Hi Laura,

My name is Richard, I spent a few years working as an Endoscopy Nurse so I've looked after plenty of patients who have had colonoscopies. A good proportion of them were also referred for the same reason as you have been referred.

I have no doubt that you have already been googling to find out what can cause "thickening of the colon" and I'm also sure that if you have you will have found that this CAN be caused by a tumour.

But I want to assure you that this is not always the case. Of the patients I looked after, some of them did have a cancer, but the majority of them either had no bowel problems or had some inflammation of the bowel. 

Some people develop diverticular disease which causes pockets to form in your bowel - usually this causes little trouble. These  pockets can becom inflamed, this can cause pain in your abdomen. I've copied a link to some information from the NHS about diverticular disaese and diverticulitis (when the pockets get inflamed): 

www.nhs.uk/.../

Some people suffer with inflammatory bowel diseases which cause bowel inflammation (not too surprisingly) and therefore the appearance of a thickened colon on a scan. This can develop at any age. here's a link to some NHS information about that too:

www.nhs.uk/.../

I hope this helps settle your mind a bit.

Hello Richard 

Thank you so much for your reply. When I wrote the post I was in a bit of a state, lost 3 of my immediate family in as many years and to be honest I was thinking ' it's me next' 

Since writing the post I've given myself a good talking to and decided to follow my own medicine with a bit of positive thinking. It's definitely helped

I think what scared me was the fact that the doctor said ' I am not saying that it is definitely something sinister'  before he said that it had hardly crossed my mind. He was so lovely and helpful but I shouldn't have hung on every word. Sometimes you can't help it can you? 

I have a friend who suffets with diverculitus, and another who had inflammation so I shouldn't really worry at all. 

I am concerned but I might be very lucky, in any case its given me a kick up the bum to carry on with my healthy eating etc. 

I felt a fraud anyway as I think I was the least poorly in that ward that day.   

Thank you again for your help and reassure you, it's so easy to expect the worst isn't it, even when you try your best to be positive 

Laura,

I'm really glad you replied, I can sense the change from your original post.

I'm lucky enough not to have had to face such health issues - but being on the Nurses side of it It is really easy to see why some people get worked up about these things. Especially when you have had so many berevements in such a short time.

I think we all think of the worst case scenario first.

I'm glad to have offered you reassurance and hope you get your results (and treatment, if need be) soon.

Thank you