Scared that my recently diagnosed anemia is gastrointestinal cancer.

Hi Christine, I was recovering from a lumbar herniated disc which occurred in April 2022. On July 9, 2022 I was finally allowed to go for my first easy stroll in the forest and I passed out on the trail. Thank goodness my friend caught me and I did not damage my spine further. One of my doctors ordered bloodwork and diagnosed iron deficiency anemia with a low hemoglobin. He recommended a colonoscopy ASAP. The earliest I could have it done was September 22, 2022. The gastroenterologist diagnosed a 2.6 cm ugly tumor in my transverse colon which was bleeding. It was very close to rupturing through the colon wall. I immediately made the decision to contact Mayo Clinic Rochester Minnesota. I had been treated there in 2009 for other medical issues and received excellent care. Appointments for the G.I. consult were booking 2 to 3 months out because of leftover Covid back up. However they fast tracked me and told me to get to Mayo in two weeks. We did with much difficulty. I saw the head of G.I., he said surgery could not wait the two months they were scheduling out, so he was able to get me an appointment with an excellent surgeon three days later and the next day I was in surgery! He thought they would only have to remove the tumor with part of my transverse colon however it was in a different place and they removed my appendix, part of my small intestine, my cecum, my Ileocecal colic valve, all of my ascending colon, 3/4 of my transverse colon, 42 lymph nodes, and some liver with a suspicious nodule. It was Adenorcarcinoma. My mother had died of adenocarcinoma of the stomach. Miraculously praise the Lord all 42 lymph nodes were negative for cancer along with the nodule on the liver; however they wanted to do a liver MRI anyways. I had had an allergic reaction to the iodine during the CT scan earlier so I did not want to have the MRI with contrast. As it turned out Scheduling did not work out. I had to stay in the hospital eight days because I had postop bleeding but miraculously the bleeding stopped before they had to give me a transfusion and go back in. A friend drove me the 1000 miles home. I lost 35 pounds and was still very weak. Also miraculously they anastomosed the small intestine to the transverse colon and I did not need a bag. I had uncontrolled acute watery diarrhea for one month then suddenly it stopped! I was on a very strict diet directed by Mayo Clinic but also have many many food allergies. I survived on mashed potatoes, applesauce, bananas, a little goat cheese, and bone broth. I went to a local oncologist (excellent!) as recommended by Mayo Clinic. He also recommended the MRI which I declined. So he offered a ctDNA Test (circulating tumor DNA test). The lab requests the tumor from the Mayo Clinic, he sent my blood to the lab, and they see if there is any circulating tumor DNA in my blood. The test took seven weeks but the first of the year I found out I had no circulating tumor DNA and my oncologist declared me cured praise the Lord! It was a long slow recovery with occasional pain, reactions to various foods, gas pain, abdominal pain but I am extremely careful with what I ate and I still am; I have now gained 19 pounds back, I’m still on iron supplement but my anemia/iron is almost completely resolved and I am feeling great and extremely grateful! I had excellent excellent care and skilled professionals at the Mayo Clinic Rochester with a brilliant surgeon and basically no major complications and highly recommend them. I truly believe it was a miracle of God and He orchestrated all of it. Bottom line, please get a colonoscopy ASAP, if you are diagnosed with cancer find good medical care and get very aggressive to act quickly. I had absolutely no G.I. clinical signs. If I had not passed out on the trail they say the tumor probably would have burst through the colon with uncontrolled bleeding and severe complications requiring emergency surgery with a possible poor prognosis. PS I “celebrated”my 70th birthday while I was packing to go to the Mayo Clinic, and I am approaching my one year surgical anniversary in two weeks. I will be having my first follow up colonoscopy soon. God bless you!

Praise the Lord!!!

I am so glad to hear that everything worked out well for you! Divine intervention for sure. Good luck with your one year check up! I am scheduled for a colonoscopy and endoscopy on October 24th.

Thank you for your encouragement!

