Colon Cancer Forum - Please, Please, Please..let Me Know What You Think.

Hi. I'm a 17yo female who is going to get some sort of endoscopic thingie done in the near future. However I would appreciate any opinions that could possibly be given to me in the meantime. Thanks. :]

i realize i'm young, so cancer is extremely unlikely, and my symptoms are probably from other causes, but i'm...Curious, as to what ya'll think. To my knowledge there are no other instances of colon cancer in my immediate family.

A few weeks ago, I began bleeding from my anus without any bm whatsoever (bright red blood). Shortly after it began I had a blood-soaked diarrhea. No pain, no strain. The next day it happened again, the same thing -- bleeding first without a bm, followed by a bloody diarrhea-like bm shortly afterward. Painless. Strainless.

Since then, on and off, i'd be seeing various amounts of blood in my stools, which I passed much more frequently than I normally do. These were always very loose, like pseudo-diarrhea. Sometimes, it was like one side of the stool was completely red. Others there were only small spots of blood scattered over the stool, or just the cracks of the stool seemed to have blood in them, or there were very large blotches of blood on certain areas of the stool. Light to dark-ish red. I often only passed very soft 'pieces' instead of regular-shaped stools. Then I started getting strange crampy/gassy sensations in my left side, both lower and higher, as well as a bit above my navel, and these areas became tender when palpated. I've been passing gas a lot, which is unusual for me. I have changed my diet to no avail.

Then, a short while ago, I had rectal bleeding again without a bm. Only this time, it was much worse, and there was absolutely no bm whatsoever afterward. It just...Stopped on it's own. The toilet water was red with blood, and you couldn't even see the bottom of the bowel. I just sat there cringing as I listened to large drops of blood splat into the water. Not sure for how long. There was no pain associated with this. Only some gas.

I saw my gp, and he's going to refer me to a lower gi person for an endoscopy of some sort. Anyway, since then there have been large amounts of thick white mucus coating my stool, which is still unusual in it's frequency and looseness. Sometimes there is so much mucus you can hardly see the actual stool underneath. As for fecal colour, it varies from a light brown to a very pale yellow-ish brown. I have also been having extreme bouts of full-blown diarrhea almost every morning since the appointment, and I am constantly tired (though this might just be because I am a feverishly-working student). Whenever I experience the diarrhea I get horrible chills which subside when it's over, and last night I awoke with my legs and upper torso very sweaty, which is also unusual. No significant weight loss. I have skipped my period for two months and have never had sex (not sure how relevent this is but I figured i'd mention it).

Any ideas? Hopefully my issue(s) will be properly addressed at the examination, but i'm still curious as to what others may think this to be beforehand. What else could be causing this, if not some sort of cancer? I have no major medical history. Am currently taking nexium 40mg once a day for gerd, but i've been taking this for a while so i'm not sure if this could be causing my diarrhea, ect.. We tried some other ppis first but I didn't tolerate them well. Eh...

Please respond. :] thanls in advance. Cool