Colon Cancer Forum - 23 Years Old, Strange Symptoms, Possible Colon Cancer?

Hello everyone,
I'm going to give you a pretty thorough background of myself to help you in your judgement/diagnosis of what could be/is wrong with me. And yes, I know I should probably go see a doctor. Would like to get some opinions from here first though.

I'am 23 years old and ex-military (infantry). I had a descent diet growing up I would say, occasional fast food. In my graduating year of high school I weight lifted heavily and ran a lot in prep for the military. During the first 2 years I was in the forces I had a pretty good diet, mess hall food, and no health issues to note. During my 3rd year in the forces I started to veer away from healthy eating and stuff and began to eat a lot of fast food/crap food, drank alcohol fairly regularly also (I knew I was getting out of he forces this year, so it didn't matter to me). I released at the age of 21.

I work doing manual labor for a living for 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. It's very physically demanding but I have no problems doing it. Since my release, up until about 2 months ago, I have lived almost entirely off fast food (yes yes I know, bad bad bad). I also went through a bout at 21 of heavy drinking for about 6 months.

Now onto medical. I've always (for years) had recurring bouts of bright red blood when wiping, never really noticed it on the stool. At 20 I got it checked out by a military doctor who said I had a fissure.

Well, about 2 months ago I drastically altered my diet from fast food living straight onto healthly living again. Whole grain sandwiches twice a day, bagels, apples, oranges, banana's, protein shakes, brocolli and carrots, etc, etc. It was great for the first few days, but then all of a sudden I developed bad constapation. It's lasted almost 3 weeks now. I usually have a bowel movement daily, but it's usually a bunch of rabbit like stools. Sometimes I have 3-4 bowel movements a day these past 3 weeks, all of which are rabbit like, and not once in 3 weeks has it actually felt like a full defecation. I always feel like there's more left in there but it never comes out. I started drinking metamucil last week hoping that'd work, nothing yet though.

This past week, I've noticed a lot of what looks like mucus covered on the stools. Now keep in mind I haven't had diarehea in a long time also. I drink plenty of water, 4-5 liters daily, high fiber, consider myself in very good shape. I also have a HUGELY bloated belly these past 3 weeks. Damn near looks like I'm pregnant some days, and I'm male! I noticed I also occasionally get a mild pain in my lower-mid left abdomen (could possibly just be a cramp though, usually happens at work). Before these last 3 weeks I should also add that I had what looked to be a very red bowel movement (possibly blood) with dark red toilet water, but! I had also eaten a very large bowl of red beats a few days prior to that. I read that beats can turn your bowel movements red, but I thought it'd be kind of wierd they'd also turn the toilet water red (it hasn't happened in these past 3 weeks though).

I have no fatigue and no loss of appetite. As a matter of fact, I eat like a horse and am damn near always hungry. Which also makes me wonder where the hell it's all going. I eat 3-4 fair sized meals a day, with a fair amount of snacking in between each meal, yet only have 1 bowel movement a day usually which are small and rabbit/pellet like.

Any idea's?

I should also add that I've been a heavy tobacco chewer for the past 4 years. Also, my grandfather on my dad's side died of brain cancer in his 50's (I dont know if that would have anything to do with colon cancer though).