Not to scare you, but both times I've had cancer in small intestine and in my: I was anemic. That is the reason they found out a cancer both times. It's almost like the lights and sirens coming. I have always seem to be iron deficient however. When I was 38 I was very anemic, they did a culture on my stool and that showed blood, so then they schedule the colonoscopy and they found colo cancer. My brother had died of colon cancer 5 years prior. Unfortunately for me because of my brother dying they knew there was a genetic component so they had to remove my entire colon. I only had to have an ileostomy bag for 3 months while things healed and then I didn't have to have a bag any longer. I have a real rare genetic disorder called Lynch syndrome which was determined when they found the colon cancer.

The second time I was anemic was just recently back in January and they found cancer in my small intestine, my duodenum. I had Surgery in March. It was a pretty large tumor, but fortunately they took out 17 lymph nodes and none had cancer.

There is nothing wrong with you being your own advocate. Especially when you're over 50 years old. And colon cancers the second leading cause of death in the United States. Have you had any colonoscopies? If you haven't, I would tell your doctor that you are not comfortable with just taking a supplement that you would like to schedule a colonoscopy immediately because you're very concerned. You should be having one anyway because of your age. So if you haven't now is a good time to do that! Colon Cancer is extremely treatable when it is found early.

That being said, there could be many things causing you to be anemic. It does not have to be that you have cancer or have internal bleeding. Sometimes when we age we just aren't producing enough iron, which leads to anemia. It's complicated because it all kind of goes together. There's not any one thing. You could ask your doctor also to do a stool sample and they can check and see if there's any blood in that sample. Those would be your two options if you want to make sure that there's nothing going on with internal bleeding.. they checked my stool sample when I was 38 before they did the colonoscopy. When they did know there was blood. However, they scheduled it immediately because they knew something was very wrong then.

Like I said, I didn't want to scare you but I just wanted to be honest with you. So just get a stool sample or a colonoscopy. Either one is going to tell if you have any bleeding. If you've had a recent colonoscopy, then you probably just need an iron supplement.

I wish you all the best! Please keep us updated and let us know that everything is okay!

Angela

I’m so glad I could offer some help and encouragement Christine! So glad you were able to get a colonoscopy appointment so quickly. I will be praying for you that it goes smoothly with an excellent outcome. Keep us all posted. God bless you!

In April 2023, I started experiencing issues with shortness of breath and a rapid heart beat. I thought I might be having heart problems so I went to the ER and found out that I was anemic. From there it took 3 months to get a colonoscopy and a large tumor was found in my transverse colon, I had surgery in August and they removed the tumor along with several lymph nodes. It wasn't until last week that they were finally able to diagnose me with a rare cancer, NUTM1 rearranged colorectal sarcoma. The PET and MRI both came back and did not show any cancer cells, however, I will have to have scan every two months to keep check. If you haven't had a colonoscopy yet, I would highly recommend getting it scheduled. It is better to find out soon rather than later, at least you will have an answer. Good luck to you and God bless

Hi Christine. I’m not good on this site yet and the Praise the Lord was for a different comment and not your initial posting! I was going thru the feed and I was sure I posted something else to you about the anemia and chest pain and other symptoms. I am so sorry! I did have all those issues except racing heart. I have not heard of that being a symptom of colon cancer…. But I do have heart issues I see a cardiologist for. Might want to set that up in conjunction with the colonoscopy just to tick it off the box. I did not show blood in my stool and my anemia is unrelated to the cancer, however probably masked it. I have microcytic anemia. We found my cancer because I had had cancer in the uterus months prior and were just doing all the crossing of Ts and I dottings. I felt great. No symptoms. Minus ribbon looking stool, which I did not know was a symptom at the time. Hindsight. Was shocked to know I had a huge bleeding mass in there. Got into surgeon the next Monday and a month later cut it out. Found out it’s stage 3 and in 8 out of 43 lymph nodes. So we are now doing chemo. Approaching my second round. It’s been a long year. 3 surgeries all related to different types of cancer and none in my family genes. I hope you have a clean result! If it turns out that you don’t, just remember that medicine has come a long way, and miracles happen every day, and you’re a head up on support being in the group here which has been very helpful! I will pray for you and let us know!!!!