terrib Online content
Supporting Member (50+ posts)
Registered: 02/04/12
Posts: 93
Loc: MN Jeff had his Pet scan on Monday and all 3 doctors at 3 different appts told us everything looks good BUT. .
Well, I've had the feeling the doctors are keeping something from us and it looks like I am right. They gave us his PET scan report and I waited till we were home to read it carefully.
There is one paragraph that has me worried. . . There I a low attenuation within the left internal jugular vein, just proximal to entry of the left anterior chest wall port as well as at the bifurcation, approximately at he level of C3, raising the possibility of nonocclusive thrombus. Correlation with ultrasound is advised.
Here is the definition of thrombus I found . . . A thrombus is a blood clot that forms in a vessel and remains there. An embolism is a clot that travels from the site where it formed to another location in the body. Thrombi or emboli can lodge in a blood vessel and block the flow of blood in that location depriving tissues of normal blood flow and oxygen. This can result in damage, destruction (infarction), or even death of the tissues (necrosis) in that area.
So, here I sit and get to worry about this by myself. I won't tell Jeff and ruin his Christmas. I will wait and see if I hear anything from the doctor if the tumor board talks about this. Maybe they will call after the holidays since now is not a good time for them. If I don't hear anything I will message them for an explanation. This just doesn't seem like something they can dismiss without further testing. The ENT told us everything looked great, no evidence of disease and the scope showed nothing.
My other concern is I may be missing some pages of the report unless they are unimportant pages they just didn't copy for me. I have page 1 of 3 pages from the CT and page 1 and 2 of 4 pages from the PET scan.
I thought it was strange that at one of appt. a nurse mentioned the piraform sinus bei
Reply # - December 21, 2012, 05:29 AM
Reply To: Confused Pe scan???
I think it's worth a call to the cancer center for clarification of the parts you're worried about. Surely they wouldn't want you worrying through the break.
Reply # - December 21, 2012, 01:27 PM
Reply To: Confused Pe scan???
Nonocclusive means it's not totally blocking the vein. But I'd call the onc office and ask what they're going to do about it. Was he by chance put on any blood thinners? Take care, Judy
Reply # - December 21, 2012, 02:51 PM
Reply To: Confused Pe scan???
This isn't rare, and sometimes there is ambiguity about whether a questionable thrombus is really convincing enough to treat. This doesn't mean that there is progressing cancer but, if it's clear that there's a clot, starting treatment with a blood thinner would be appropriate as a general rule, unless there's a clear reason to be more worried about bleeding complications.
-Dr. West
Reply # - December 24, 2012, 10:26 PM
Reply To: Confused Pe scan???
The radiolodist stated, "Correlation with ultrasound is advised." Did he have an ultasound? If he did and it showed something not urgent, maybe that's why no action by the docs. But If he didn't, you should be pissed off. An ultrasound is uncomplicated and fast and you would know what's going on, at least in terms of a clot. I can't see my onc and my HMO not immediately referring me for ultra-sound with that report. When a cancer patient gets celluitus or anything that looks like swelling and infection in leg or foot it's automatic to have a ultrasound looking for possible clots causing the condition. And this is involves his jugular vein!!!