2ww - IBD

[Patatopotato]

I have UC and had been flaring pretty badly for a while. Have been taking my medication religiously for past 2/3 months and symptoms have now all gone. Went for checkup and discussed I hadn't been great at taking meds and had had bleeding. They booked a sigmoidoscopy and iron infusion. Was showing as severely anaemic, guessing due to the blood loss from flaring.

Anyway went to sigmoidoscopy and this Dr said you're very anaemic I'd have brought you here for the full colonoscopy tbh and bit wasted time on this.

So he has booked the Gastro camera (throat one) and full colonoscopy. Said on my review letter all looked normal in lower but the anaemia was odd.

Tonight I was looking at the app and it says red flag, 2ww on the referral. Please can someone tell me if this means he suspects cancer of some sort?! All web searches seem to Indicate this online. I am beside myself.

I think it's just to avoid a massive wait for a routine appt most likely

While it’s almost certainly due to your UC, they can’t just assume that level of blood loss - when you’re medication compliant - is “normal” (as it were) & stick you down for an urgent appointment because in the vanishingly unlikely circumstance they’re wrong, it would delay diagnosis & treatment. So they put you on the 2ww pathway, just as if you didn’t have UC, in order to ensure you get the best quality care in a timely fashion.

Of course, they should have explained all this to you & it’s frustrating they didn’t, but sometimes medics assume patients with chronic conditions will know stuff works a certain way when actually there’s no reason for them to 🤦🏻‍♀️ Have you an email address for their secretary? It wouldn’t be unreasonable to email & say “hello, cancer wasn’t mentioned in my appointment & I’ve now been scared half to death - could you get Dr Name to confirm what’s going on please” but tbh in lots of Trusts you’d be seen before they’d get back to you…