Lymph nodes

[Jonlaco]

This is Jonlaco's wife , Dena, and Jon is in the hospital again.  Major leg pain (left) MRI, CT Scan and Bone Scan completed.  Waiting for doctors to review (done over the weekend)then report their findings and recommendations.  I am not a doctor and I always ask for copies of the reports and read them even though I really don't understand what they mean.  The CT scan reports a lot about Sclerotic lesions, soft tissue mass in right chest wall, bilateral pulmonary nodules, mediastinal adenopathy, pretracheal lymph node, AP window lymph node, subcarinal adenopathy, hilar adenopathy and all of this sounds HORRIBLE!!!!  Does anyone else out there in Advance Prostate Cancer land have knowledge of this stuff.  I know Jon's cancer is active due to pain and not feeling well.  He is scared and I am scared as well.  I hate these medical words and not understanding what all of this means, but if someone can reply to me it may help me understand a bit better and knowing someone else has experience with this stuff helps us feel like we are not alone.  Thank you

[WendyL]

Hi Dena, I'm so sorry you and Jon are going through this. Can you ask someone on Jon's treatment team to explain all of this report? The words describe where, and in some cases what type of, abnormalities were found on the scan, but not what they mean to your husband's health, whether they're all cancer related, etc., all information you need to get from his doctors to help make the best treatment plans. 

[herb1]

Hi Dena,

Sorry you and Jon are going through this.  When I had my first scans years ago and read all these fancy words, I decided to try to understand what they were.  I started by simply Googling them to get "definitions".  It was easy; yes, sometimes I had to Google the google explanation!  Then I was in a position to ask my docs what the signficance of these were and what others that I could not find or did not understand meant.  Of course, I did not do it all at once, but I gradually learned what they were talking about and gradually I learned what were important TO ME and which were not.  

   In my case, many of my "soft tissue" items disappeared when I went on Lupron.  I was told that might happen and it's a good outcome since if it's a metastasis it isn't growing when it's shrinking.  If, on the other hand, it (whatever) hangs around but doesn't appear to grow in subsequent scans, it's probably something Jon and you don't have to worry about.

  hope they all shrink and "go away"!

herb S.

[Jonlaco in reply to herb1]

Thank you so much Herb S.  Yes, we too hope this happens.