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How do you deal with monitoring a lung nodule and anxiety?
Lung Health | Last Active: Jul 21 10:16pm | Replies (47)Comment receiving replies
Hi, after 3 emails from my doctor, she finally responded yesterday afternoon. She felt that her remarks from my pet scan should be enough.
those remarks were (quote)
(Looks stable and reassuring.)
I told her I needed to know if the nodules in my lungs were growing or getting smaller.
She finally said that they appeared smaller.
She wants me to have a pet scan every three months to stay on top of any changes.
I am asking every four to five months. She is definitely not in favor of my request. Am I wrong in trying not to have too many pet scans? I guess I will have to research this question further.
So far, I have had five pet scans in a year and a half.
I am living with MB cancer, going on one and a half years now.
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Hi @millard, It is so hard to know what the correct schedule is for scans, and you are right to bring up any questions and concerns with your oncologist. I've stretched 3 month scans to a 4 month schedule when my cancer has been stable. But next I'll be having a PET two months after a CT, because of a new area of concern. I think flexibility is important. Unfortunately, we can't always plan further out than the next scan. Your oncologist wants to keep a close eye on the nodules and that's good too.
You mentioned in a previous post that the PET was hard on you, and some people do justifiably struggle with all the scans. It's not easy, from the physical and the emotional sides.
Maybe have the 3 month PET, and then if everything looks stable, and the uptake number remains as is, then push for waiting for 4 months or longer.
Have they talked about a biopsy of the lung nodule, to confirm if it is related to the MBC or maybe it's non-cancerous? Sometimes the nodules are easy to get too, but if they are deep in the lung then they can be difficult to access. Maybe that's a next step depending on what the PET shows in 3 months.