Hi and the biggest hug to everyone. I’m due a ct scan and was wondering where on the body everyone else gets scanned regularly? I’ve had one so far and it was of my torso only. So not my limbs or head and I’m wondering why not and if things will get missed. I’d like to know your thoughts and experiences please. Thanks xxx
I get a full spine MRI every 6 months mostly so they can get the clearest imaging for my lumbar mets (my only mets), but I also have quite a bit of degeneration down there as well which shows best on MRI. Essentially every other scan session is full spine MRI + abdomen/pelvis CT.
Mets typically don’t go to bones in the arm, ergo they don’t scan for them. Similar for the brain unless reporting certain symptoms.
Hi,
I was diagnosed last year with mets to a femur, lung and liver, I’m HER2 positive. Earlier this year I was experiencing on off tinnitus in left ear so I mentioned it to oncologist. He thought it could be caused by the chemo I had last year, asked me if i wanted a head CT to see if there was any damage to ear drum, or small bones in ear. Totally unexpected it came back with enhancements in the brain so went on to have brain MRI. Turns out I have multiple mets throughout the brain but none that look responsible for the tinnitus so it’s likely that is caused by chemo or other meds so the lesions in brain have been found by accident really. I had no symptoms prior to this. Oncologist would have expected my balance to at least have been affected as many in my cerebellum, but no issues.
I wish I’d pushed last year for full scan as like you I was only having the abdomen, thorax CTs. With HER2 positive, brain involvement is high risk but they don’t do the head scan unless having symptoms.