Take your images to a different specialized radiologist, if at all possible.
My cousin died within 10 days after the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Alex Trebek lived 18 months after his diagnosis and treatment.
Not sure, but I think I would prefer the quick exit.
My sister died at age 51 after a miserable year of chemo treatment. Her first symptom was unrelenting upper back pain made worse by lying down. Her provider ordered two courses of physical therapy which did nothing for the pain. By the time she had her first CT scan the tumor was baseball size and had encapsulated two arteries and was diagnosed as Stage 4. The source of the pain was the tumor pressing on a nerve on her posterior abdominal wall. It was a bad scene.
Catching pancreatic cancer before Stage 4 is not so easy. MD Anderson is working to de elope a blood test to catch it earlier.
Once it is detected at Stage 4, death is often weeks to months away. Very few make it to one year.
My mom died 3 months after diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. I’m in such fear it will get me as well.
I can only speak to experience as a receptionist in an animal clinic, but our vets never trusted x-rays from other machines than the ones in-house, because the quality of the machines and of their output were all different. I don’t know if it’s the same with MRIs and CTs.
First colonoscopies, now this.
What’s next? /s
My father passed away in SEP 2015 after being diagnosed in SEP 2014. The oncologist told ME: “Get a PET scan at 50-55, son, this runs in families”. My PCP said not to since it “would turbo charge other cancers like Leukemia and Prostate cancers.”. Thinking of ignoring him and paying out of pocket.
The pancreas is deep in the abdomen. X ray won’t find pancan.
Until we find a blood test for it, the problem of timely diagnosis will persist.
Happened with my Step-Dad. By the time they got their 2nd opinion, it was too late. :(
In terrible back, front and side pain, I had a CT Scan (without contrast) and was rushed to York Hospital’s Oncology Dept. They were ready to cut me open from neck to groin, but CT w/ contrast and an MRI revealed to to be a grapefruit-sized Pseudo-cyst and inflamed Pancreas and Stomach.
No food for 23 days — just ice chips 5x/day — liquid food portal in left neck vein, saline solution portal in right neck vein, 3 antibiotic IVs in the arms, 4 ERCP (Endoscopies) operations under ‘twilight gas”, weight down from 265 to 134 (-131 LBS) and I was an emaciated skeleton on 24th day, for discharge.
I was also to PSU-Hershey Medical Center & Hospital every few months for past 4yrs, and had another 10 ERCPs there, with my new GI Team.
They drained it thru stents in the stomach, and I’ve been OK since. They also found heart disease (5 stents installed), kidney disease and Diabetes 1. After 1.5yrs on insulin, I’m now Type 2 on Metformin and Jardiance. I take 36 pills, split between morning and evening, for all the maladies.
Thankfully, it wasn’t cancer.
In terrible back, front and side pain, I had a CT Scan (without contrast) and was rushed to York Hospital’s Oncology Dept. They were ready to cut me open from neck to groin, but CT w/ contrast and an MRI revealed to to be a grapefruit-sized Pseudo-cyst and inflamed Pancreas and Stomach.
No food for 23 days — just ice chips 5x/day — liquid food portal in left neck vein, saline solution portal in right neck vein, 3 antibiotic IVs in the arms, 4 ERCP (Endoscopies) operations under ‘twilight gas”, weight down from 265 to 134 (-131 LBS) and I was an emaciated skeleton on 24th day, for discharge.
I was also to PSU-Hershey Medical Center & Hospital every few months for past 4yrs, and had another 10 ERCPs there, with my new GI Team.
They drained it thru stents in the stomach, and I’ve been OK since. They also found heart disease (5 stents installed), kidney disease and Diabetes 1. After 1.5yrs on insulin, I’m now Type 2 on Metformin and Jardiance. I take 36 pills, split between morning and evening, for all the maladies.
Thankfully, it wasn’t cancer.
Not sleeping! As told to me by a Stanford trained nuke reader, the MD is pressured to only take x minutes to study the MRI. But a proper read requires integrating data from the chart with looking at the image. Thought takes time. Speed it up, docs, or the pressure from above will wear you down. In my town, there’s a separate imaging facility whose readers do take the time. But at our top hospital where this doc eventually left, things will be missed.
The PSA is just that: prostate specific.
To date there is no detection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the toughest of the bunch.