Has anyone experienced metastases to their ribs from NSCLC? My mum had a call from her hospital today to arrange a pet scan as her oncologist was reviewing a ct scan from 2 weeks ago and has found a tiny spot on a rib which he thinks may be cause for concern... he emphasised it could be inflammation caused by a very large chest drain which was inserted in that area to treat pneumothorax. My mum had surgery for adenocarcinoma 11 weeks ago and was found to have microscopic cells in the lymph nodes and visceral pleura... we are a bit surprised that metastasis is being discussed so soon after surgery particularly when it was completely resected. However my mum has been in a lot of pain since having the drain removed.
We took a cancellation appointment for tomorrow but of course we are worried sick now!
Thanks in advance for any information
Written by
MissyD1
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I seem to have had some damage to a rib after a biopsy of my pleura 3 years ago. It still shows up on CTs as a "stable schlerotic" area. Sending best hopes that that tube damaged the rib and that's what is showing up on the scan.
Missy, as scary as the call may be I think they are making a good decision to be thorough. They may want to use this as a baseline for future comparisons or they may have been prompted to do this because of the microscopic finding. If this was my mom I would call the drs nurse and ask why. I realize it's after hours there but oncology docs everywhere have someone on call. If they're as compassionate as the drs where I go, they'd rather you called than let it go. Their goal is to get her strong and to do that she needs to rest.
You're doing a great job as her caregiver. The questions you ask show me that you are responsive to her needs and show great thought in approaching her care. It's tough being the caregiver and I would urge you to rest while you can, take care of your health and be gentle with yourself.
Thanks Denzie, I am doing my best for her but it's getting tough as time goes on. My mums a strong lady but I can see this is getting to her now as she's not getting a break.
I did speak to the oncology nurse later today and he could only tell me that it's a very small spot on the rib, in the area where the chest tube was so could be inflammation from that. I don't know what prompted the DR to look over the scan again as when we were in his office he told us that it showed no abnormality as did the ct scan from 2 weeks earlier. I guess we will know more on Monday.
Sorry to hear that there are some more questions needing answers for your mum. I hope that the scan went well and it shows that there is nothing to worry about. One thing worth doing is to get copies of your scans. The hospital should provide them on CD and charge just a nominal fee. The scan I had on the NHS cost me £10 and the private scans were free. It is then so easy to get a second reading on them to ensure nothing else has been missed and also if you do decide to get a second opinion on treatment, it will give the new doctor much more information that the written reports which tend to not say much.
You can even have a look at the images on a PC and compare things between scans. I am not saying to try and do your own interpretation but you may gain a bit of knowledge. I wish I had known this before. I had a totally normally lymph node on 2 scans but when I compare them I could see it had grown from 5mm to 9mm over a few months. In isolation on each scan the node was normal as anything under 10 mm is classed as insignificant, but having the knowledge that it had nearly doubled MAY have allowed my cancer to be identified earlier. Hope you are doing OK.
This nasty disease we call lung cancer has its ups and downs and scares. I truly hope that the pet scan is negative and that it is only some scarring from the chest tube. I'm a little over two years from my surgery and still have pain in the chest tube and incision areas. It has decreased gradually over time. There are so many nerves in the area where they operate that are cut that pain is inevitable. It takes a long time to resolve and does so gradually.
I hope you get good news and that your mom recovers quickly.
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