Can you ever feel your colon (from the outside!) ?

[TheSpottedZebra]

Ive been talking to the Dr about persistent diarrhoea, anaemia and discomfort. Big weight loss without trying.
Coeliac, calprotectin and fit tests all fine.

But I can regularly feel a sort of lumpy bit in what I presume is my colon. I've mentioned it to the gp online online chat thing (in a conversationprimarilyabout anemia), but she didn't seem concerned. I've not actually seen her.

I've now been asked to come in for appointment with physican associate. Im probably about to be told it is ibs. Maybe it is!

So my question -is it normal to feel a regular sort of swelling in what I think is my colon. Right where the appendix is. It's uncomfortable but not awful pain. I can poke it, so it's not appendix. It's probably just wind getting stuck there, but should i highlight this again and ask to see gp?

This. A lump and weight loss are red flags and should be triggering further investigation. Not sure this should be being dealt with by a physician associate.

If it were wind it wouldn’t be there all the time. It would come and go. I have IBS and a lot of experience with wind and constipation - all the mumps and bloating moves about. It might recur in the same place but it’s not there all the time on one place.

i think you should contact the GP again, and say clearly what you can feel a lump and have had weight loss, and would like cancer to be ruled.out. If you are fobbed off, ask them to add to your notes that you are concerned about cancer but further tests have been declined. They will refer you/test you then as they won’t want that in the notes. And I would be pushing for a GP appointment, not a PA appointment, on the basis that diagnosis is required and PAs shouldn’t be diagnosing, plus this is possibly cancer. You need a GP to actually feel your stomach for a start!

And no one should be diagnosing IBS without everything else being ruled out first. It’s a diagnosis of exclusion. Note that you don’t usually get weight loss from IBS.

Coeliac is also still a possibility and fits with your symptoms other than the lump. You can’t rule out coeliac from a blood test. There can be false negatives. You need a biopsy to definitively rule it out.

Yes. Not a physicians associate, I wouldn’t think.