Thinking i have stomach cancer

[bishdavid]

So about last year i got really bad anxiety and had to leave school over it for a couple of months but anyway, about 4-5 months ago back in March i started having stomach problems first it was my lower abdomen and i convinced myself i had colon cancer after like 3or4 weeks the nerves calmed down about that but in around April i started getting upper abdomen pain which would come and go {it could be here one minute gone the next or not come at all one day and come back the next day} sometimes in different locations too such as behind my ribcage, under it, lower down beside my bellow button and sometimes directly over my bellybutton, the pain isn't severe but you can tell that it's there, i then googled symptoms of stomach cancer and realized i had more such as burping and on and off heartburn which i would get on and off somenights i'm 16 turning 17 in a few months

[kylie1986]

Hi, i had the same problem a few mo tha back and was convinced i had stomach cancer. I can alomost garentee you dont have stomach cancer. I went to the doctors so many times and googled everything. Anxiety can cause pain the the stomach, acid reflux and all sorts. The more i worried and concentrated on my stomach pains the worse they got. Stomach cancer in a 16 year old is extreamly extreamly rare. Just to give you some fcts about stomach cancer because my friends grandad has it is bleeding from your backside , black poo, bloating and a very hard stomach to touch and sickness. Please dont worry i can assure you you are ok but i understamd your worries from.anxiety . X

[bishdavid in reply to kylie1986]

Thanks kylie feeling abit better now

[IsItMe2]

Hey there. Read my post from yesterday, I'll paste it here for you. Basically, you're fine.

"This pain that I'm having now is just alongside the tips of my right ribs and it's sharp and intermittent. At times it's dull and radiates through the back and it feels like I have a tumor growing underneath my ribs. It is not cancer and it's not gallbladder stones and it's not my liver or pancreas that's growing a painful bubble; it's effen anxiety that causes all these syndromes and weird but painful symptoms all the time. IBS too is caused by stress/anxiety; all diseases are. It is called DISease... I am so stupid for worrying so much that I might have cancer or other serious issues when it is anxiety that brings about all this pain! You know most of us with anxiety will first think of cancer, even though one will KNOW they have cancer by the time it starts hurting and there is no reason to think of cancer when there are so many other conditions that make more sense or that are more prevalent.

In many cases, like mine, it's anxiety. Before this liver/galbladder/"canceratitis" pain, I had another "canceratitis" pain that pulled thousands of $ out of my pocket to find nothing - it was an esophagus pain that lasted a few months. It would radiate all the way through my ribcage and under my right breast and even lower into my back ribs on my right side. I felt every gulp of water going down and every ball of chewed food that would go down my esophagus and it would even hurt at times, shooting pain through my lung - it felt like - under my right breast and into the side of the ribs. I even got to the emergency room once because the doc said it might be pulmonary embolism and only the emergency room could do a blood test for such a scary condition fast enough. OMG, was I stupid to follow his advice!!! $975 later, no pulmonary embolism.

The other costly "canceratitis" I had was a few years ago when for about a year I had throat pain only on my right side, pain that would radiate through my ear and my tongue even, and I saw soooooo may specialists and ran so many tests, doctors got tired of me, silently judging me. But you see, when it hurts and you have no answers, you worry. So you go to the doctor and they are trained in a way that benefits the pharmaceutical industry so they don't suggest anxiety (why would they when you can continue costly pointless investigation) and will also try to get rid of you as fast as possible because the System pays them by the number of patients, not by how well they make you.

I took a few other trips to the ER back when anxiety sneaked into my life 5 years ago: OMG, heart attack! OMG, aneurism! OMG, sudden death! OMG, stroke! OMG, I'm fainting! And you know how doctors at the ER will run every test there is, because it's what they're trained to do, even though you're touching your nose OK and your reactions are normal, they still suggest to get a head MRI like it's only five bucks, and the anxious you who still has the finger touching the nose agrees to it, just to make sure it's not a stroke that left the finger out. I bet that half of the ER is just coo-coos like me who panic about persistent pains and accelerated breathing during panic attacks. "Yeah, I'm having a panic attack, but this heavy breathing could ALSO be caused by a cancerous heart attacking stroke".

So listen... my advice is this: if it's something BAD, you will know. Remember: cancer only hurts in later stages when it's large enough to press on nerves around it. Before then you feel ill. Not ill like nauseous because of anxiety, but ill from the body, not the mind.

I'm tired of letting anxiety make everything worse and bring about all these pains I think about. Because EVERY TIME I think about the pain I'm feeling, it gets worse. and EVERY TIME I've gotten to the bottom of things (for us anxious people that means "I don't care what the bottom is as long as I know it's not cancer"), EVERY TIME my symptoms started fading away until the pain was completely gone and then my amygdala finds another way (a different kind of pain in a different part of the body) to alarm me that something's not right and I always assume it's my other organs and not the brain, but it's ALWAYS anxiety. I'm done. Let it hurt and get over it. It's just too bad that this healthy body is governed by such an unhealthy brain..."

[Eve-of-destruction in reply to IsItMe2]

That was an awesome post. Its so true. What a an hyperactive amigdala we have!

[CDanielle98]

I did the same thing. I thought I had Crohn's disease then pulled a muscle in my hip and convinced myself my appendix had burst went to the ER and they pretty much laughed at me. Focusing on it is the worst thing you can do, it also amplifies the pain because you focus on it. Try to go about your life forget about it know that your anxiety is probably the only issue and see if that helps. If there is no excruciating pain there is no need to be worried. Hope this helps

[Aks00]

When you worry, you worry yourself into things. You may have problems with your bowels. Your stomach is located on your lower left side. I'd imagine you'd have problems there if it were stomach cancer. Don't know much about it, but I do know that you should regardless see a Doctor. Even if that were the case, which I don't think so, you can't worry about something you have no control over. What does worrying change? Declare your body is healthy. By Jesus's stripes you are healed my friend.