Hi, my partner has just received a call to go for a pet scan at short notice on Friday . So now we are really thinking the worst . no one will tell us anything
l can well understand your fears,its not the news you want to hear,l follow your posts and see your other half had a previous scan before a meeting this tuesday,l can only think that a further scan has been requested so your medical team can give you precise facts,rather than a best guess.
You could possibly be reading too much into the timing,given the spanners covid has thrown into the works,and the resulting disruption as the system deals with the backlog and tries to get back to normality,but l fully appreciate the effect this can have upon sufferers.
Hopefully you get some good news at the the end of this,but take some comfort that your medical team are all over this,
l understand your comments on drip feed,but that is the nature of the beast until all the tests and facts are back in.
My PET scan saved my life insomuch that it picked up the spread to my liver early enough to allow surgery to take place before the spread made that option void.
In my case the regular monitoring scans and bloods obviously picked up an area of concern,so l was whisked off within days to the specialist scan centre.
Obviously the monitoring is looking for outward spread as well as the improvements to the primary, my bowel cancer was graded high 3 heading for 4 with spread to nearby lymph nodes ,so the possibility of onward spread was always there.,but l thank my lucky stars l was already on treatment radar,as opposed to walking in off the street with spread taking place,because it was caught early,especially on what subsequently turned out to be my fast moving visitor.
There is no good news in having cancer,but there are some better options if you can understand what l am struggling to convey,so l hope you can take some small comfort in the midst of this troubling turmoil.Sorry l have not wrapped this up in sugar floss,but have used honest reality,
Wishing you and hubby well for appointment and test. PET scans are specialist scans so sometimes it's a case of doctors grabbing a slot. I once said yes on someone else's behalf because hardly any notice and they were uncontactable in a meeting - scan was next day. All the while we were going there I was being asked if it was a wind-up as we had no letter from the hospital. Honestly!
But really I just wanted to let you know I'll be thinking of you.
As David says doctors are on the case and being thorough (not wanting to miss anything).
PET scans really are the bees knees- it is by far the best methods of sniffing out any trouble, but also the best for finding that there is nothing there at all.
As for a very short notice ’ thing. Read nothing at all into that. My husband had his dodgy endoscopy on a Monday, a phone call the Monday pm to go for CT on the Tuesday!!!!! Woo ha I though at this rate death by Wednesday- but no. It is all because services are ‘revving’ back up after the covid shut down, so a lot of centres have random slots all over the place, because people have not been to their GP’s so referrals are down, hence space.
thanks for everyone replying . It's the panic mode setting in again. The lady organising the pet scan said it was t requested as a result of the ct scan results and was always going to happen. She said that he should have had a letter that didn't arrive. I know that this is how things will be for a while waiting for this test , results but it's really hard.
Consultant rang earlier than expected. Chemo is working. It has shrunk the cancer left and they are really happy with the progress . There’s us a 12mm nodule shoeing but they hope the rest of the chemo will get shot of that. They are not even sure if a surgeon will operate for that. He will continue with chemo until November and then be scanned 3 months after.
Good news for once . Also the oncologist knew nothing about the Pet scan . Very strange
So pleased you have got explanations for everything and chemo is having a positive result. Make sure you have plenty to occupy you on Friday. PET scans take a while - partly because of the need to sign off dye individually. MRIs are a lot quicker. Looks like the hospital are being really thorough, which is good. I'm muddling through. Still awaiting the results of some tests but a lot less anxious than I was.
that is absolutley great news. We have our review PET scan in a few weeks after 4 lots of chemo, as husbands symptoms are really improving i am really hoping for best.
I think it should be a general assumption that quite often in the nhs, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing LOL. They are all seperate departments and plod along, brilliant at what they do, but not necessarily good at communicating outside their own spheres.
From what i have experienced and read about PET scans they are alomst 'standard' in centres which have them in a diagnosis, and they always follow CT scans, particularly i think to show the fine detail of the cancer and confirm whether it is treatable or palliative. It takes pretty much all day, as you injected with a radioactive glucose solution that takes a minimum 90 mins to swill itself around the body and then the scan itself can take 2 hours.
