Very nervous-MRI next week

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2004
Very nervous-MRI next week
7
Fri, 10-14-2005 - 7:29am

Hi!
My week is not going very well and I just needed to share, vent, whine and ask for some good luck & prayers.

To make a long story short - I've been seeing a GI doc since February after a routine colonoscopy which was okay but my upper endoscopy showed erosive esophogitis. Follow-up in 60 days after taking protonix showed healing but I was still having problems with my GERD and hiatal hernia and IBS.Anyway at a check-up in July he sent me for an abdominal CT scan. It showed what they thought was a thickened possible chronically inflammed appendix so he sent me to a surgeon who rescheduled another CT scan for last Wednesday. I went to the surgeon this Wednesday for the results and the good news is they didn't see the appendix or whatever they thought was the thickened appendix so they are just calling it a piece of "unopacified bowel" and not to worry (something to do with the contrast dye and how it passed through or didn't pass) I'm not sure because the next bit of news kind of floored me. They see some sort of 2.2cm indeterminat lesion on the right lobe of my liver and according to the radioligist's report "As this does not have the typical appearance for benign hemangioma, it may be worthwhile to consider MRI with gadolinium in an attempt to help characterize this indeterminate liver lesion further." So next tuesday, October 18 at 10:30 I'm having my MRI. The surgeon says he sees this all the time: you have a CT scan to look at one thing and they see something else that eventually turn out to be nothing. Yeah right! easy for you to say.
Anyway, if you have a minute I'd appreciate a prayer if you could spare one in the hopes that this is really just a benign nothing.
thanks for listening, Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sat, 10-15-2005 - 7:39pm

Hearing news like that is always very scary ---- just take a few deep breaths. Hopefully your Dr. will be right and it is nothing.

I will say a prayer for you for good luck on Tuesday.

Hugs

Ellen

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2005
Sun, 10-16-2005 - 9:56am
Hi, I can sure sympathize with you. I have been going though "something" since last Oct. that my current gastroenteroligist has labeled IBS. My diet this past year has been boiled chicken, baked potato, canned carrots, applesauce, defaccinated tea, plain cookies, pretzels. It started last Oct as what I thought was an intestinal flu bug and although my family Dr. tried to treat the severe diahea with medicine it didn't help. Sent me to a gastroenterologist who did a endocopy (2x)colonospathy, blood tests, stool cultures, small bowel follow through, Cat scan. Nothing related to the intense pain I was having in my upper stomach and going across to the right side of my body. The Cat scan showed an aortic anyerisum in Nov. Went to a Vasular surgeon who said they didn't get concerned until the anyerisum was a 5. Mine was a 5.3. They didn't operate until March which I will admit agravatted my stomach upset because I was scared it would rupture before they got to it. Had the operation and although the Vascular Dr. said my pains had nothing to do with the anyerisum, the pain has continued. I am very allergic to medicines and have tried to take Nexium, Previcid and couldn't. I am now on Xanax, and Hyocosime for stomach spasms and for awhile I thought I was making improvement but now I'm back to the same symptoms. My New gasto. Dr. said I have IBS and every time I tell him I get the chills right before my stomach gets bad, he ignores me. I told him at times I get really sleepy and fell asleep sitting up on the couch with a lit cigarette in my hand. I was a good thing my husband was there. The dr. said, "Well, if you fall asleep with a cigarette in your hand and burn the house down, then it's your fault." I was appalled by his attitude but then putting up with this for a year now nothing surprises me in the medical profession today. I think when they see that I am on Xanax, they think I'm making up all these symptoms just to get attention. Hope someone out there has some answers, because at times I really do think I'm going to loose it.
Thanks
JoAnne
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 10-16-2005 - 7:30pm

JoAnne, first off I too am appalled at what your Dr. said. I am a nurse and I cannot believe that anyone who takes an oath as a Dr./any medical profession could be that callous.

I say get another Dr. right away.

I have a question - have you ever been tested for celiac's disease or anything like that.
Have you ever kept a food journal to be able to jot down after you eat your complete meal and your reactions to it --- there may be something that you might be able to identify that is causing your reactions.

I understand your frustrations -- unfortunately the gastro system is not as clear cut on diagnosis and interventions as some of the other systems.

I have ulcerative colitis, gerd (had the operation for that in the 80's, however I have it back now as that operation is not guaranteed to last a lifetime, however not as bad as I had it then)and I also get extremely painful rectal fissures which, due to my colitis, I cannot have fixed as I will lose some control over my bowels -- so it is a never ending circle.

I have explored homeopathic remedies along with acupuncture and traditional medications and for Me (I say that because other people have had great results with other methods) traditional medications have worked the best.

As frustrating as it may be, don't give up. But, I sincerely hope you do get another dr.

Ellen

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2005
Mon, 10-17-2005 - 1:20am

I am glad that someone else feels the same way I do about my doctors callosness. Sometimes when you don't feel good , you or should I say I let everyone push me around because I feel that I'm just being overly sensitive.

Yes, before all this started last Oct. I went to my family dr. and had a blood test done for celiac. My granddaughter is a diabetic and they found out recently that she had celiac too. Her doctor said it might have come from someone in the family farther down the line so I got tested. I forget if it was a false negetive or a false positive and it didn't prove anything.

My first gastroentroligist did the endocopy the first time for it and it was negative. When I continued to loose weight (75lbs) he and my family dr. talked me into getting it done again and said maybe he didn't go down far enough. That was negative.

I did notice on the 2 endocopy reports the one done in November and the one done in May it said I had gastritis. I read on this web site the symptoms of gastritis and I had everyone of them but the throwing up. The family dr. gave me anti-biotics just in case there was some germ down there and I started to feel better but had a reaction to the medicine (couldn't breathe) and since I'm allergic to about 7 other ones he said to go to this second gastro Dr.

I have always been allergic to different foods and medicine so I have always had to be careful of what I eat or take but it seems like my body has really turned on me now. I have also lived with "colitis" for the past 25 years but nothing like this. My stomach is so "touchy" now that one little thing out of my narrow list of "can eat" foods and I am right back at the beginning again.

At the peak of my suffering someone told me about holoistic doctors and medicines but the doctor I called wanted $75 for the initial visit and them $300 for a 2 hr consultation to get my family history. I am retired and don't have that kind of money and my insurance won't cover it so I never followed through with it.

Thanks for your input and it makes me feel better that someone else feels as I do. I don't intend to go back to this gastro. dr. again, but then where else is there to turn. I get the impression from doctors that they think you are just changing doctors all the time because you don't like the answers they give you and then label you a hypercondriac.

JoAnne

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-27-2003
Mon, 10-17-2005 - 8:58am

Good Luck but Think Postive you will be ok..


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2004
Mon, 10-17-2005 - 12:28pm

Ladies!

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers! They are appreciated more than you know!

Well just 24 hours from now the MRI will be all over so I'll have only one thing to worry about - the results. (I forgot to ask my doctor how long they take. I'll check tomorrow with the technician.) Until Tuesday at 10:30 I also have to worry about surviving the MRI. I've never had one and not quite sure how I will like being in the "tube" and if I can stay still for as long as necessary. I'm not really claustrophobic but who knows how you will react when you're a nervous wreck to begin with. And hungry as well - I can't eat or drink anything including water after midnite. Hopefully my tempermental gut will cooperate and not add to my woes.

Anyway I'm trying to think positive that the test will go well and the results will be good....

Thanks again!

Hope you are all doing well!

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 10-18-2005 - 9:06pm

Sue,


How did it go??