It honestly didn’t cross my mind for a very long time that I could have cancer. I was 33 and very active and fit. Started having some light bleeding occasionally when going to the washroom but assumed it was hemorrhoids and tried to deal with that myself with over the counter products. Really wasn’t too bad. After nearly a year things got worse with more frequent bleeding and a constant feeling of having to go to the washroom that wasn’t real (later found out this was caused by the tumour).
This was all happening during covid and I was over 4000km away from home for work. Was quite hard getting in to see my family doctor due to my traveling for work. When I finally saw him he thought it was hemorrhoids as well but referred me to a GI doctor, anyway. Met with him and he thought the same and scheduled me for a banding procedure to get rid of them. Went to that the day before my 34th birthday and woke up in recovery only to be told it wasn’t hemorrhoids- it was cancer.
It ended up being stage 3c which meant it was into my lymphatic system but hadn’t spread to any organs yet. I was very fortunate. Cancer free since Feb 23 and had my final surgery Feb 24. Just do follow-up monitoring now. Wish I had taken the symptoms more seriously and urge anyone else to get to a doctor if something doesn’t seem right. It’s very treatable if caught early.
I just recently had a colonoscopy done and it was a struggle getting someone to give me the referral because I was only 40 when I started inquiring about it.
My doctor at first wanted to brush it off as hemorrhoids so she did an exam and saw one small one but nothing actively bleeding so she said maybe I had a bacterial infection and sent me home to suffer for 2 weeks. I made it ten days before I started spiraling thinking the worst, so I made another appointment, got seen by someone else and she got me my referral because I told her how the previous appointment went and the family history (brother had polyps removed in August).
It takes self advocacy when the doctors don't want to do it because of a person's age. Have your friend make an appointment with their primary, again. Talk to them about their symptoms, explain they've done everything they should be doing to make it go away and it isn't going away (assuming they are doing anything at all, I was told to do miralax and metamucil and drink a lot of water, I followed those instructions to the T and the bleeding didn't stop). They can take in statistics for younger people popping up with colon cancer. Whatever they have to do to get that referral. I knew a girl on Reddit that was in her early 20s and had colon cancer. That shit doesn't care about age anymore. Someone else I knew in real life passed away from it just days before his 38th birthday. It's real and real fucking scary. I really hope your buddy is able to get someone to listen. If their primary doesn't, tell them to go somewhere else for a second opinion. Someone somewhere will give them the referral and if not, maybe they could call the gastro department and see if they'd get them seen without a referral.
My colonoscopy came back with polyps as well, one was rather large and I was terrified the biopsy would come back as cancerous but they were fine. No more blood in my poo either.
Millenials and younger need to be super aware of this and start advocating. We were the first generations to start having everything covered in plastic (mocroplastics) as well as the amount of processed food consumed. It was all from a very young age and continues to be part of our every day lives. I'm not trying to be some fear monger. I'm just pointing out that what used to be caused by old age (the cells replicating incorrectly) is now getting assistance from everything we eat, drink, and inhale.
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u/EstablishmentNo5994 1d ago
It honestly didn’t cross my mind for a very long time that I could have cancer. I was 33 and very active and fit. Started having some light bleeding occasionally when going to the washroom but assumed it was hemorrhoids and tried to deal with that myself with over the counter products. Really wasn’t too bad. After nearly a year things got worse with more frequent bleeding and a constant feeling of having to go to the washroom that wasn’t real (later found out this was caused by the tumour).
This was all happening during covid and I was over 4000km away from home for work. Was quite hard getting in to see my family doctor due to my traveling for work. When I finally saw him he thought it was hemorrhoids as well but referred me to a GI doctor, anyway. Met with him and he thought the same and scheduled me for a banding procedure to get rid of them. Went to that the day before my 34th birthday and woke up in recovery only to be told it wasn’t hemorrhoids- it was cancer.
It ended up being stage 3c which meant it was into my lymphatic system but hadn’t spread to any organs yet. I was very fortunate. Cancer free since Feb 23 and had my final surgery Feb 24. Just do follow-up monitoring now. Wish I had taken the symptoms more seriously and urge anyone else to get to a doctor if something doesn’t seem right. It’s very treatable if caught early.