It's Back

So bummed to see this.  I am on a longer cancer journey and there are a lot of treatment options out there to manage it and keep things stable or push you into NED.  You can do this.  I am hopeful that you only have the one met.  Sending hugs.  Anne

NoTimeForCancer said:

Lily_Anne, I am sorry to hear

Lily_Anne, I am sorry to hear this. Try to remember this is a journey so try one step at a time on this.  I take "holiday" means you are on vacation (US) holiday (European).  Please enjoy your time away.

I'm not that strong, I'm Stage 4 though, but we have such a inspiration here from the other ladies.

Read their post and fight!!!

So sorry to read this.  I hate it when one of the ladies on this board reports recurrence.  But please take heart - there are treatments out there to manage this evil beast - everything from surgery, to chemo, to hormone therapy, to Cyberknife targetted radiotherapy.  I speak from experience, having tried most of them - and I am still here and living a good quality of life!  I hope it's just one mass that they can attack with gusto! 

Thinking of you
Helen 

so sorry to hear this, lily_anne. here's hoping it's just one, and they can zap that sucker and you can get on with your life. big hugs to you.

I had some abdominal pain over and over last year, so my PA at my PCP's office ordered a CT scan.  It showed a paracolic gutter mass.  My gyn/onc didn't know what it was.  My CA 125 was still low.  I had a PET scan right away which showed the same thing.  Three months later I had another CT scan and six months later, I had a third.  My gyn/onc finally decided it wasn't cancer because it hadn't grown.  His nurse practitioner told me it could be a fluid collection from having had lymph node removal.  It's changed shape, but still there, and my gyn/onc has stopped ordering scans now.  He won't do anything about it unless I get new symptoms. 

Although your mass is very likely to be malignant, there's still a chance that it isn't.  Hope that yours is benign. 

pinky104 said:

Lily_Anne

I had some abdominal pain over and over last year, so my PA at my PCP's office ordered a CT scan.  It showed a paracolic gutter mass.  My gyn/onc didn't know what it was.  My CA 125 was still low.  I had a PET scan right away which showed the same thing.  Three months later I had another CT scan and six months later, I had a third.  My gyn/onc finally decided it wasn't cancer because it hadn't grown.  His nurse practitioner told me it could be a fluid collection from having had lymph node removal.  It's changed shape, but still there, and my gyn/onc has stopped ordering scans now.  He won't do anything about it unless I get new symptoms. 

Although your mass is very likely to be malignant, there's still a chance that it isn't.  Hope that yours is benign. 

I had a lymphocele, which is a collection of lymph fluid from having 39 lymph nodes removed during radical hysterectomy, it was a "mass on the left side of the pelvis" according the the CT scan.  My oncologist said it was nothing to worry about, that it wasn't cancer and that it would eventually go away.  The radiologist I went to told me that I had "unresolved" cancer.  When I called my oncologist the next day and told him what the radiologist said they got together and decided I needed a PET scan.  The PET scan showed no cancer, only the lymphocele so I decided I wasn't going to do any radiation. Fast forward to four years later  (2015)when I had a pubic bone stress fracture. I had to have a follow up MRI with contrast to make sure it was a stress fracture and not bone cancer. Lucky me! It was a stress fracture and the lymphocele has disolved. I feel very blessed. I do know from researching that lymphoceles can become infected and can increase and decrease in size.  They can be drained  or surgically removedif they are bothersome.  I feel that mine did cause me some pain on the left side, which I no longer have.  When I found out about the lymphocele I said to the PA it's on the left side.  She said how did you know; from pain! We just have to take one day at a time and support each other.

pinky104 said:

flyerette65

That's very interesting that it did go away.  My mass was originally found to be 1.0 x 1.4 cm.  The next radiologist said it had been 1.1 x 1.4 cm. originally and had stayed the same size for the second CT scan.  The last one I had showed it to be 1.2 x 1.2 cm., which my gyn/onc told me was smaller.  I thought it had probably just rearranged itself. 

The reason I had the original CT scan was that I'd had abdominal pain, but it was on the opposite side from where the mass turned out to be.  I still get it on occasion.  My family doctor said to pay attention to whether or not I'm constipated when I get it as that's usually what causes the pain.

Hi Pinky,

Regarding your last statement, is your family doctor saying that your abdominal pains are morely likely caused by constipation?  I am asking because I am also having abdominal pains but the pain is not always in the same location.  

Thank you