Anal cancer concern: Very unusual situation

[PFG1980]

I'm pretty convinced I have anal cancer. My symptoms are: abdominal pain, which is particularly bad in the lower-left area; occasional blood in the TP or in the water, soft/messy/ill-formed stool -- which was thinner than usual today; and feeling like I have to go #2 a lot, but usually nothing comes out.

I'm a 30 year old male and I had a colonoscopy last December. It was clear for colon cancer but I was diagnosed with an internal hemorrhoid. Symptoms mostly abated for the 6 months after that, though I would sometimes get nasty abdominal cramps when running. The last few weeks, it's all gotten much worse.

I'm worried about anal cancer for a very specific reason: Years ago, I had a case of pubic lice and became convinced it had invaded my anal area (even though there's not really any hair there -- I was an idiot). So I treated the area daily with RID lice shampoo. The itching/sensation that something was there wouldn't go away, so I kept treating it for like 6 months. I would just coat the anal area with the shampoo. I thought the only risk was skin irritation, which I didn't really get. I know how weird and stupid this sounds, believe me. Ultimately I went to a doctor (had been too embarrassed) who told me there was no lice up there -- and of course the itching quickly went away and that was that.

Anyway, having these symptoms recently has made me think back to that. And now I realize that the chemicals in RID might be dangerous. They are basically pesticides, maybe carcinogenic. And I applied them directly to my anal area for months about 8 years ago. I'm convinced this caused anal cancer to start growing and that the "internal hemorrhoid" that was found on the colonoscopy was actually a tumor. (I've read that this mistake happens sometimes.

I went to my gastroenterologist and told him about this. He said he wasn't too worried, looked at the colonoscopy images again, and said he can't ever guarantee anything, but that he didn't think it was a tumor. Then he performed a DRE and said there were no signs of a tumor. He then referred me to a rectal specialist who, he said, can perform more invasive tests for anal cancer -- an anoscopy, I think. I'm going on Wednesday (day after tomorrow -- the wait is brutal). He said he was doing this for my peace of mind. But these symptoms just seem way too specific and way too severe, and the memory of how I treated myself with RID just haunts me. I have an awful feeling that I gave myself anal cancer.

I doubt anyone here has ever heard of a situation like this before. But I'm going out of my mind with fear and if anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. And feel free to call me an idiot for what I did....

[PFG1980]

Great info. Thanks for writing it. It really does make me feel better to run this all by other people. The one thing is, I don't think I'm constipated. It's weird. There's been a noticeable change in the last few weeks -- I generally have a bowel movement each day, but there isn't much in it and it's pretty soft and messy. When you're constipated, my understanding is you generally have no bowel movements -- and when you do the stool is very hard. Mine isn't. But mine isn't diarrhea either. It is more formed than that. And like I said, there isn't much of it; I get one a day for the last few weeks (sometimes miss a day)....not the constant "runs" seen in diarrhea. So I really don't have any idea what it is, other than....different.

[mammo]

It sounds like a lot of your symptoms are the result of the internal hemorrhoid, bleeding and itching.  Feeling like you have to go to the restroom and can't, is a classic symptom of IBS, along with constipation.  There is a big difference in the appearance of a hemmorrhoid and a tumor.  You may just be really constipated.  Adding fiber and/or a stool softener will help this.  Anything serious within the bowel would have been seen in the colonoscopy, and you didn't even have a polyp!  Anything that may have looked suspicious would have been biopsied at the time of the colonoscopy.  Hemorrhoids do bleed and itch.  IBS can cause your other symptoms as well.  For you to have such an invasive test for anal cancer would also mean that it would be caught in the earliest stages, and curable.  I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[PFG1980]

Hey, thanks for the reply. It's very comforting to read. I do have a history of panicking and convincing myself I have something terrible, only for the tests to be normal. Still, this one feels different -- especially because of what I did back in college. My fear is that they actually did spot the cancer when I had the colonoscopy, but they mistook it for an internal hemorrhoid. I've read that this can happen.

Anyway, Wednesday just can't get here fast enough. I made the appointment last week and the wait is really taking a toll on me mentally. I just want to get this resolved. Tonight and tomorrow will be pretty rough.

[CalGal]

PFG, the symptoms you're relating might - just might - be related to cancer, but the thing is with most cancers you really don't know you've got because there are few to no symptoms. The symptoms you're describing could be due to something as simple as a reaction to a medication, some form of maladjustment of your bacterial groups, or to many other things including IBS which has no known cause.

If you went through a colonoscopy just last December it would be very, very, very rare for them not to have picked up some indication of cancer, if cancer was present.

We all do idiotic things. It's understandable about why you did what you did with the lice product. It warns that it can cause irritation, but I don't think even our over-use of this product in the area that you used it is the cause of what you are going through at this point-in-time.