Copyright

All works on this site, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted to the author Missy H. (aka M. Hull). Please do not use any posts without permission of blog author. You can contact me via email.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

So Scared...another tumor?

If you read my entry for Tuesday (on my pain blog), where I talked about my doctor's appointment on Monday you'll know that when I asked my doctor about the cat scan results he said there was nothing spectacular going on with my spine and that my pelvis/SI joints came back as he expected. Yet again I am glad I do not totally trust my doctors on everything. I trust him to a point, same as he trusts me to a point. But from my experiences I have learned that doctors are very very busy, and as a result miss things, forget past illnesses of their patients, or flat out ignore them.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I received a copy of the cat scan results in the mail as I requested. (which was a pleasant surprise since I was expecting the receptionist to forget her promise to put it in the mail) Reading the report I came across something I hadn't heard of before, intraosseous hemangioma on my first lumbar vertebrae (L1). So I looked it up. Intraosseous means "on or within the bone" and hemangioma means "growth containing endothelial cells and blood vessels". So basically this means I have a growth of some sort (tumor) on my vertebrae at L1. What I read went on to talk about the various tumors an intraosseous hemangioma can turn out to be, many are cancerous (and yes Phyllodes is included) and a few are not.

Now I understand my doctor has hundreds of other patients and as a result it is difficult to remember every little thing their patients have been diagnosed with in the past. But to forget your patient had a rare cancerous tumor removed 18 months ago? Then to not even mention this growth when giving the test results seems wrong to me.

In June of 2010 I had a cancerous tumor called a Phyllodes tumor removed from my right breast. These are very very rare tumors, counting for less than 1% of all breast cancer diagnoses in the USA. When they do recur as a spreading (metastasis) cancer, they most frequently show up on the lungs or the spine. They are not the usual breast cancer in that they are not ductal or lobal, they are a connective tissue tumor. Also they do not spread via the lymphatic system as most breast cancers do, they spread via blood vessels and contain endothelial cells. Endothelial cells are the cells which make up the lining of blood vessels.

I did inform my pain management doctors of this tumor and its removal because it meant I was having surgery. I did inform them of what little is known about these tumors, including that they do not respond to chemo or radiation and the recurrence rates etc. etc..I did not get additional meds for post surgical pain as my regular meds should have covered it, but I still had to inform them I was getting surgery. They were also informed that a benign/low level malignant Phyllodes tumor counts as a cancer diagnosis and if it recurs it can do so as a more malignant tumor and when they do they usually appear on the lungs or the spine.

Taking that into consideration do you think it might have crossed the doctor's mind that a tumor on my spine MIGHT be something he should mention to me and recommend I have it checked out considering the similarities between a hemangioma and a phyllodes tumor and considering I have already had a rare cancerous tumor removed 18 months ago?

I say HELL YES to that question. Instead I had to find out by demanding my own copy of the written report.

So now I am scared.

I am hoping that it is not a recurrent phyllodes tumor that chose to pop up on my spine because that is pretty scary. I know the chances of survival regarding a recurrent and spreading phyllodes, which this would be a metastisis since it is on my spine not the same breast. I know the chances of it being another low level malginant/benign Phyllodes or the more malignant ones. None of it is real encouraging or very good. But the only way to find out is to have it removed and biopsied since you can't tell a phyllodes from a non-cancerous tumor without a biopsy. (They very frequently come up with a false negative for cancer result on needle and core biopsies.) You would think that a doctor would tell their patient, specially one with my history, that an abnormal growth (aka tumor) has appeared on their spine.

I see my primary care doctor to get the ball rolling for a biopsy next Wednesday.

Please please please God, not cancer ok? Or at least, not malignant Phyllodes ok? please? pretty please with sugar on top?

I need prayers and well wishes that this turns out to be nothing, if you wouldn't mind.

Thank you.

PS I did do a little stitching, but haven't gotten a pic for WIPOcalypse and I am sorry. I will try to get it up tomorrow.

8 comments:

  1. I so agree with you that the doctor should have been much more careful. I know that they do have several patients, but I don't believe that it might be used as an excuse to not be more careful, especially when dealing with such situations... I'm hoping that the results of the biopsy will be the results we want (not cancer) and I'll be thinking and praying for you :)
    Hugs,

    ReplyDelete
  2. That must be really worrying, I'm sending lots of positive thoughts for a good outcome

    ReplyDelete
  3. sending lots of positive thoughts and (((((HUGE)))) hugs your way and I pray that something is done and sorted out quickly for you .... thank goodness you got that copy ... love mouse xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. *hugs* Oh my, how frightened you must be. Please don't count chickens...
    Prayers, thoughts, well wishes and even crossed fingers are all sent in your direction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sending prayers and good thoughts your way, Missy. I can imagine how scared and distracted you must be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Missy I'm praying for you and hoping hoping it turns out benign. Know you have been through so much already.

    hugs
    Jeanne in Phoenix

    ReplyDelete
  7. So sorry to hear about this Missy. I truly hope it isn't. My thoughts and prayers are with you during this scary time. Oh I'll give you a HUG.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'll be thinking of you and sending you lots of positive thoughts.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you very much for visiting my internet home for my crafts. I appreciate your taking the time to visit and/or comment.

If you have any questions (looking for designer information of a piece I'm stitching, how to do cross stitch etc. ) please feel free to contact me. You will find my email address in my profile and I will do my best to either answer your question, or find information that can help you get your answer.

Thank you again for the visit and I hope you have a great day!

Sincerely,
Missy (aka Raven)