Bowel Cancer Awareness – What are the symptoms?
“You are so young to have had bowel cancer!” The many times I have heard this I could not count on both hands.
Bowel cancer has always been seen as an “older persons” disease but this is becoming increasingly more prominent in younger age groups and shouldn’t be categorised or marked down as a last option when testing the younger generation presenting with symptoms.
I do not blame my doctors or anyone else for not picking up or thinking that’s what my symptoms could have been simply because it came down to statistics but at the same time if I didn’t have a rectal prolapse my cancer would never have been found at the stage it was and my outcome could have been a lot different to what it is now.
The symptoms
Bowel cancer has some symptoms that a lot of people who have been diagnosed have suffered with but it also comes with symptoms that overlap with many other conditions which can sometimes make it hard to diagnose and this is why I always state that no one knows your body better than you and if you have been sent home from a doctors appointment and you are not happy then do get a second opinion or keep going back until you get to the bottom of whatever it is going on.
The main symptoms include:
- Blood from your bottom or/and in your poo
- A persistent change in bowel habits
- Unexplained weight loss
- Extreme tiredness for no reason
- A pain or lump in your tummy
These are the main symptoms but there can also be others remember we all not all the same!
Bowel cancer does not discriminate when it comes to age, gender, race etc! You are never too young and if found early is fully treatable and curable. If you are embarrassed about seeking help for symptoms please remember the doctors have seen it all and it really is no big deal to them and it could potentially save your life.