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Long standing symptoms and nothing on CT scan: Does it happen often?
Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: Aug 10, 2023 | Replies (38)Comment receiving replies
in reply to @hopethereisnothing . What makes you think that you have pancreatic cancer? Have you had the appropriate lab work done to assess your pancreatic enzymes and things of that nature? Could any of your symptoms be related to your diet? I am not minimizing anything you have posted, as I too thought that I had cancer because of my liver and pancreatic ducts being dilated, a 25 percent weight loss, chronic diarrhea and nausea, but have been reassured that this is not the case. I understand that mysterious symptoms can be frightening, and I would encourage you to speak to your doctor about your concerns and worries about having pancreatic cancer. You are young, there is no history of pancreatic cancer in your family, and from what I have read, your test results have not been conclusive for a cancer diagnosis. I am very sorry that you struggle. There are times when I tend to overthink my health conditions, and I have to stop myself because it drives me crazy. As long as I wake up every day, I am grateful. Gratitude is sometimes all we have, at least that is how I tend to view life presently. Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a dream.
Also, a radiologist cannot make a diagnosis of cancer. The diagnosis can only be made by the treating hepatologist or gastroenterologist. This was made very clear to me during my recent appointment with my hepatologist. She cannot ascertain any concrete diagnosis until she does an endoscopy later this summer. Best of luck. Maybe trying to do some journaling would be of help to you, thus the typewriter photograph I found for you. Journaling has been of benefit to me at times during my long road to a healthier place. Best of luck. Be kind to yourself.
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Many thanks for your reply. I am glad that you have been reassured you don't have cancer , this is a huge relief. I hope I get this result soon.
To be honest, I do have health anxiety and it is all about cancer..I don't care about any other illness even if I have symptoms.. as long as they don't match a cancer.
I first thought of PC in February.
At that time I had burping, flatulence and some increasd stool frequency (not actual diarrhea).I googled (burping and cancer) and found that it can be associated with esophageal, stomach and pancreatic cancer. I had an endoscopy that ruled out esophageal and stomach cancers.
I was somewhat assured that I didn't have PC as I had a clear ultrasound and CT scan 2 months earlier. I also had tumor markers at that time and all was normal. I tried to distract myself and forget about it but I couldn't.
I googled again and found a lot of studies about (missed PC on CT scan) and had an impression that missing PC on CT scan is fairly common, sometimes I thought this was (the rule) according to what I have seen on Google, that was when I started to believe that I had PC.
Fast forward to mid-March, I started to have back pain and it was the typical type of pain associated with PC, few weeks later I got upper abdominal pain also typical for PC, so I had almost all the (pieces of the puzzle together,) pointing to PC. I had another CT scan , ilI thought that the tumor which was small and undetectable must have grown to a size that is easily caught by any scan, especially that (it) is now causing severe symptoms, but again, nothing could be caught.
Concerning radiological diagnosis, I know radiologists can't diagnose cancer but they interpret the scans and should know if there is an abnormality, that should be further investigated by clinicians.
Here where I live (not US or Europe), clinicians in general are not good at interepreting scans. They totally rely on reports given by radiologists so if the radiologist sees no abnormality, no one will believe that there is something abnormal in the area. For that reason, among others (age, general appearance , history of HA) I was told by many doctors that I don't have PC, but the truth is that I have intolerable pain and other symptoms that could be PC or something else. Unfortunately, nobody could give me another explanation of my symptoms so the priority now is to rule out PC .
By the way I had tumor markers slightly rising but within normal range and pancreatic enzyme tests within normal. It is really mysterious condition I feel like I am in a nightmare.