Am I worrying too much about colon cancer?
Over the past 4 months, I’ve had a range of different bowel movements. Some have been fat and roundish; others have been thin and flat. Would I be seeing that range if you had colon cancer.
I normally #### at once a day…
Abdominal distension: Nope
Abdominal pain: Nope
Unexplained, persistent nausea or vomiting: Nope
Unexplained weight loss: Nope
Change in frequency or character of stool (bowel movements): nope
Small-caliber (narrow) or ribbon-like stools: I dont’ think so?
Sensation of incomplete evacuation after a bowel movement: Nope
Rectal pain: Nope
Age. About 90 percent of people diagnosed with colon cancer are older than 50: I’m 20.
A personal history of colorectal cancer or polyps: Not that I know of.
Inflammatory intestinal conditions: Nope
Inherited disorders that affect the colon: I might have hemmorides, thouh it usually doesn’t cause a problem for me. Basiclly it’s not active most of the time.
Family history of colon cancer and colon polyps: Only my grandma, nobody else even polyps. My parents who are over 50 both got colonoscapes, neither one of them had any polyps.
Diet. Colon cancer and rectal cancer may be associated with a diet low in fiber and high in fat and calories: Probably
A sedentary lifestyle: Yeah, but do try to get at least a little bit of exercise each day.
Diabetes: Nope
Obesity: I’m only 135 pounds
Smoking. I don’t smoke
Alcohol: I don’t drink
Growth hormone disorder: I don’t think so.
Radiation therapy for cancer: I’ve never had cancer or anyone in my family except for my granda who was a smoker.
Is it just my OCD doing this to me?
Tagged with: abdominal distension • abdominal pain • bowel movement • bowel movements • colon cancer • colon polyps • colorectal • granda • history of colon cancer • hormone disorder • incomplete evacuation • ocd • persistent nausea • personal history • radiation therapy • Rectal Pain • sedentary lifestyle • small caliber • time family • unexplained weight loss
Filed under: Diets
Denisedds (88)
Get counseling.
Please.
Stop worrying. It’s highly unlikely you have colon cancer. A healthy body is going to produce different "styles" of bowel movements based on type of food eaten, activities that day, water intake, minor illness, etc. In other words, some days you are going to have "normal" movements, and some days you are going to have "off" movements. It happens. You’re okay.
Yes it probably is your OCD
!
You are 20 years old and there are no genetic abnormalities in your family. There are no reasons for you to be afraid to have a colorectal cancer. You have a good risk profile, you don’t drink or smoke and you at least do some sports.
The fact that you do have an unhealthy diet does increase your risk to get a colorectal cancer but you can be quite sure that this will not happen before you are at least 30 or 40. Also remember that a polyp needs about 10 years to become a colorectal cancer which then has the symptoms you mentioned. So the polyp would have started to grow when you where about ten years old. Early symptoms of the polyp would be very black stool or even stool with blood in or on it.
There are several other reasons for the different bowel movements. The gastrointestinal tract is very sensitive to all kinds of stimuli. Have you had a lot of stress lately? Maybe because of this? Have you had enough sleep?
I’m 27 and was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 26 with no family or genetic abnormalities in the family! I never had blood in my stool, nor was it black. I was in no pain whats so ever… So if you feel unsure about it, ask for a colonoscopy… it took the doctors a year and half to do something for me, and by the time they did, I had a stage 4 tumor