Tuesday, January 16, 2024

New scan

 My oncologist is very optimistic about my latest scan and was talking about changing the schedule so I would only get a scan every 2 years but there is a little spot on my liver which could be a cyst but we don't know.

So she wants to do an MRI soon and we scheduling it in 6 months and then I would have an in-person visit in January 2025.

 She can't say that I am in remission and she can't even say NED (no evidence of disease) but...it is important that I am feeling good and so there's no evidence of a need for treatment. She doesn't think the bright spot on my liver is lymphoma but it IS a little more conspicuous now than it was in previous scans; it's an "ill defined" spot.


NYT:, 2/13/24

the era of frequent imaging has given rise to the vexed problem of “scanxiety”. Patients live from scan to scan and it takes a superhuman effort to suspend worry.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/14/im-an-oncologist-this-is-what-king-charles-and-my-cancer-patients-have-in-common?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other