*A “quick” update to yesterday’s post*

 

I got my MRI results back Wednesday via a Community Health online service called “MyChart”. All results, reports, visit summary notes, etc. appear there as soon as they are officially logged into their system. The report was very technical, and some of it was difficult to understand. Dr. Liu’s office did call to give me the results, but the information they gave me was what I had already been able to understand on my own from the report.

When I saw Dr. Lee yesterday, he did give me a  bit more information about the MRI. His understanding of the report, and the actual images (which I have not seen) is (obviously) a lot greater than mine.

He said that MRI’s are great because they give us a lot more information, but… they can “over inform”- meaning that they can show us EVERYTHING that’s there, and sometimes the things we see aren’t actually significant. BUT, we don’t want to take any chances and he is 100% in support of getting biopsies on anything that is suspicious in any way.

The 2 new masses spotted on MRI are not “obviously” cancerous like the original one. Honestly, even *I* could tell immediately that the original one was cancer (when they showed it to me on the screen) because it had “reaching fingers”! Both new masses are smaller than that one, and they are suspicious because of the way they behaved with my blood flow (visible due to the MRI with contrast), and not because of obvious visual features of the masses, themselves.

He said the mass on the left side is “low to moderate”, in terms of the likelihood it’s cancerous. The one on the right side is more concerning, due to its proximity to the (original) tumor. Both are areas of concern, but the right side is “higher risk”.

None of this really matters, because we can’t know anything until the tissue has been tested, and it will be at least two weeks before the full extent of that information is available. But Dr. Lee (and his nurse) discussed a LOT of stuff in our 90 minute appointment yesterday, and it took a while for my brain to process and sort through it. 

This post doesn’t provide answers, but it provides a little clarity- while simultaneously clarifying nothing at all. 😆