I would appreciate people’s comments on my current dilemma.
I am 12 months post mastectomy, Ive also had lymph node clearance, 3 FEC, 3 Taxotere, 25 rads, am on Herceptin and Tamoxifen. I had a 13mm grade 2 lump and 4 active lymph nodes, as well as DCIS.
Because I had 4 positive lymph nodes it was hospital policy in my area to give me a bone scan and CT scan lungs and liver. When i went back for results I was told I have a 5mm nodule on my lung. They did not know what this was but thought that it was probably incidental and not secondary spread. But they could not rule this out. I was devastated at the time but have now pushed it to the back of my head, however, I am thinking of making some profound changes in my life and I keep thinking that I should get this checked out again first, as if it was something I would not make the changes as planned. My consultant did say that I could be rescanned after 6 months if i wanted.
Personally, after finding out every little thing I could about breast cancer, my mantra is now ignorance is bliss, I feel good, am back to running, and dont really dwell on my BC if I can help it. Has anybody else been followed up for lung nodule/s, I know when I posted here some time ago other people had the same thing.
I was in a similar situation to you but the nodule was on my liver and actually after a lot of worrying it turned out to be a collection of blood vessels which apparently is very common . They were going to do a biopsy on it but then decided against it because it was too small (6mm) plus they thought it probably wasn’t anything. I ended up having an ultra sound scan on it and again the radiologist thought it was just a collection of blood vessels. After my chemo the nodule was still there which was good. There is another lady on this site who had a nodule on her lung - she was very scared about it and like me, the chemo didn’t affect it and she was told it is most probably some kind of scarring.
I hope this makes you feel a little better about things.
Thanks very much for that, it just shows that it may be nothing after all. I just remember there were one or two women who had lung nodules who were going to be scanned and I wondered if they had been!
I had a nodule on my lung showing on my first scan prior to chemo, i then had another scan after
chemo and it was strll there.My onc said it was completely unchanged and that meant it was nothing to
worry about. He said lots of people have these little nodules and ct scans can pick them up.
I completely understand where your coming from not really wanting more scans, i feel the same.
I am very high risk for recurrence…triple negative, full lymph node involvement, and i know i only have
to ask my onc for a scan and he would organise one…but i dont want any, unless i have any symptons
i just want to try and get on with my life in ignorant bliss thankyou.
yes, I remember your name and I think there were a couple of other women too. I am pleased for you that the nodule remained unchanged and that this was good news. I have been a bit down over the last 24 hours and seem like Ive opened a can of worms, like I say ignorance is bliss for me these days. I rang my BCN for advice and when she told me that they will discuss my case at the team conference today I felt really scared, I was hoping she would say I didnt need a scan! Oh well, as long as they do it quickly, problem is what can it show? If its unchanged I suppose thats the best news but Im sure Ive heard that it is possible for nodules to disappear too, whether affected by chemo or not?
Hi Polly
Last September I had a CT scan to allay my fears over lots of chest pain. It was the first CT I had been given.
It showed a lesion in my lung, swollen lymph nodes in my chest and something in my liver. I went into major panic and was convinced that it was bad news.
On diagnosis, I had 6 nodes positive and was given quite a poor prognosis.
I have since had 2 further CT scans, one after 3 months and recently a 6 month follow up.
The lymph nodes have shrunk, the lung remains the same and the liver problem is a ? haemangioma.
They have concluded that I have probably always had this lung lesion, possibly scarring from a past infection, the swollen lymph nodes were probably caused by an infection and the liver spot is quite common. All in all , good news.
In retrospect I would have saved myself so much worry if I had never pursued the aches and pains. However, the advice is to have new symptoms checked, so I don’t know what I will do in the future. I have always wanted to know every fact and detail so I can research it. I am now trying to be less obsessed !
Thanks very much for your experience, like you say its very difficult to know what some of these things are that show. My BCN is ringing me tomorrow after speaking with my surgeon to see if he would like me to have it scanned or not. She thought I should have it done and she actually read out the report to me… never heard it before… it said 5mm lesion (somehow sounds worse than nodule!) and it recommended that I be rescanned in six months. Well, its now 13 months! I dont have any symptoms of anything though and if it wasnt for the fact that I was going to make big decisions about where I work and live I would probably put my head down and try and push it out, after all thats what ive done for past 13 months!