Good point, Saburo.
I told my squaddies how I ended up where I'm at but I kind of figured it was a bit too much detail for those that don't really know me.
OTOH, if it helps somebody else, it's worth doing. So, for those of you that are interested, here's how Mr. Toad's Wild Ride began and how it led to where I am right now:
******
While I've been on the "medical train" these last two and a half years many things have happened to me. I've had many stops, reroutes and travels.
I boarded the train after a layover in DFW; walking back to the hotel from the restaurant I got short of breath and had a buring sensation in the center of my chest. I chose to immediately do a full body (the body scan showed nothing significant) and heart scan. Slapped down a credit card and away we went. THAT had me in a Cath Lab four days later getting a stent in my LAD. That stent, and an FAA that really doesn't know jackshirt about modern cardiology led to my early retirement.
(Not that it matters as I'm probably better off than my peers that are about to get screwed out of their retirement money when the company goes bankrupt. At least I got 50% of my retirement! That's a whole 'nother story!)
Anyway, back to the tale. I was driving back from pheasant hunting in November of 2002, five months after the stent, and could have sworn I was having a heart attack. It kind of passed and I made it home (yeah, I know: STUPID. My only excuse is I was in the middle of nowhere and by the time I neared a hospital, I felt a bit better) and saw my doctor. He couldn't believe it was heart because I really did the heart rehab thing to the type A personality Maximum.
Through some clever deductive work and testing, he figured out I had Gastric Reflux or an Ulcer. He put me on Nexium, which helps both.
It got much better and then it got much worse again. So, this Spring he had me endoscoped. That guy found some Gastric Reflux evidence but he also found an actual ulcer. On top of that, he found a polyp in my stomach, a raised bump down in the lower half. He doubled my Nexium, which helped a lot and told me to get the bump check by a endoscopic sonogram.
Well, there's only one Endo/sono in town, so it took about three months to get in to this guy. He does the endo/sono and says "Good news, your ulcer and reflux are completely healed. Bad news: you have a 7mm gastric carcinoid under the bump. We'll check it again in 6-12 months and see if it gets bigger."
I do some checking. "carcinoid" means "cancer-like". Hmmm.. that sucks. Apparently some folks have them all their lives, live 80 years with no problems. In other folks, they kill within 2-5 years. Hmmm.
I go back to my regular doc. He says, "let's get that out of there". I totally agree. He sends me back to the original endo guy that says, "yeah, I think I can get that out with an endo. If not, I'll mark it with a tattoo and you can get it out with laparascopic surgery.
You guessed it. It's too deep to get with an endo. So, off to the laparascopic guy. We talk, we discuss my symptoms. He says "ya know, that time you thought you were having the heart attack, that could have been gallstones, very common. Since I'm doing the carcinoid, I can yank your gallbladder at the same time, no charge. Why don't you get a sonogram of your gallbladder and we'll see if you have stones?"
We'll, I'm breaking the bank on my medical deductible anyway, so I'm game. I get the sonogram. The tech won't tell me if she sees gallstones. My regular doc calls me that night and says "you have a 4.5 cm solid mass in the top part of your right kidney. You have two lesions on your liver."
Kewl.
Next stop, a CAT scan with Contrast. They wouldn't tell me shirt about the results, my doc couldn't get them off the dictation phoneline. A very long afternoon and night.
The next afternoon, I get a call from my doc. Bad news. Got the report. I flunked CAT scan.
The kidney tumor is as big as they thought and takes up almost half my kidney. It is "characteristic" of renal cell carcinoma.
The really bad news is that there's three solid masses on my liver. If this is kidney cancer that has spread.......... I'm pretty much tango uniform.
So, they set up a bone scan; they plan a liver biopsy soon and a PET scan after that.
The only good news from the CAT/contrast is that they saw nothing in my lungs or pelvis.
OK, next the bone scan. Afterwards, I squeeze the tech pretty hard; no more sleepless nights. He finally says "well it looked OK to me but I'm no doctor". Later that night I get a call from the doc with a bit of good news. He says the bone scan is clear. Further, he says there is now disagreement on the liver lesions. One guy thinks it's cancer. The other guy that was probably going to do the needle biopsy thinks it's the haemangioma; at least he gave me a ray of hope.
The "big" test is a PET scan to definitively answer the question of what those things are on my liver. The "good" answer would be haemangioma, a cluster of twisted up blood vessels. The "bad" answer would be renal cell carcinoma that has spread from my kidney.
*****
Now I've had the PET. It was the best possible result but I'm still short a few "definitive" answers. As you can see by what I posted earlier.
The ride continues.
All I can tell you guys is that I haven't really had any "cancer" symptoms.
You'll remember a while ago that I mentioned my brother had a heart scan because of MY heart history. They were running a special so he bought himself a full body scan at the same time. Both were done for less than $600.
They found a kidney cancer in his right kidney that took up 2/3 of the kidney. It took 3 weeks from discovery to get tested and operated on and he's very thankful he bought the body scan.
Some folks think there's no reason to just go get scanned because it can lead to unnecessary procedures and there is that chance that it could lead to some testing that is potentially harmful.
My view is that I'd already be pushing up daisies without that heart scan. My brother wouldn't have made it without the body scan.
If you have symptoms of coronary heart disease.. and you can check it out at the American Heart Association website... a heart scan is CHEAP insurance. They are doing them for about $300 around here.
The famous "treadmill stress test" costs way more than that in your doctor's office (but insurance will cover that where it won't cover the scan... go figure) and the stress test is only 90% accurate. 10% of the time it'll tell you you are fine and you are not. Or it will tell you have CHD and you don't. The heart scans are about 99%; if you show the calcium buildups, it's near certain you have the plaque and blockages right where the calcium is. And they can pretty much tell you how serious the blockage is by the amount of calcium at that spot. It's a great thing.
Body Scan? Tougher call. It will probably show some stuff that has to be checked but really isn't anything. OTOH, it will EASILY show a tumor like the one on my kidney. It covers so many organs though it can raise a lot of issues at once and you may be fine. There's recent information that such large doses of radiation can cause cancer later.
I'd say if you have family history of bad stuff body scans are good at seeing, one might be advisable as you hit the 50's. Just like they tell you to get the old colonoscopy as you age. It may not be needed at all.... it may save your life.
Your call.
