have heard of having colon cancer have bleeding that is not just some on the toilet paper or a red chunk. I know 2 people in my life that have had this. One had it in his family genetics and he bled a lot. He was pretty far along and lived and is fine. The other bled a whole lot. She lived and is great as well. Colon cancer is a slow growing one. I should be good for another 10 years. Before that, I had one 8 years ago. Both showed nothing suspicious. You are very young and it sounds like you are physically fit. The chances are really bad that you have this. Almost nothing since you got the ultrasound. My advice is to get the colonoscopy if you can't let this go. I hope you are talking to a psychiatrist and/or psychologist. You are not alone, people are wonderful here. I will be praying for your peace of mind and good health.

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thank you notnew but new lol. I thank you so much for your word, and yes, i just started to see a psychologist, just one time, i will see him june 19th again, we will be seeing each other 8 times to see if it helps. And yes, i thought about the colonscopy, but i still wish to go over this without doing the colonscopy, i would like to have the strenght to find some peace of mind by my own

Hi guys,

as you can see from my posts, it comes and go. Whenever my poo does not convince me, i get back in the hole. The main problem and the thing that worries me is that any time i eat something out of my usual diet, my morning poo is close to diarrhea (i would say number 6 bristol scale), with a lot of gas. Yesterday i ate some vegtables spring rolls i bought at the supermarket and this morning i had that kind of stool.

Now i know it's junk food, but why now any time i eat something like this it affects me so much? I read stories of people who had colon cancer and started with bloating and digestive problems.

i wish i could have one full normal week

Future PA with HA said:

http://www.poopreport.com/Poll/bristol_scale.html

If you look at the results of this survey 2283 (25%) of voters have the stools you describe on a normal basis! And you know it’s affected by diet too which should be a comfort

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Hi F PA with HA, i read your post now, thank you so much for this news LOL.


I have been convincing myself that i am perfectly fine, my stool has been more or less normal.
But i guess that i am unlucky and when i find peace of mind something happens to scare me again.

Just half an hour ago, when i was going to sleep, i had to go to the bathroom. A normal poop, but the strange thing i already did 2 times today. It happened to me in the past to go 3 times, but it has been a long time i didn't go 3 times.

So now you will say "it's not a big thing". But as an hypocondriac i'm already thinking the worst :

- tomorrow i will go 3 times again
_ it will mean i had a change in bowel movements and something is wrong with me
_ i will wake up and i won't go to the bathroom and my bowel movement times will change.

I'm trying to think what made me go 3 tmes today, maybe some boiled vegetables i ate for dinner made me go, since i don't eat boiled vegetables normally.

Well, tomorrow will be a full day waiting and thinking about bowel movements !

i thought i was gettin out of it...

P.S. I guess it was because of the kiwis i ate in the morning

Hi guys, let me tell you the latest news. For two days I have had two bad episodes of steatorrhea: pasty stools, with a terrible smell and clear color. I was terrified because yesterday I also felt a pain under the sternum and I thought it might be the pancreas. I went to the emergency room, where after hours of waiting they did blood tests with various values of liver and pancreas. Everything turned out to be normal, apart from the gilbert syndrome that I have always had and that slightly changes my bilirubin values. I only have creatinine (1.26) which is slightly high, probably due to the fact that I work out in the gym and it is very hot these days and I drink very little water. The doctor told me to drink a lot and check it again in a month. Today they then gave me another abdominal ultrasound where everything turned out to be normal. As an anxious person, the fact that there are no signs worries me even more because I cannot understand the cause of steatorrhea. Last night I ate meat and green salad (very rarely I eat green salad, i usually eat carrots and fennels) and this morning I had normal feces, immediately followed by a discharge of green diarrhea (which at first seemed black to me, making me dying of fear for a second) with whole pieces of salad. I'm going crazy guys, I don't know what to think anymore. If anyone has had similar experiences, I would appreciate your opinion.