Are You Kidding Me?

[csquared]

Still reading, and crossing our fingers.

Hope you feel better and get some good news soon.

[Elspeth]

still reading here too. And fingers are crossed! Sending good thoughts your way

[Sapphire Silk]

Please keep us updated! Thinking good thoughts . . . .

[ShadowBall]

I'm so sorry to hear you're not feeling well, but here's hoping for maximum good and minimal bad with...well...everything. Also sending hugs, good thoughts, painkillers, coffee, dancing poodles and 80s cartoons your way. Don't know if the last few will help, but you never know.

I hope you hear some good news.And I hear you about being in an MRI machine - I've had a CAT scan and an MRI in my life and I had to close my eyes during it because I lose my mind when I'm in a space that tiny. Plus the contrast they gave me during the CAT scan made me feel like I peed my pants. I didn't, but it was so damn weird.

[AdminAssistant]

Yeah, the CAT scan contrast did the same thing with me. Add in the fact that I was on a lot of painkillers and I really thought I had peed my pants.

[Mikkel]

Yeah, the CAT scan contrast did the same thing with me. Add in the fact that I was on a lot of painkillers and I really thought I had peed my pants.

It's a very strange sensation. I wonder why and how you feel the contrast as heat in the groin and, in my case, the nipples.
Most people feel that warmth, I have been warned before every scanning I have had.

[AdminAssistant]

I went to the GI specialist today. He wants to do another test - a nuclear medical test. That will rule out hemangioma, which is a kind of blood-filled tumor. If it's not hemangioma, then he wants to do a needle biopsy. I am really really not looking forward to this. I know it will probably be an outpatient procedure, but it will also probably put me out of commission for a few days. Blah.

[Boozy]

A good friend of mine has the kind of benign liver tumour that you are suspected of having.

Rest assured that the needle biopsy was much easier than she anticipated! She did have to rest for several days afterwards, but she otherwise felt fine.

Once she received her "benign" diagnosis, no further treatment was needed. They will just keep an eye on it.

Let us know how it turns out. I'll be thinking of you.

[AdminAssistant]

Thank you!

The GI doctor really thinks it's benign, but that it's important to know exactly what it is, because benign liver tumors can become malignant. Ah, well, I get injected with radioactive "nuclear medicine" Thursday and then they'll know more, hopefully. Also, I kinda hope I get superpowers. Luckily, Fiance and I planned our trip home for next week, so we'll be able to do that and then have the biopsy when I get back.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Make sure you observe the restrictions the nuclear medicine person gives you-- it's a thing that you can trail radioactivity around and set off sensors and such!
EDIT: geeze. I hope it's benign. Cancer is scary. .___.
ANEDIT: my sister has a hemangioma-- Mom calls it a 'strawberry,' and it's right at her hairline, it's pretty small-- and obviously benign, seeing as it hasn't changed in two decades or more. Babies get/have them (like at birth). I also think it makes her look prettier!

[AdminAssistant]

Yeah, apparently (and I am no doctor) hemangiomas are typically on the skin, but it is possible for them to be on your insides, thus the extra precaution. I wouldn't be able to do the biopsy this week anyway, since we're leaving on Sunday and I've got plenty to do before then. I'm trying to not let my mind wander to the 'c-word' right now; no sense worrying about something until you know that you have something to worry about. I am worried about how much all of this is going to cost. I have health insurance, but it isn't the best. That and my current policy expires at the end of this month. I've purchased my continuation coverage for the summer, but the University's HR people are bad about not renewing until mid-June and then providing retroactive coverage. So, I'm technically covered, but on paper, I'm not.

[Primer]

The GI doctor really thinks it's benign, but that it's important to know exactly what it is, because benign liver tumors can become malignant.

I hope everything works out ok!

I know how scary it is. When I was 29 (in 1989) I went through a whole slew of tests, the last one being an ultrasound, where they found something on my liver. The next step should have been a biopsy, but I was too burned out and scared to go through with it. I figured that if anything acute happened, I'd deal with it then, but otherwise, I pretty much just threw my hands up at the whole mess.

Now, 22 years later, the gastroenterologist is extremely upset that I let it go, and I'm back to square one with getting a new ultrasound, plus getting scoped from both ends. My fatalism still leads me to believe that if it had been serious then, that something would have happened before now. I won't back out this time if a biopsy is recommended, though.

[hinakiba777]

This sounds all very scary to me, so I hope it all works out in the end.

I hope you an your fiance have a nice trip as well. Hopefully it gets your mind off all of this.

[AdminAssistant]

Hinakiba, I wish it would, but we're going to see our families. My mother is already being very melodramatic about this and asking, "Do you need me up there? Do you need me? Huh Huh?" It's normal for a mother to worry, but, y'know, let's wait until there's something to worry about. If I end up having to have major surgery, I would love it for her to be here so that Fiance can go work and not worry about me, but I don't think it's necessary for a simple biopsy.

Happily, the second half of the trip, we're visiting his family and staying in a hotel, so that will be more relaxing. His mom's a nurse, so she'll be more level-headed about the whole thing.

[AdminAssistant]

Since I haven't seen enough doctors lately, I had to go in today for my annual "womanly" exam. The NP was okay as far as the exam went, but...argh. First of all, she asks for an update on the liver situation, so I tell her what the GI told me on Monday. She says, "Okay, just be sure to follow up on that." Then, again, not a minute later, "Be sure to follow up with Dr. SoandSo after your test. It's really important." Lady, I am a 27 year old grown-ass adult. I know how to follow-up on an appointment, especially since they're testing for freakin' cancer, mkay? Oh, and she insisted on doing a chlamydia screening. Even though my screen last year was negative and I've been monogamous for 18 months.

And then she started in with the "Your BMI is going up, you know we have a student rec center and a nutritionist, blah blah Blah BLAH." Look, I am here for a pap smear, a breast exam, and to get my birth control renewed. Not a lecture. In the past few weeks, I've been subjected to just about every kind of radiology that there is. My BMI is pretty freakin' low on my worry scale right now.