The advice I've been giving is to test yourself for blood in your stool. If your family has a history of colon cancer, it is important to be screened for it. You're very young, so it isn't something your insurance would pay for unless there were other signs. I went to the doctor for cramping and heartburn, and I told him I had blood when I wiped a couple times but I thought it was from pop corn(which it likely was). To be sure, he gave me a colonoscopy and endoscopy.

I had stomach ulcers and some polyps in my colon, but they were benign and he removed them. Since then, I've been using Fecal Occult Blood tests every couple months.

If I were you, I'd get my parents to get the kits, too. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I can only get a colonoscopy every couple years and can't afford to go to the doctor all the time so I'd rather make sure nothing is wrong with me between visits.