question: Hello doctor, I am a 30 year old male. My height is 5 feet and 7 inches, and I weigh about 87 kg. For the past 4 to 5 years, I am suffering from indigestion. This got more serious in the recent years. It used to occur three to four times every week, especially after lunch. I sought medical help and went to see a general physician, who ordered for blood tests. It revealed most of the levels to be normal, except for a mild elevation of ALT and AST levels. Then he ordered an ultrasound which showed I have a fatty liver, though I rarely drink alcohol. Also, H. pyroli came out as negative. He asked me to take a healthy diet and avoid alcohol. For indigestion, he prescribed Rabeprazole 20 mg every day, which seemed to help, since I did not get any indigestion anymore.More recently, I developed frequent loose motions. On some days, I pass stools thrice and have excessive gas. Over this period, I had four to five blood tests, which revealed that my hemoglobin was gradually decreasing. The first blood work done three years ago, showed my Hb to be 152 g/L, then 148, 143 and now in the last month it was 137 g/L. Also, my RBC count dropped from 4.89 to 4.5 million cells. My latest ferritin level was 194 ug/L. I asked my doctor here, and he ordered FOBT test. All three samples showed negative and no blood was found in the stool. Recently, he has ordered for a colonoscopy which I am waiting on, and I am really worried that I might have colon/rectal cancer. My question is, does negative FOBT and normal ferritin rule out any cancerous growth in the bowel and intestine? I have hypothyroidism and sleep apnea. I have no family history of bowel cancer.