Wrong diagnosis and second opinions?

toxoplasmosis, spread by cats feces, is one of the most underdiagnosed diseases around. If you clean cat litter boxes, work in flower beds where cats may defecate or eat uncoked meat ( steak tartar etc) its always a possibility and some of the symptoms closely mimic lymphoma. Toxo is forever. There are two tests for toxo, for active disease and for antibodies. When your body fights it off it goes into the brain and creates a cyst around itself to protect it from antibodies. When you are in a weakened state it can return. It would be very unusual to see one of these microbe sized parasites. I would go and make sure to get both tests, each from two different labs. in France and Eastern Europe where uncooked meat is routinely eaten, it is estimated that as many as 50% of the population is infected. Worth looking into. 

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 said:

Wait

Dcl,

I willl mostly address two questions that you posed: The first relates to the title of your post:  "Do people get the wrong diagnosis ?"  Answer: Yes, it happens a lot.  Most people are correctly diagnosed first go-round, but enough don't to make misdiagnosis always a possibility.

I do not follow your pathology description. You say the doctor sent the results for "a second opinion." He did not have a first opinion yet (regarding lymphoma), so why already send them for a second ? I did not even know that that was medically possible.  Most local labs are usually accurate. Why not use them first ? And you state he was initially testing for cancer. What did he change to ? Why ?  But, we have had two or more writers in recent months who had biopsies "delayed" and then "delayed again," so perhaps it is not so uncommon. At least one, if not both, were shortly after delivering a child.

Your make the comment "I'm unsure what to do from here."  Answer: You wait. You wait on the pathology report, which seldom takes more than a week to return, and usually not that long.  In the holistic scheme of having cancer, being diagnosed, and being treated, a week, or two weeks, is nothing.  It will seem like an eternity, but clinically, it is a short period.   I know it is nerve-wracking; I have waited twice for positive biopisies to return regarding my two cancers.   The first was very upsetting; the second I yawned at.  In fact, I had requested that the doctor just call me with the results.  No reason to drive in and waste gasoline.  Lymphoma is seldom a death sentence (nearly all of the 40 or so common strains are very treatable, whereas prostate cancer  [my second cancer] is usually very indolent (slow-moving), and even newly-discovered cases of Stage 4 have long, long average survival times).  Also, your CT results and near-normal blood work means a little waiting is not life threatening in your case.

Another thought:  You have not (yet) been misdiagnosed, of course, because you have not been diagnosed at all; that is, no doctor has yet said to you, "You have disease x."   After you get a diagnosis,  then you can consider second opinions, which are never a bad thing, just expensive.  In cases that are clear-cut and seem to have no ambiguity, a second opinion is less necessary.  Others, where there is ambiguity or a secondary diagnosis that seems stongly possible, a second opinion is a good idea.

Impressionistic:

Your symptoms sound like lymphoma to me. I would expect the biopsy to be positive. For one thing, you described lymphoma "B-Symptoms" perfectly.  Primary care doctors, when looking at a likely first-time cancer diagnosis in a patient, quite commonly start listing the other things that the patient could have. It then becomes for them a process of elimination, which of course is thorough and a good thing, but it muddies the probable in the patient's thinking while the alternatives are gone through.    You might have some rare, exotic disease; you should know in a week or thereabout, but it is anyone's guess whether such a disease would be as treatable as lymphoma; it might be less so.

I wish you well and a peaceful holiday. I would try to not think of the medical issues at all at this point, easier said than done.  I am commencing July 4th therapy out of a can as we speak,

max

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_symptoms

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just thought due to some personal experiences overseas that toxo is a very real possibility.

mine is in a bottle. Genuine English Bitters, known here as IPA.

Animasgirl said:

Wrong diagnosis

After cleaning flood debris and then starting work as a substitute teacher I had horrible congestion. I went to the Doctor as well as the local want to be hospital ....for 12 weeks I was treated for pneumonia. I begged for a scan and even then I awas told its a crap shoot.I went to a larger city where the emergency doctor said "has anyone told you,You have lymphoma

is Wow. Things like this should not happen - ever.