Liver cyst or metastasis?

I'm pretty sure a cyst is fluid filled versus a met which is vascular (visible blood supply to the mass). Many cysts show up on CT scans that would go unnoticed for one's entire life until they pass of natural causes. 

Believe the doctor when he says "cyst" (fluid filled)  and relax. 

My girlfriend has one on her liver too which showed up on her tests for a hernia. Don't worry!

Allochka said:

Thank you for reassuring

Thank you for reassuring words!

but the problem is that it was not seen on CT and ultrasound 4 months ago... Just detected on follow-up ultrasound, which makes me think it is a new lesion :-( 

Feel pretty scared and very "hypochondriac"... 

My husband has had different things mentioned or not mentioned in CT scans. His first post op scan at 6 months mentioned calcified lymph nodes. The second did not. The second mentioned degenerative areas of his spine, the first did not. Neither are worrisome (especially the spine because the locations were consistent with his prior discectony and laminectomy from a million years ago)

It may not have been caught or mentioned on prior scans. I think it's ok!! 

Allochka,

As we saw in earlier posts, they start finding all of our imperfections when they start to X-ray our insides... in my case, the surgeon was concerned about my liver enough to tell me that I may want to see a liver specialist because it looked like my liver had undergone so "major trauma" in the past.  I had been in a pretty nasty car accident in April of 2012, but I was hit on the left side (funny enough they did X-rays and saw nothing, so I assume my cancer in the left kidney had not arisen yet; at least not big enough for them to see on a common X-Ray).  So I had no clue what "trauma" I had been through.  He just said some of the dimensions didn't really look right.

The same surgeon just removed my gallbladder and at the follow up I mentioned that he'd told me this and he looked at me like I had 3 heads and said, "No, the liver looked fine."  Apparently I just have a slightly differently shaped liver.  So, sometimes the MRIs don't give a clear picture as to what is going on.  Cysts and imperfections are super common.  Hopefully this wil just be a simple thing for him.  

- Jay   

brea588 said:

I think

that the radiologist that is reading the scans is not doing his job then.  THey are responsible to find and report everything they see of the scan ordered.  Even if there previously they are to mention it again on a new scan if it stayed same size or no change etc....  Your doc can look at the scans but ususally he is looking only at the area of interest.  The radiologist is to check out the entire area. I will add that is as long as scans done in same place or radiologist has a copy of scan done somewhere else so he can compare.

 

Yes, brea588 I totally agree. 

But I guess there is room for human error in all of this, unfortunately. I guess since it was not related to any type of issue of metastatic disease I just never really cared. But it's certainly inconsistent, unfortuantely. 

Allochka said:

Oh, no need to be sorry at

Oh, no need to be sorry at all! It is actually good that it motivated us to stay on top of things :-) and we are here to help each other through difficult times, so we all should post about everything which concerns us, to get advise. I'm sorry to make you feel sorry :-)

I'm so glad you are feeling better! I'm also starting to calm down :-). 

This disease could be a straigt way to hypochondria... I honestly never knew that radiologists can just ommit some things. I thought they suppose to describe everything they see.

Thank you all for support!

Praying for your fiance and you. Please don't forget you're pregnant. you shouldn't let stress get over you, it's not good for you and your baby.

Allochka said:

I'll try to, thank you for

I'll try to, thank you for caring!

actually, our little girl has been through so much already (her dad's hep C and cancer diagnosis, amniocentesis, pregnancy related problems last week which almost put me into hospital) - and she is doing fine! :-) she'll be super stress-resistant after she is born :-)

I have a 7 mm hypodense cyst on my liver as well.  The radiologists just keep an eye on it.  Try to focus on caring for yourself and your precious baby!  Praying all goes well with your remaining pregnancy.

Allochka said:

Good news - we have just

Good news - we have just received a second opinion about initial CT scan - the cyst is visible there, and it is 100% a cyst :-) previous radiologist simply haven't described it. No need to worry or check with MRI :-)

Lucky day ! :-)

Well done :-)