Hi Sue,
Sorry this is late getting back, weekends are not good for me.
WARNING: Before I start this, keep in mind I am a bit of a joker and get carried away at times, I find if I laugh about things I seem to get through this easier.
Looks like my friend’s sister has some type of skin disorder so most probably not Cancer, so they are relieved to say the least at this point in time.
Yes blood results can be fine; I don’t know the ins and outs of this though.
Hopefully they will see more with the scan you have and if needs be a biopsy, bottom line is they can not really say for sure about anything unless they do an actual biopsy, “TIP” get your life insurance sorted out before hand, they wont give me life insurance for just walking into an Oncologists office, even thinking about it disqualifies you and I am not joking here, this has happened to me and they were ringing me up trying to sell me life insurance, I didn't go looking, I tried to tell them not to waste their time but they wouldn't listen, but some of the questions are a insult to have to answer.
Sounds like it is really annoying where you have it located, yes I felt it was a positive for me after the initial shock, but it sure does help you get your priorities back in order, for a while then back to the same ol same ol, I think we can all be slow learners when it comes to things like priorities and what’s really important in life, I know I am.
How I came to be told I may have Cancer was by going for a scan for something else, I was showing off at work by proving I could out walk the RN on duty, I work in Aged Care facility anyhow the day after I could hardly walk at all, I developed lower back pain, I ended up at the Doctors for some scripts and just mentioned to her that I had a back ache, she’s an amazing Doctor and straight away got me to go for a CAT scan, before I knew it I was back in the Doctors rooms and she was very grim, which is very usual for her, she’s normally a laugh a minute, she said she was not happy, we have to rule out Cancer, as the Scan came back with “Pathological mesenteric and para-aortic lymphadenopathy with the most likely diagnosis being that of lymphoma”, I was cool about this and tried to comfort her a bit, poor luv.
I was then sent off to an Oncologist, who looked like he needed glasses to see what was on the scan, he said that they normally deal with bigger lymph nodes, mine were only slightly over the except able normal size and I think that was just one of them, he couldn’t work out why I was there, nor could I and I was busting to get out of there, but he proceeded to check me out, did a physical, he asked me about symptoms, I said I felt fine, actually fantastic never felt better, except for the back pain, which had all but disappeared by the time I saw him and the only other thing was sweats, I was more embarrassed to really mention them, which seemed to coincided with a new mattress we had bought. It was latex one, so I thought it was making me sweat, funny thing was I only sweat when I actually "fell to sleep", I could lay in that bed all day if I wanted to and I was fine, then one day I was in the lounge and fell off to sleep and woke up in a sweat, so I then realized it wasn’t the mattress after all, the night sweats ceased prior to seeing the Oncologist I think they were scared of him and then they came back briefly and went as quick as they came, which could be hormonal.
I had huge weight loss but that was only by extremely strict dieting, but I don’t think they believed me; I put it on super fast, as I have a thyroid problem, and so loosing weight is not one of my symptoms unfortunately.
While I was there he said to me I have a cyst which needs to come out, so I was sent off to a Gynecologist Oncologist (long word hey), he wanted them to do a biopsy of the Lymph nodes while they were in there ripping out this cyst, (I think the dentist would have been a better choice), they said to me that the operation was extremely dangerous and had an extremely high morbidity rate as the lymph node they would really need to get is right near the Aorta, and because the head Oncologists have been telling me it could be a "list of things", which by the way I never seem to get, I figured it wasn’t worth dieing on the operating table at this point in time, (which was five weeks back), plus they would have to gut me like a fish to get the biopsy, I am a wee bit vain so less scarring as possible please.
So in total I’ve had two CAT Scans and they show that the Lymph nodes have grown by 2-3mil, but then I was told that could just be the darn scanning machines being different, they didn’t scan me at the same place.
I have had a PET scan and thats supposed to light up Lymphoma and mine came back “inconclusive” (typical), so got another one of those lovely things due in May, so by the end of May I should know more, they are scanning me at the same PET scanning machine as last time, so that should give us a better concrete reading of changes if any I hope.
I figured that they would have been better getting a heart surgeon to get the biopsy rather than a gynecologist being that the lymph nodes in question are right next to the main artery of the heart, isn’t this a reasonable thought?
I believe all my blood tests have come back fine, except my thyroid test is a bit high, he seems more concern with my thyroxin dose than anything else, don’t know why, he thinks I stressed out because I told him off about risking my life on the operating table and using diffrent scanning machines, so too much thyroxin can cause you to show anxiety and your eye balls to bulge he said, I would have thought what I had to put up with was causing that, but who am I.
This has been going on since October of last year, so I am unsure of my future at this stage, the Oncologist did say that “if” it is Lymphoma it would be the Indolent type as it is slow growing, thank the Lord for that, I don’t need a fast growing type with the Oncologists I have surrounding me ha ha, I will be convince of their growth if they scanned me on the same scanning machines, so I am keen to confirm this.
I think if they come back and say they have grown I am thinking I am still going to refuse that biopsy and just wait until I have no option but to have it done.
I know one thing I am getting more exhausted, but that’s because they have taken me off of half my thyroxin medication, plus I am going to the gym three times a week and bike riding on top of all of that.
The cyst was removed which in fact turned out to be a Tumor (benign), but it would have kept growing apparently, so it would have had to come out, the surgeons looked around while they had me on the operating table and said they could find nothing inside of me that would be causing the lymph nodes to swell, well thats because most things have already been taken out from prior opperations.
Which is a mystery and disappointment really, would have been good to have an infection or something that could have been cleaned up with some antibiotics, I did ask the Oncologist if it could be an infection and he said no, I asked him for a good dose of antibiotics to see if that would help, he also said it could be inflammatory, I asked for inflammatory meds and again he said no, I can not work them out.
Well that’s my long-winded account of the past 7 months of probably 5 years to live.
Thanks for your concern, how are you feeling, a bit up and down too I bet with worry.
God Bless
Michaela