Pet Scan today- update ...hip fracture- mets confirmed

Prayers and healing thoughts are on their way. 

And you know we'll be on pins and needles waiting for your update. 

Blessing to your dear husband.

I hope and pray everything will look well on the scans.  

*tight hugs*

coming your way, Jen.  And to your DH as well.

Will be anxiously awaiting the results.  It's time for some answers.

jen2012 said:

Well we ended up in ER last

Well we ended up in ER last night when the pain got so bad that he couldn't move.  Had to call an ambulance and it took them an hour to get him in the ambulance.   He has a fractured hip...where the femur meets the hip.  According to the ortho doc, he has a met there.  The same one that has been biopsied 3 times and been negative.   So I guess bone mets are confirmed.   They still want to do a surgical biopsy to make sure this is a CRC met and not a different kind of cancer  - which they say is unlikely to be a different cancer, but it would change the course of treatment so they want to be sure.  

 

Wow Jen,  so what are they planning on doing for him??    My mother fell recently in front of the nursing station at the nursing home, and she had a fracture in her hip.   The put in a plate with screws and fixed her back up, a far less invasive surgery than hip replacement .    How big is this met, have they given you any details.     

You and your husband have been through so much. I hope he gets some pain relief and some much needed good news soon. 

Trubrit said:

The good the bad and the ugly

I am so sorry for this latest development, though it has to be somewhat of a relief to know what the problem is thats causing him so much pain and inability to get up and about. 

You both continue to be in my thoughts and prayers. 

Here's hoping you get some more answers and soon. 

Sheesh,  yes if they did see it on the PET scan and knew about the severe pain  why wouldn't you have heard from someone before you had to make the trip to emerg.     This makes no sense.    Maybe a breakdown in communication between radiology and oncologist is all I can figure.    I just get the impression sometimes that they are all so busy that we get lost in the shuffle.   

jen2012 said:

According to the ortho

According to the ortho resident, there are two options.  If it is a CRC met, then they put a pin in and he could stand on it same night.   She said the pin could spread the cancer, so if it's CRC and already in the system they don't worry about that.  Easy for them to say.   If it was some other early stage cancer, they wouldn't want to spread it, so they would do another procedure - which we didn't get into that.   I'm so confused about it all at this point and hoping the doctors are making the right decisions.  Neither his onc or the ortho onc that she has been discussing his case with are on this weekend, but they have already been in contact with the on call doctors - so stuff is happening behind the scenes, but we don't know all of it yet.  They have not said how big the met was.  I'm kind of surprised they didn't suggest keeping him after the pet scan - they must have seen it and they saw the pain he was in...

that the person who would have seen the met was the tech, and they, of course, are supposed to pretend they don't know what they're seeing.  I know my scans have sometimes not been read by the radiologist until the next day, if they're busy.  It's ridiculous, though...you'd think even a tech could tell someone else about the situation, but it's the whole "it's above my pay grade" and chain of command mentality that exists in a lot of medical institutions.  It's hard as a patient or caregiver, no matter how much of an advocate you are, to do much about this.  I think you've been doing absolutely everything you could, Jen.  No one could ask for a more dedicated care giver.

My only other thought is that if they put in the pin, you should start him on cimetidine asap, just in case it helps.  What studies there are suggest that it somehow stops cancer cells that have spread from attaching to healthy tissue, and it's just heartburn medication, so it can't hurt to take it for a while.  I did 800 mg a day, split into 2 doses, and you can just buy it OTC.

Loads of hugs and love coming your way.