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Concerned: I'm beginning to suspect I have pancreatic cancer
I have an appointment with the GI specialist in a couple of weeks, and I sent a message to my GP to ask if there are any blood tests I could do in the meantime. I feel a sense of urgency and anxiety and feel that time is of the essence. But I also know that I am not going to get any guaranteed answers either way until I hear back.
Waiting for Monday for a response from my GP seems like such a long time to wait. I feel like I’m bursting at the seems with anticipation. I don’t want to tell any friends or family because I don’t want them to worry for nothing if it’s not actually cancer, I want to give them the truth when I have it. From my research it looks like there is not a lot of home remedies for symptom relief or anything for pancreatic cancer if that is indeed what it is. Waiting for an appointment with the GI specialist in two weeks seems like it will take forever. I’ll be starting classes for school soon and the abdominal pain is getting worse to the point that I’m afraid it will affect my ability to study and pay attention in class. It has been affecting my quality of life for years and slowly but surely sabotaging me from behind the scenes. I don’t want it to interfere with being able to work at a job or study for class and yet here we are.
I posted my symptoms in detail in another discussion board for Digestive Health (“Mystery abdominal pain”). But the main symptoms are frequent if not constant stomach pain that gets worse after I eat even after seriously modifying my diet to eat the most nutritionally dense and least aggravating foods, bloating and nausea. What works doesn’t usually work long or consistently. Tried a number of meds and supplements, most of which made the pain worse. Extremely sensitive and tender central upper abdomen. I can’t lay on my side too directly, never on my stomach, sometimes even the way I sit in a chair makes it uncomfortable. I’ve seen specialists and dieticians and my progress has plateaued and the pain is much the same, maybe a little worse. I’ve had the stomach pain for about 8 years, but it has gotten noticeably worse with more symptoms in the last 3. I feel like I’m losing my mind a little bit. I want answers but I know I have to wait.
Any recommendations? I feel like deep down in my gut I know it’s cancer but I’m going to feel like a massive fool if I find out within the next few weeks that it’s not.
If it is cancer I feel like I will have to reorder a lot of priorities in my life and get started on healing using every tool I have available to me. But I can’t know until I get the results.
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Hopefully you don't have cancer but your ability or Dr. Google's ability to diagnose without appropriate testing is only increasing your anxiety. Since you're in pain you need to communicate this to your gp and gi and get your appointment much sooner. The tests that your gi can order will be definitive. Good luck and prayers for you.
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2 ReactionsSome of the tests they may/should order include an upper endoscopy, CA19-9 blood test, possibly CT, Blood enzymes for pancreas..lypase. Ask as many questions as you can. You are your own advocate. Stay positive! Whatever they find you have to deal with in some manner and your attitude is a major factor in taking care of you. It is a difficult cancer and no 'cures' but we have to be the patients that change that, even if for only a few. Let this group know how you are doing and Yes, get appts earlier than later, weeks can make a difference in treatment.
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2 ReactionsTalked with my GP today. I will get a CT and blood labs will come back in a few days. Seeing GI next week. In the process of getting set up with a virtual appointment with Mayo Clinic as well. She says a CT will determine whether or not I have pancreatic cancer. She says I have functional abdominal pain but is willing to rule out other diagnoses because no treatment for functional abdominal pain has worked so far and it's been a few years.
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1 ReactionKeeping you in my thoughts. I appreciate you posting the update. I was wondering if you had news. I'll be interested in hearing what you learn from the CT and virtual appointment.
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1 Reactionthinking of you. Hope things go well and you get some answers.
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1 ReactionLipase came back normal. Getting CT next Wednesday.
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4 ReactionsDid the CT. No cancer, pancreas is normal. But I do have mild hepatomegaly and mild hepatic stenosis. I have reached out to my doctor to see if I need to look into this further but so far she doesn't seem that concerned so I don't know what to do. I'm really tired of going to doctors and getting the same answer that is usually a combination of "I don't know" and "it's from anxiety." Neither of which are very helpful considering i can't take medication for anxiety or pain beyond acetaminophen which only works half the time anyway. My doc mentioned somatic therapy to treat the functional abdominal pain which as a diagnosis pretty much gets chalked up to "you have unresolved emotional trauma" of which I am well aware of and have been in therapy for. I haven't seen a somatic therapist specifically, and honestly having written a research paper on somatic therapy a few years ago for school I don't think there is anything a somatic therapist could tell me about the emotional issues in my gut any more than I already know.
The whole thing makes me really angry. I don't know if it's worth seeing another GI doc just to waste more money getting told the same thing in a different way. Anyway I probably don't need to write so much in a cancer forum if I don't have cancer.
Thank you for all of your support. Even just assuming I have had cancer the last two weeks has really changed my perspective on life in a way I didn't expect. My priorities shifted and I realized I wasn't living as fully as I thought I was. Even though I don't have cancer I hope to keep my priorities in a better place. Thanks again and best wishes to all of you on your recovery.
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4 ReactionsWonderful news. Keep working on your issues and I wish you the best.
Since I have 2 cysts on my pancreas what should I do?
Rexan20, Whether you're advised to monitor the cysts or have treatment depends on the type of cyst you have, its size, its characteristics and whether it's causing symptoms. Are you cysts causing you symptoms? What does you doctor recommend?
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