MRI Results

What do I say?  I already knew that x-rays and ultrasounds would show nothing definitive if any thing at all.  I've been down this road before twelve - thirteen years ago where everything was tried to relieve me of nerve pain in my foot.  It took exploratory surgery in 1998 to find the spindle cell sarcoma, a very small tumor.  A year later the same pain the same sort of surgery and more of the same spindle cell sarcoma.  Another year would go by when I decided to have a below the knee amputation.

Now here I am ten years later I've had the ultrasound, the x-ray and now the MRI... the only definitive tool for what I think is the problem... the only diagnostic tool that would show the abnormal cells that could be in my right arm.  I noticed the small lump on the inside edge of my right elbow some time ago but it did not start to bother me until just recently.

I have a new Doctor who did not waste anytime getting me set up with the necessary tests.  She has contacted the cancer centre in Saskatoon, I have signed a document so she can obtain all my files in regard to my previous diagnosis of spindle cell sarcoma and surgeries.  This Doctor has done more for me in the few weeks I've been her patient than the whole time with the one before her.

OK... so what is the diagnoses?  I have four measurable lesions, all of them are under 1 cm in size, one is in the "subcutaneous tissues medially at the level of the medial epicondyle" (I think this is the one I can feel).  The second lesion is ill-defined and superolaterally to the first lesion "this lesion is not  as discrete and contains mixed T1 and T2 signal" nearly touching the brachial artery.  The third lesion is seen at the level of the midradial head, in the transverse plane.  This lesion is 0.5 cm anterior to the radial nerve.  There is a suspected fourth lesion.  There are also four small foci of ill-defined enhancement... which may represent additional lesions.  The body of the report and the summery don't quite match up... so will have to wait and see what I am eventually told after surgery.

The document is in much more detail most of which I don't understand.  It talks of the  enhancement and characteristics and ROI measurements all of which means very little to me.  The final recommendation in consideration of my prior history of spindle cell sarcoma... "as well as the dense enhancement some of these lesions demonstrate, certainly metastatic  disease would have to be considered, and histologic  sampling with a view to complete excision of as many of these lesions as is technically feasible or possible is suggested, particularly as they may or may not all represent the same process."

So there you have the diagnosis, I have not imagined the lump, it is real.  Is it spindle cell sarcoma again?  I don't know and won't know until a biopsy has been performed.  I expect to hear from a surgeon in a few days with a date for my surgery. 

This morning at 5:00 I had my panic attack and at 6:30 I shed tears. 

Now I wait for the first phone call... then the results... then????

My trust is in my Saviour, Jesus Christ; He has never given me more then I can handle.