Is pain normal in early stages of bowel cancer?

[Olivia990]

This really.
My DF has early stage bowel cancer, he said scans show it to be confined and no sign of spread (yet). Chemo (12 week course of it) starting on few days. Hopefully will shrink tumour and allow for successful surgery.
However, DF seems to have been struggling with physical activities recently, things he'd normally enjoy like swimming.
He's not said what's causing the pain but could it be the cancer already making itself felt? Sorry for such questions, this is all new to me and is a lot to learn about.
Could a small and contained tumour cause such discomfort and tiredness at this early stage?

Forgot to also ask, if the surgery is successful and all the tumour is removed, would this allievate the pain?

Make sure he explains at his next appointment where the pain is and when it triggers.
Tiredness could be related to it, but it also could be stress causing it or an unrelated age/muscle/constipation based pain.
Try not to over analyse it as the scan sounds positive that they've caught it early on, just make sure he updates the doctors so they are aware.

I'm a bowel cancer survivor - for me there was no pain at all - other than post operative discomfort.
I agree with @ParrotParty either a) explain at his next appointment or b) ring your oncology team now and explain. I would ring them now.

I'll second this - I never had any pain or symptoms, and the only tiredness and restriction in movement came in the few weeks recovery period from the surgery.

He should mention it to his contacts at the hospital.

Has he had a PET scan? I suggest he pushes for that .

My mum has advanced bowel cancer and had no pain at all until recently.

Hope all goes well with his treatment.

My father in law aged 65 wasn’t diagnosed until he was stage 4, he was very tired, he did experience lower pain. He had surgery and radiotherapy along with a stoma, as he had some of his bowel removed, which was reversed 6 months later and lived until he was 88.