First MRI scan results post Cyberknife

Ro10 said:

Helen what great news

I am so happy you got some shrinkage from your cyberknife treatments.  Hopefully it will continue to shrink.   Hopefully the pain is still gone,too.  Glad to hear you are doing the Happy Dance, I am doing one with you, too.  Hope you are feeling good.  In peace and caring.

Thanks everyone.  It's amazing how grateful we all become for small changes for the better, isn't it?  When I started this journey (in 2007), I was looking for black and white answers, for a cure, nothing less.  Now, a small amount of shrinkage in the tumour causes great joy.  I guess this is the "new normal"!. 

I am waiting for a date for a MAG3 renal scan (some sort of radioactive tracer is injected and then followed on it's path through the kidneys).  Has anyone had one?  It's come about because I asked my oncologist if there was anything we could check to see if I have any long term kidney damage from the tumour pressing on the ureter (and my refusal to have a stent!). She said blood tests wouldn't help, because the good kidney will be taking up any slack.  But suggested this scan.  I'm not worried about having it, but just wondered if anyone else had had the same?  I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bothered asking, because now I am scheduled to have it, no holiday insurance company will cover me until we get the results!  Grrrh!

Ro - I am so sorry to read in your post on the other thread that you are still struggling with the cough, but I hope the steroids might help reduce any inflammation.  It seems to be one step forward, two steps back sometimes, doesn't it?  We have the treatment, which gives us a good result, but then endure the side effects, which in turn have to be treated.  But I hope you have managed to enjoy your family visitors and that it hasn't been too much work for you.

Kindest wishes
Helen 

Kaleena said:

Hi Helen
glad to hear about

Hi Helen

glad to hear about the shrinkage!    You are so right about the little joys!    I am happy that things are working for you.    Let me know also how that test goes as you know I have a kidney stent.   I too have a tumor or soft tissue mass but my ureter passes through it.   However my urologist found out that the blockage was more bear the bladder and she felt was caused by the brachytherapy- a long term effect of radiation.

sorry I havent replied earlier   

My best to you

Kathy

 

Hi Kathy

Will definitely post once I've had the scan, to tell you all about it.  I have chickened out of having a stent as the only people I know who've had them have had trouble with them!  I don't need any more trouble - haha!  I do, however, know one or two people who have only had one working kidney, through illness or accident, who have been fine.  My ureter shows as dilated near to the tumour on the MRI scan, so hopefully the MAG3 scan will give us some more information about whether there is still pressure there or whether the tumour shrinkage has freed things up and the dilation is just a permanent but relatively harmless reminder of when it was being pressed on by the tumour. We shall see!

Kindest wishes
Helen x

Ro10 said:

Helen

I have not heard of the MAG3 renal scan.  I looked up what the Internet has on it.  Most of what I read was for infants or children having the test.  I hope it gives you the answer you want.   are you planning a trip, since you talked about holiday insurance?

my cough is much better.  I just hope it stays away when the steroids are finished.  I have enjoyed the company.  It is definitely not too much.work.  We will have a month before the next guests arrive.  Two very special friends are coming.

hope you continue to have shrinkage from your tumor.  It will be cause for more celebration.  In peace and caring.

Hi Kathy.  I didn't realise you were onto your second stent replacement - wow - where does the time go?  I would be really interested to hear how you've got on with them and whether it feels the same each time it is replaced.  I've read some reports that they can cause pain in the kidney or bladder but when people have had them changed it has gone away, which makes me think that accurate placement is key to the whole thing. I hope the next procedure to replace it goes without problem.

Hi Ro - yes - my research on the MAG3 scan seems to throw up a lot of information for infants and children too! We had hoped to fit in a holiday abroad while the tumour was behaving itself, so I think I have shot myself in the foot by asking about this scan!  If I had not mentioned it, my oncologist wouldn't have done anything and I could have got insurance!  We weren't sure where we might go, but were looking at various things, including a  trip to New York (I love it there!) followed by a cruise along the east coast up to Maine etc and ending in Montreal.  But also things closer to home, Portugal or Cyprus. But now it will have to wait until this scan is done.  So we have booked ourselves a short trip in the UK to Dorset, in March.  It's a lovely county in the south west of England with beautiful rolling countryside and a nice coastline.  My husband has family there and my brother has a holiday home, so we will be catching up with people while we're there. 

So pleased that your cough is improving with the steroids.  And I hope that it continues to be better when you stop the steroids.  My best friend's mother was on steroids for quite a long time.  She was very elderly and didn't hear very well and used to call them "stereos", so that's what they are called now in our house!

Warmest wishes to you both
Helen xx