So Dr. Cercek says its important to know what symptoms signal the disease.
Heres what to have on your radar.
Theres blood in the toilet or on your TP.
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Often, Dr. Cercek says, younger people with colorectal cancer notice bright red blood on their toilet paper.
She chalked that up to being a kindergarten teacher, but something still didnt feel right.
Eventually, she decided it was time to call her GI doctor.
It turned out there was a golf-ball-size tumor in her lower colon.
Whats important, Dr. Cercek stresses, is that you get any kind of bleeding checked out.
You have persistent abdominal pain or cramping.
Del Valle initially thought her diet might be to blame for her frequent gut pangs.
But even after she changed her eating habits, those symptoms didnt improve.
Pain that hits at mealtime could definitely be indigestion.
Ive seen plenty of people where thats what they thought was going on, Dr. Cercek says.
Then eventually somebody thought to do a colonoscopy.
Your poop habits are changing.
That may mean frequent constipation, diarrhea, or both.
The newness is key, she notes.
IBS, for example, typically doesnt cause bleeding or anemia, she explains.
Pounds are dropping for no reason.
Plus, Dr. Biachi says, colorectal tumors can release hormones that can quash your appetite.
So whats a red flag?
Youre showing signs of anemia.
Anemia often gets pinned on heavy periods if you are a person who menstruates.
The key is looking for other symptoms, like those listed above, that might indicate cancer.
Youre super wiped out.
Like a lot of other cancers, colorectal cancer can leave youfeeling perpetually drained.
About 8% of younger people report fatigue in the months before a diagnosis.
Remember those tumor-generated hormones that can wreck your appetite?
They can also zap your energy and just make you feel lousy.
Surveysshow that younger people with colorectal cancer are often initiallymisdiagnosed with other things, like hemorrhoidsor IBS.
In a way, Del Valle was lucky.
She acted on her symptoms and so did her doctor.
Within a month of her colonoscopy, she started chemotherapy, surgery, and then more chemo.
A rough road, but this fall, shes back to teaching kindergarten and says she feels amazing.
If shed kept putting off that colonoscopy, Del Valle wonders if things mightve gone differently.
But luckily I went when I did.
