CT done today

I've been having problems since December.  I had diarrhea a number of times.  I ended up in the ER one night a few days before Christmas.  I had several bouts of diarrhea and my heart started beating fast and my BP went up.  The ER gave me fluids and I felt a little better, but the diarrhea came back a week or two later.  I ended up in my PCP's office for another problem and talked to the doctor about the diarrhea.  He thought it was from a viral GI infection that was going around our area, the same thing the ER doctor thought.  He had me provide a stool sample for a culture.  He wanted it from diarrhea, but, of course, I didn't have any for a little over a week after that, except when I didn't feel it coming on, so I hadn't gotten the "hat" on the toilet to collect it.  I finally got the sample.  In the meantime, I had a routine 3 mo. check up with my oncologist.  I told him what had been going on.  My CA-125 was up two points, from 15.4 to 17.4.  He told me that he didn't think I had cancer.  I commented that I knew diarrhea could "up" the CA-125, and he agreed with that.  Eventually, I found out the stool culture was negative.  MY PCP told me to wait another week and see if the diarrrhea went away.  If not, I should ask for a GI consult.  I'd also been offered a GI consult by my oncologist, but I had decided to wait for the culture results first (a mistake).  I started feeling worse and worse, getting abdominal pain on the right side of my abdomen, where the cancer had been before.  I didn't wait the week.  I had my husband tell our PA at the PCP's office that I needed him to order the consult when my husband was going there for his own problems.  The PA agreed with my husband that we should use the same doctor who found my cancer the last time (when it wrapped itself around the ascending colon).  I knew that gastroenterologist is always booked and his office is slow to call to make appointments.  I started wondering when I didn't hear anything in a couple of weeks.  The nurse from my PCP's office called with a result from another test.  I asked her if she knew if he'd made the referral, but she didn't.  He must have forgotten (which is totally out of character for him as he's normally excellent), so she faxed the records over to the GI's office on Tues. and said that office would be contacting me (which they haven't yet).  The very next day, I ended up going to the bathroom and finding bright red blood on the toilet paper.  I called my PCP, and he got me in within an hour.  I figured there was a good chance it could be from hemorrhoids, which I've had previously. I know blood coming from higher up in the abdomen gets dark before it comes out.  The PA did a rectal exam and found the blood.  He had the nurse schedule me for a CT scan right away, which I had this afternoon.  

I had a chiropractor appointment yesterday afternoon, and I discussed it all with my chiropractor, who has very good medical knowledge.  I've been seeing him over 35 years.  He thought there was a possibility it could be from diverticulitis, and asked me if I'd ever had anything like that.  I told him I have had diverticulosis, but never the more serious diverticulitis.  I certainly hope its's something like that rather than cancer, but the odds of that being the case probably aren't great.  I know I've never felt very sick when I've had cancer the two times I've had it in the past, and this time, I've had some pretty bad days.  The day before I bled, I had stabbing pains in the middle of my lower abdomen, about where I figure my bladder should be.  I also had pains up near the top of my hip.  I still have very bad numbness in my right leg and burning pains going down the inside of that leg.  I keep hoping a tumor will be found that can be cut out of there and solve that problem.  My GYN/onc. told me when I had my recurrence back in 2017 that the tumor was going into the periosteum of the bone.  However, it never went away after surgery.  I thought there was a chance that the nerve had been cut during surgery.  When the numbness got worse last year, I had a CT scan in July that was negative for cancer.  My CA-125 in October at my GYN/onc's office was exactly the same number as it was after surgery, and he, surprisingly, told me he had hopes for the cancer being permanently gone.  After my second surgery, he had said I'd be lucky to have 5 more years NED.  Note:  my GYN/onc. is a different doctor from my oncologist.  Both the staff at my GYN/onc's office and my oncologist told me in 2016 and early 2017 that I was within normal limits and had no reason to worry.  Two months after my 14.2 CA-125 result that was normal, which was two weeks after my cancer surgery, my result had skyrocketed to 129.2.  I was lucky that a hemoccult test had been positive a month and a half before all this, so I'd been sent by my PCP to have a colonoscopy, which found the tumor. zOtherwise, I would have ended up with a bowel obstruction from it.  I got rushed into surgery a few days after having both a CT scan and a PET/CT scan a couple of days later.  I hope that's not where I'm headed again.

I actually feel a little better today.  I've noticed that I get diarrhea after having bread, so I've started avoiding it.  My mother had celiac disease, but I've been tested twice before and had a biopsy which came up negative.  Not everything I've eaten with wheat in it has caused the diarrhea.  I had pasta for three days with no problem.

So now that this test was done on a Friday afternoon, I don't know when the results will be ready.  I'm checking the patient portal this weekend to see if anything appears there.  Even if the doctor gets the report read (and the radiology office was busy, so he might not), that doesn't mean that a transcriptionist will get the report typed up right away.  

For now, no news is good news, I guess.  I just play the waiting game. 

Another thanks to cmb for bringing up the old threads.  It's much appreciated.  I might need to refer to some of them.