The Colon Club

NorseMan wrote:Okay, so here is where I could possibly use some insight. Definitely in this life, no one gets out of here alive and by this age, we all have wear and tear on our bodies. The CT scan said I had a borderline prominent Left supraclavicular lymph node that was stable ( was 15x9 mm now 15 x 11 mm). Small amount of residual soft tissue appears within the anterior mediastinum suggesting thymic hyperplasia stable... Tiny right hepatic hypodensity too small to classify and most likely present on previous scan. Borderline splenomegaly measuring 13.1 cm previously 11.9. Small bone island with the left iliac wing is stable.

Let me know if you guys see anything there that I can or should do something about, thank you. And the feeling of intense joy because I am going to be healthy at least a little while longer completely evaporated unfortunately. Will try to get it back!

The people reading scans add in random stuff about your body. Sometimes you get someone that is very detailed and points out all of the problems and potential problems that they can see and sometimes they limit their comments to the reason why you are getting the scan. It can be a little discomforting to find out that you have problems but a lot of this comes with age or our activities.

You could look those things up on the internet or ask your GP about them. Some of them you might look into fixing if they are causing you problems or may cause problems in the future. Getting rid of cancer is the really big one though.

Well, from my experience I wouldn't worry about the enlarged spleen. Chemo causes it, and it will almost certainly gradually shrink beck to a more normal size. I had it, and at one point I think it was bigger than yours. I was advised at that stage to avoid activities that were likely to cause hard falls or blows to the abdomen, just in case. It wasn't viewed as being a particularly precarious situation.

I have a medical benefit through work of getting second opinions from “Best Doctors” so I asked them to review my ct scan and also provide feedback on treatment so far. I always learn more from their reports. The main doc gave me a 70-75% chance of being cured which he said was a little lower because my cancer was aggressive and I only did 5 of 8 Capox treatments.

The doctor reading my cat scan said this about a Liver lesion – The right lobe, approximately 5 mm, low attenuation density described on the 2021 report is too small to characterize completely and is indeterminate. The differential is broad and includes both neoplastic (benign and malignant) and inflammatory processes. The slice reconstruction thickness is 5 mm for both axial C/A/P series; however, this lesion was not seen on the higher resolution 2 mm coronal and sagittal reconstructions from 2020. Thick slice (5 mm) reconstruction is common for studies burned to CD, whereas the original examinations were undoubtedly acquired with thinner slice reconstruction (2-3 mm) allowing better resolution of such a small lesion. Given the associated diagnosis of colon cancer, although this newly identified lesion is nonspecific, metastasis cannot be ruled out. Given its small size and location, PET/CT would be unlikely to clarify the etiology unless it grows further. An MRI with Eovist would be better able to identify the lesion over PET/CT but may not be any better in determining the etiology (unless it is a cyst). Ultrasound would likely be inconclusive given the small size. Therefore, I recommend short interval follow-up with CT in 3 months to evaluate for change.

So I may fight for an MRI in three months versus another blast of radiation.

I also got a good summarized list of odds based on stage and treatment I may post in another thread so people can look at it…

Hi Norseman,
Checking in to see how your 3 month scan went? I’ve followed your story as I am now dealing with potential new liver lesions described like yours and likely needing a biopsy. Hoping you got good news?