Mike's Chemotherapy for Follicular Cancer Experience

This is what the Radiologist wrote about the PET/CT Scan I had on August 2, 2010. The scan was taken of the area of my body from the skull to the thigh.

“IMPRESSION:

1. Resolution of right hilar and mediastinal abnormal uptake suggestive of treated lymphoma since prior PET/CT

2. Persistent bandlike left inguinal uptake probably from inflammation/post surgical changes.

3. Nonspecific uptake at midline of the prostate.

FINDINGS:

“Resolution of confluent hypermetabolic lymphadenopathy at the right paratracheal, right hilar, precarinal and subcarinal regions compatible with treated lymphoma. Persistent bandlike increased uptake at the left inguinal ring [SUV 5.2, prior SUV 4.2] probably related to inflammation/post surgical changes rather band active lymphoma. Nonspecific small focal uptake at midline of the prostate [SUV 4.3] difficult to distinguish between prostate disease versus tracer activity in the prostate urethra. No focal abnormal tracer uptake within the remainder of the body. No active lung parenchymal disease. Cholecystectomy. Right lower anterior abdominal wall surgery. Left inguinal surgery. Colonic diverticulosis.”

My Interpretation of this, after using online medical dictionaries to decipher some of these words:

• The mass of growing lymph nodes [tumor] is gone. The first sentence of the ‘Finding’ deals with the exact location that they were at.
• My colon is inflamed [Colonic diverticulosis]. Generally it is an asymptomatic condition.
• My gall bladder was removed [Cholecystectomy] which it was.
  
• Uptake= the absorption by a tissue of a substance and its permanent or temporary retention. Therefore it detected some kind of substance at the left inguinal ring, which is where I had netting surgically put in a prior hernia surgery to strengthen the area.
• Tracer activity ‘could be’ the radiation isotope substance that they injected in me with the sugar-water that showed up in the part of the urethra canal that goes through the prostate [prostate urethra] or it could be prostate disease.
• I could not find out what ‘band active lymphoma’ means.

That was what I could figure out, which in most cases goes along with what Dr. R told me.  If you understand it differently, please let me know.

My reaction: I am leery of the issue with the prostate. I believe there is a simple blood test to determine prostate disease. The lymphoma tumor is gone, which is Great news! It mentions nothing about the situation with the spleen, which was noted in a previous scan.  Because Dr. R did not even mention to me the colon inflammation I could assume it is not very important. I read that studies show it is very common in my age group.

Otherwise today, Friday August 6 was a pretty good day except I woke up with sinuses draining lot and feeling congestion in my head [not sure why-> maybe the house cleaner yesterday stirred up a lot of dust and forgot to dust]; my chest was foggy and uncomfortable part of the time; and I was very Fatigued. I got quite a few things done without much physical activity by taking sinus med’s & mentally blocking the discomforts.  It is difficult to tell if the herbal charcoal is working at this point. That’s all for now…

This entry was posted on August 6, 2010 at 10:16 pm and is filed under --After My 6th [and Last] Chemo Treatment. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: allergies, side effects