CT Scan Results

[csutherland]

Well, we saw the GP today for the CT results. Jerry was expecting a clean bill of health because he's been feeling better this week. Not perfect, but better. The dr says that the lungs show "infiltrates" and that he's already made an app't for Jerry for next Wed with a pulmonologist. He got on the phone himself to get the app't ASAP. I seem to remember him using the term "inflammatory process", or something like that, as something they might be looking for. Jerry specifically asked about the "C" word and he didn't rule it out but was rather non-committal. He said they might be doing a bronchial scope or possibly even a biopsy.

I've talked to my friend who is a nurse on the "lung" floor. She said she thought "infiltrates" just refers to pneumonia. I could kick myself for forgetting to ask for a copy of the report so I could do my own research over the weekend! There are no doubt other interesting words on there for me to follow up on. Also I assume his aortic aneurysm shows up on this scan and I'd be interested in the dimensions of that since the last one 6 months or so ago.

 

[Ross]

Don't sweat it too much Celia, with my lung disease, it's caused a significant amount of scar tissue and they always mistake it for infiltrates. Every time I go for an xray with a new doc, they want to send me for a bronchoscopy and I'm not doing that anymore. Everytime they play with mine, I end up in serious life threatening trouble.

 

[Bonzo Dog]

Celia, a spin off of heart CT scans are alarming reports about other organs in the vicinity.

It seems everything unusual has to be reported. I'm fine with that, as it's better to be safe than sorry. It is though concerning when a valve scan brings cancer thoughts to mind.

In my case a recent aortic CT scan threw up lesions in the liver and a pancreatic cyst. A pancreatic specialist reviewed results and assures me he thinks the cyst is 99% benign, a second scan in a few weeks should determine there is nothing to worry about.

It may well be there really is nothing to worry about in Jerrys case.

 

[Phyllis]

Celia, why do we always get questionable results like this at the start of a long weekend. Try to put it out of your mind and enjoy the weekend as everyone else has said, it really may be nothing to worry about!

 

[Duff Man]

Well in the spirit of CT scans finding unintended pathology:

I have like 10 lung nodules that are less than 5mm that were found in the lower lobes by all of my ct scans. Every single scan report comments on them. A few of the nodules have grown. There's no way for me or anyone else to know if they're cancerous unless I get a needle biopsy, basically. And I'm not doing that.... not when they're aiming for something so low and so small. I'll wait for them to get big enough for a PET scan to pick them up.

This phenomenon is really, really common now. Even aneurysms were something we couldn't well detect before decent CT scan technology. So the jury is still kind of out on whether whole body CT scanning is good for the patient or not... because of the anxiety, the undue testing, stuff like that.