Mucus in Stool

[RadRab]

In June of this year I experienced mucus in my stool (I am male, 37). The first incidence was quite unusual - I thought I was going to pass wind and followed through. A quick trip to the toilet later and I discovered that I had passed clear coloured mucus. I immediately went to the doctors and they did stool test and bloods which came up clear. They put it down to bacterial infections and gave me some antibiotics. It cleared up.

Exactly one month later the mucus returned, this time wrapped around the stool. I trotted back to the docs, they ran the same tests and again all clear. No blood in the stool and blood count normal. They gave me the same antibiotics and the the doc said it if happened again I would need to do a colonoscopy (I should point out I was living in the Arabiab Gulf at that time).

On returning home (to Australia) I evidenced the mucus once again. It is not in as large quantities as the first 2 episodes however visible and enough to make me concerned. I saw a doctor here and to cut a long story short am headed for a colonoscopy on 8 November. He said it is likely to be nothing but in the same breath he had seen 3 patients under 30 in the last 12 months who turned out to have bowel cancer - no previous family history; until then.

So now I wait until 8 November and in the meantime will be remain pretty anxious. Anyone else have a similar experience or can put some thoughts to the matter? Thanks

[RadRab]

Thanks for the reply GettingOlder; trust you are doing well now and living a good quality of life? What were your symptoms and how old were you when diagnosed? I have a young family and really need to be around for them......

[GettingOlder]

I would think that a sigmoidoscopy would help, but I suppose the colonoscopy is better in case nothing is found in the sigmoid colon.
I had no family history either and my tumor was found during a routine colonoscopy. I ended up having abdominal surgery and six months of chemotherapy with a chest implanted mediport. Early detection is the key in situations like this and you did the right thing. Best wishes!