Rib cage and upper back pain

[seasider18]

I was offered a whole body nuclear bone scan yesterday. I had spoken on phone to my GP about rib cage pain and long term back pain that in the past six years I have had two MRI's for and a standing X-Ray plus a CT Scan. They showed various problems but nothing that they wanted to treat.

This time he referred me for a chest and back X-ray but the consultant suggested the nuclear scan without my even having had any physical examination.

Overnight I'm having second thoughts. I'm 87 and wondering at my age what they would find or even want to treat. I know it's not prostate cancer as I have had laser surgery for an enlarged prostate and follow up tests show that my PSU reading came down from 13.0 to 0.74.

[oldtimer]

I can well understand your dilemma and share your feeling that 'at my age is this something I need to do?' Only you can decide whether you want to find a problem that might or might not be treatable. Unfortunately as you know already, some findings are not useful and the treatment benefits not worth the risks of the treatment.

On the other hand it is sometimes useful to know what we are facing as we age and sometimes even prepare ourselves for the inevitable. But you can do this anyway without having to have an expensive investigation.

My mother at 84 was found to have multiple secondaries in her spine from an unknown primary. She was able to tidy up her affairs while still able and then to plan her terminal care and the future provision for her younger husband. Now approaching the same age, I've been trying to keep my affairs in order expecting that I'll pop off soon anyway.

[seasider18 in reply to oldtimer]

My mother’s sisters both said that they were all right until they reached 80 then it all went wrong. My mother was brilliant having survided colon cancer at 67 until at 84 when they found a tumour on a kidney.

The operation was successful but the anaesthetic damaged her brain and she could not cope on her own and went into a retirement home. She was the only person there not on any medications as otherwise healthy. She died at 92 after breaking her hip. The replacement was not a success and had to be repeated and it was all too much for her.