Hi,
I'm a 33 year old male and I've lately gotten really worried about some bowel symptoms.
I've had bright red blood when I wipe on and off for years. I always put this down to haemorrhoids, given that I have spent a lot of time on the toilet straining in the past. I remember looking at a home remedy once that involved white vinegar and advised limiting time on the toilet to a few minutes. That seemed to clear things up, so I thought nothing of it. Since then I have experienced it on and off still, but always seemed to find results were better when I didn't strain for too long on the toilet.
Also for a good many years now, I have experienced bloating and cramps, though usually only after a night of drinking or eating raw food (I followed a raw food diet for a while to help rid me of some severe eczema some years ago). I'd say I haven't had bloating or cramps for a good 4/5/6 months now.
Anyway, these past few weeks I have been experiencing increased frequency of bowel movements (usually just go once a day but recently have been going twice around 3/4 days a week). This has been coupled with increased frequency of urination (this morning I peed around five times before 11am). Oh, and my stools have been pretty normal - they are regularly around a 3 on the Bristol stool chart, largely because I am vegetarian and tend to eat a salad for lunch and lots of vegetables for dinner. I have never seen any trace of blood in my stool. When I eat well, it is always a 3 and there is usually quite a lot of it (which I put down to exercise).
One other thing I have noticed is my weight. I've been a keen cyclist for years and cycle to work every day, and most days I run about 5.5 miles during my lunch break. My weight has kept fairly steady at around 9.75 to 10 stone. However, over the last few weeks I haven't run as much, and have been eating a lot, during which time my weight has hovered around, or just under, 10 stone. This seems strange to me - it's not so much that I'm losing weight, as much as that I'm not putting it on when I feel I should be.
Add to all this, as of last night, I began feeling some slight stomach discomfort around 5am this morning, which has lingered all day (I can still do things, but I just notice that it's a bit uncomfortable from time to time).
The only difference the last day or so is that my stomach has been gurgling a lot and the last couple of bowel movements have been free from any blood (both wiping and in stool - largely because I'm now hyper aware of what it could be and have been limiting my time on the toilet for fear of straining too much).
Anyway, now I'm totally freaking out that it could be colon cancer and I'm scaring myself witless. On the plus side, I've only had one bowel movement today and there was no blood in it whatsoever. That has to be a good thing right? But then I have the stomach discomfort, which is caught up with the fact that I have a cold at the moment, along with sore throat and a fuzzy headache.
Am I worrying over nothing or does it sound serious? I have spent the whole day googling and not sure how I will be able to sleep 