I'm really scared..

[terriblemother123]

I'm so scared I could have stomach cancer.
I've had a sensitive stomach and bleeding when I go to toilet for years and has piles treated, told I have IBS etc.

A week or so ago I started getting chest and upper abdomen pains. Within a day or so of those starting I lost my appetite completely, I'm now at a point where I can eat toast or a few crackers all day and my stomach feels uncomfortably full.

I've been given lansoprazole by the doctor who thinks it could be my stomach lining being damaged. I've been taking it a week and it's not helped.

I'm 36 with 2 kids. I'm convinced it could be stomach or bowel cancer.. I'm sat on my bed shaking and crying. I'm thinking of going to a&e tonight

A&E won’t do anything. It’s for accidents and emergencies. Their job is to fix you up and send you home. They won’t give you any treatment for a long term issue, you’ll waste hours and just get your heart and blood pressure checked, be told you’re not in imminent danger and advised to go back to your GP.

I think a lot of people have this idea that they can skip waiting lists and get diagnosis and tests if they go to A&E, which isn’t the case. They just fix you to a minimum level and tell you to see your GP.

This is a long term issue that’s gone on for years. If the sensitive stomach and bleeding was cancer you’d be dead by now. You’re obviously a worrier - your chest and upper abdomen pains are probably being caused by anxiety which is causing excess acid. The lanzoprazole will help if you take it for a month or so, it reduces the acid to let your stomach heal.

I say this as someone who had massive stress (a breast lump) and I got so scared. The anxiety caused excess stomach acid, which damaged my stomach, which resulted in pain and nausea that wouldn’t go away even after my mammogram was ok and I got the all clear. It lasted for four months. In the end I got given lanzoprazole and that reduced the acid enough for my stomach to be able to heal. But it took another four months to feel normal again. And lanzoprazole stops you absorbing magnesium, so I ended up with new symptoms of magnesium deficiency, which took ages to diagnose and were treated with supplements.

Yes see your doctor or phone 111.
Don’t let your mind work overtime. And don’t ask Doctor Google- it’s the worst thing you could do. You could ask Doctor Google about your little finger nail and cancer would show up!!
It could be a number of things. im not a medical person but reading about your previous medical history it could be something to do with IBS.
My mother was loosing lots of blood and it turned out to be Diverticulitis.

Like I said it could be something easy to treat and nothing sinister.
But see your Doctor for peace of mind 💐❤️

I feel full with a bad flare of acid reflux and the more you worry the worse it gets. Try eating slices of apple as that gives the acid something to work on. Fresh ginger tea can give some relief. Just mentioning those as short term measures not cures. Epigastric pain can be awful also. Please see your gp as the symptoms are new for you, don’t leave it.

Thank you very much everyone. I'm feeling pretty much the same today but I've managed a banana which is an improvement on yesterday. Going by what you've said it does sound like it is just acid/damage to my stomach lining, I didn't realise it could cause such severe symptoms. I'm going to go back to the GP tomorrow though

That's horrendous, really sorry you had that experience, but I can fully believe it both my parents had occasions like this when they had stage 4 cancer, sat on trolleys in the corridor in agony everyone walking past. No dignity or proper care but the staff did the best they could. I would agree to go through gp if you can and push for further investigations. It could be an ulcer or soenthing but your symptoms are not to be taken casually and they need to look into it seriously for you.