The Colon Club

My 5 year scans are on the 13th. I won't find out the results until I see my family doctor on the 21st.

5 years. That is awesome! Hope it is all good news!

Dave

Thank you Dave! I hope so too! I drink gastrografin mixed with juice. I get anaphylaxis from the CT contrast which is injected so I have to take prednisone and benadryl to prevent a reaction. I have never had a reaction using those medications but I still get nervous. Also it's hard waiting for results. It take 7 to 10 days for results. I hope the results will be back by the 21st.

Sending you good vibes!! Will this be your last scan then?

Thank you Punky! Yes, this should be the last scan for a while. I will still have my CEA and CA 125 tested twice next year. I don't know what happens afterward. I will have to ask my family doctor.

Why do you have to wait so long for results? In most places they are read in a couple of hours, at most, and the report is released electronically to the requesting doctor immediately when filed. You could probably go to the place where the scan is performed the next day--in some cases sooner--and pick up a copy of the report. (They may have to give you a CD also, but you don't have to actually do anything with it.) If you don't want to wait, ask them when you are in for the scan.

I do it every time.

I never had the patience to wait for the results when visiting the oncologist. I went back to the imaging facility and got the results a day or two after the scan. That way I knew what the results were before I saw the oncologist. Then I just shook my head when she read the results as though I had no idea what they were.

I too always get my scan reports way before my oncologist lets me know the results. At the scan facility I use, I always schedule my appointments in the morning. By doing this, I've always been able to get my scan results by the afternoon....some times sooner. The MRI I had done recently was a bit amusing. I started the MRI scan at 11AM. Finished at 11:25. The report was done by 11:58. I didn't know it at the time and I was probably still at the scan facility at that time waiting for the CD of the images to be cut for me. I've been able to always get my report that same day. The only time I wasn't able to get it the same day was if the scan was done in the afternoon which happened with my recent CT scan. Had to wait till the next morning to get the report.

My scan facility now offers an option where I just call in to their main number and if the report is ready, I can request for it to be emailed to me. The only thing they require is for me to send a reply to an email they generate consenting to the release of the report over email. I no longer have to drive back to the scan facility to get the report.

On the topic of getting a CD, one should always get a copy of their images on CD before leaving the scan facility. You never know when you might need to provide your scans to another medical facility.

Having copies of your CD and scan reports can provide valuable insight for yourself if you are so inclined to dig deeper into your scans. With my recent CEA craziness, I was able to look back at past reports to see that there was a lesion in my liver which was picked up 4 CT scans ago. I also pulled up my scan images from the prior scan to compare with my recent one to see if I noticed any differences. I had greater confidence in the NED status of my scans seeing on the various reports that the scans were read by different doctors as the reports all had the names of the examining doctor on it. I've had so many scans that I can immediately recognize the names of some of the doctors.

We don't have a separate scan place. All of my testing is done at our one hospital. They don't read the scans right away. There's not only a doctor shortage here but a shortage of radiologists, other technicians and nurses. The report isn't sent electronically to my doctor. They send it to her via inter hospital mail. My family doctor has shifts at the ER so she has a mail box (probably a slot) at the hospital. I was told its picked up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don't get copies of the CD and don't have a copy of the results. My former endocrinologist(who died) gave me results when I went to appointments with her. Now, I just have my family doctor read out results and I write them down in a notebook I bring with me. The medical system is very different here. I can't get scan reports emailed to me because they don't do that here. Other doctors can check results on their computer but my family doctor always waits for test results to be picked up from her mailbox. I'm glad that I have an appointment. When my test results are normal I don't hear anything from my family doctor. When I call I'm told by the receptionist that test results are fine because they were filed into my file. If test results aren't fine then I'm given an appointment. Doctors here don't have electronic files for patients. They still have paper files in a folder. We are very behind the times here. We don't have a PET scan machine. That is in a larger city over an hour away. It's the same if I ever needed radiation treatments. They don't do that here. I would have to go to the larger city. We are the capital city. There are no surgical facilities here either. All surgeries are done at our hospital. When I went to the records department at the hospital to request test results they told me to go to my family doctor.

No reaction to the contrast which is good.

Yay! I’m glad you didn’t have a bad reaction to the contrast! I’m sorry you have to wait on results. That’s the hardest part.

DarknessEmbraced wrote:My 5 year scans are on the 13th. I won't find out the results until I see my family doctor on the 21st.

As you might remember from our posts, we are very similar. T3NOM0, 22 lymph nodes ok, no chemo or bag. So everything should be ok, but the waiting can be stressful as you know. 5 years!

Thank you MeAndMine! I'm used to always waiting for results, appointments, etc.. It's the norm here. It doesn't make it any easier. Yes, everything should be ok. Thanks Buxton!

I had two weeks exactly between my last CT scan and seeing my oncologist.

I figure if they see something, they’ll get a hold of you. No news is good news thinking.

Good luck with the results.

Thank you CF_69! I don't have an oncologist since I didn't need chemo. The oncologist referred me back to my family doctor.