Colon Cancer or Crohn's Disease at age 26?

[manning143]

For the past few weeks I have suffered from very loose stools 3 -4 x per day.  I also noticed blood in these stools many times.  I have noticed an increase in gas and some abdominal discomfort, especially after laying down at night.  I have not had any black stools.  The blood is bright red.  Sometimes it drips out on its own, other times it appears to be on or part of the stool.

I went to my general physician and she did blood work and took stool samples.  I had a positive occult blood test and an ESR of 60.  She is sending me to a GI specialist, who I am assuming will perform a colonoscopy.

No one in my family has a history of colon cancer or Crohn's disease, although my dad has been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine carcinoma of the small bowel.  Both of my parents have also been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.  I do not smoke or drink.

Is there a strong chance I could have colon cancer, or is it more likely I have Crohn's?

[Des_a_rae]

Hi,

  I'm not sure which one you have or if it's even one of the two. I DO know my mom has crohn's and she had terrible pain. Her stomach would make noises like gas noises then it would swell.  She'd run fever. She had blood in her stool and sometimes (and i'm sorry if this is tmi or gross)  there would be nothing but blood in the toilet. Unfortuantely as stubborn as moms can be..she waited and never went to the dr.  She used to could take tylenol or something like that and go lay down. Wake up feeling much better. But this one day nothing was helping. Not even stronger pain meds. and her pain was coming like contractions. They were every 5 minutes and she was just doubled up in pain and crying. My dad finally talked her into going to the emergency room and for 3 days she was there knocked out on morphine.  They finally did exploritory surgery and found out it was crohn's.  They had to remove 16 inches of her lower intestines because they were about to burst. They said she was really lucky because they were not even sure she would have survived if they had burst inside of her.  After her surgery they treated her with steriods and some other kind of medicine. Thankfully that worked. She hasn't had a flair up since then and we're so grateful.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my moms story since she has crohn's. I hope it helps. Please take care of yourself and keep us posted.  Best of luck to you.

[manning143]

Well I had my colonoscopy and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  I was surprised since I never had a fever throughout this ordeal.  I'm just hoping I can go into remission with pills and not need my colon removed!

[B_Shel20]

Do you have hemorroids? This could cause blood in stool. How was your blood work? How did it come back?
Keep us updated and stay positive, could be something as simple as hemmoroids or anal fissure.