# Lots of mucus, change in stools, tailbone ache. Please help...



## termina11ychi11 (Jan 14, 2015)

Okay so, two and half years ago my sister was diagnosed with colon cancer. Her case still baffles her doctors, since she is in her 20s and is otherwise healthy (this is why the "colon cancer is not a young person's disease" thing has never comforted me). They discovered a large stage III tumor in her colon which they removed, followed by months of chemo. She is all better now, and they suspect the cancer was growing for ten years and was caused by some weird mutation (she also tested negative for Lynch Syndrome).

I am also in my 20s, and around the same time of her cancer diagnosis I started displaying a lot of weird digestive symptoms (alternating diarhhea/constipation, frequent BMs, lots of flatulence, some bright red blood in stool, gut pain, etc.) so I got a colonoscopy (this is after blood tests and stool tests came up negative for anything). I got really worried about having cancer. They found absolutely nothing but a hemmerhoid and diagnosed me with IBS. To my surprise, I really started to feel better after that. For the last couple years I've felt pretty normal (aside from the occasional flare-up). I have several BMs a day (about 4-8), but that's been the average for me for about a year now.

About three months ago a big flare-up started that felt similar to when I first began to experience it. I didn't think much of it, but soon I started getting this dull pain near my tailbone that would come and go (worsened by sitting for a long time or having to have a BM). About a month ago is when I first started seeing mucus in my stool. I didn't think much of it, but about two or three weeks ago I would get this strong urge to go to the bathroom and nothing but clear mucus comes out. This started happening several times a day. It REALLY feels like I have to have a BM, but nothing but mucus. I've noticed that it also feels violent (only word to describe it) when I flatulate, and sometimes mucus comes from that too. My stools are also always changing and are sometimes flat on one side. There's also a lot more undigested food in there. I went to a new GI doctor last week and he put me on a low FODMAP diet, which I've abided by completely. It hasn't helped much of anything so far. In fact, some days the symtoms are worse than ever.

I'm extremely worried about cancer, and can't really find much else that describes all of my symtoms. I know they found nothing in the colonoscopy two years ago, but what if something developed since then? He doesn't want me to come back until the first week of February, but everyday I get so much anxiety about not getting better. Has anyone else experienced/can reassure me?


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## sheldog (Jan 20, 2015)

I have to say the whole wait till you're 40 to get a colonoscopy is BS as well....I had the stomach issues, pain and blood. GI Doc suggested I get one, low and behold a precancerous polyp, thankfully I didn't wait to get checked out.

I have pain in my lower left abdomen, behind ribs, and left lower back. Doc said it is IBS, i wasn't so sure so I had a CT scan of pelvis and abdomen and it came back normal. I only have one BM a day and it's usually loose or D. So I'm not sure what to do. The pain isn't sever or anything. Dull ache that will move and migrate to those areas. I feel your anxiety though...can't seem to get away from that :/


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