I had a colon resection in November 2015 and have been clear since then except for one nodule that had appeared in my lung between the pre-surgery CT scan and the beginning of chemo two months later. This nodule was monitored and seemed stable but when it started growing I asked for it to be removed, surgery in July 2018, and CT scans of both the lungs and my abdomen/pelvis area have been clear since then. However, my last scan was on December 5th and this week I got a call from my oncologist's office asking me to come in the next day - I didn't hear the message until then though so I have an appointment for next Tuesday instead. I checked my lab report online and it says:
"BONE/SOFT TISSUES: Multiple apparent ill-defined lytic lesions are evident throughout the lumbar spine. These cannot be completely characterized on the current examination. No confirmed suspicious osseous lesion. No acute fracture." and "Apparent multiple scattered lytic lesions throughout the bones are incompletely characterized and may be artifactual related to the relatively low dose for this patient, or reflect nonspecific marrow heterogeneity. However, correlation with total body bone scan and / or serum protein electrophoresis could be considered if these have not already been completed to increase confidence that the apparent lesions do not represent osseous metastases."
I'm very worried about what this means. I don't know if the lesions are new or if they just weren't notice before (I will find out when I see him) but thanks to Dr Google I'm now concerned this might be a sign of early multiple myeloma or some sort of bone cancer (I've also had slightly elevated levels of creatinine and low iron for some time).
I'm actually very worried. I've told myself that I'm cancer free and the lung nodule that was removed last year was just a leftover from before chemo so I've been counting my "cancer free" status as being three years. I'm very worried that it may be back and that this time it will be chronic and the best I could hope for is to be in remission rather than be "cancer free". Am I winding myself up over what is probably nothing?