So today I got my 6 month post treatment scan result and it wasn't great but wasn't horrible.

My 3 month scan had 5 hypermetabolic activity spots, and on the 6 months scan only one was still there, but it was unchanged, so that's good news. Also appears as though the 1 mm nodule in my lung is gone as well.

My question is about this though.
They found new borderline hypermetabolic activity in the soft tissue of the right hemimandible.

I am trying to figure out where this soft tissue would be and what exactly the right hemimandible is. I know mandible is your lower jaw, and when i looked up hemimandible, it said that the mandible is made up of 2 hemimandibles, which would make sense, cuz hemi in medical terms is half, but i just want to make sure i am right in thinking that means it is on soft tissue on the right side of my lower jaw then.

Any help would be appreciated, i just want to make sure i know where they are talking about,

You have interpreted this correctly. If it makes you feel any better, I had marginal hyperactivity in various areas at or near my primary for 18 months.

Of course I was panicked about this every scan, but what I learned to accept was this - for most people, it is a function of treatment related healing which is also hypermetabolic. In my case most of this was not superficial, so I could never have the satisfaction of a simple biopsy to put my mind at rest. Even if it had been, my docs said that doing a punch biopsy and other procedures on tissues already thin and which were poor healing risks from radiation, would likely create non healing areas that could cascade into chronic infection sites. So I had to believe and trust that this was going to get better as time went by, which it did. But every scan put my nerves on edge.

Well at least med terms class helped me out a bit, lol. My doctor said that some people go their whole life with scans that show hypermetabolic activity. So I am not really worried as I am just curious.

Well, that's a lil lie. I am a little worried as the jaw is a "new" spot, but my doc didn't seem worried, so I am not really worried, but just a little.

But what exactly is the soft tissue of the right hemimandible? now that i know that it is the right half of the lower jaw, what is the soft tissue? is that gums or ? I really don't have a clue what that is referring to.

Everyone in general refers to the soft or hard tissues of the body. Clearly the hard are bones, teeth etc. Soft the rest it.

Your mandible has several different types of bone in it predominantly the hard cortical bone on the outside and the osseous or porous interior sometimes referred to as trabecular bone. (There is more but this is just the basics) On the outside of the bone you have multiple layers of soft tissues, that start with the periosteum closest to the bone to the upper epithelium furthest from it. In the mouth this top layer is the mucus membrane, and obviously there are lots of other layers in the middle of all this. All these layers combined, are along with other structures of the mouth like the tongue, lymphoid tissues of the tonsils etc., the soft tissues. So there isn't something as simple as the gums (the gingiva) there are lots of components of it all.

So I guess it is easier to say that something is affecting the soft (or hard) tissues, to paint a big brush stroke statement of things, rather than get into the details of describing things more specifically/further for some simple statements/explanations. What I have just described is a gross over simplification of a complex interconnected group of various cell types and tissue layers and names. Sometimes it is just easier to say "he hit me in the face" rather than saying he hit me in the zygomatic arch and orbit of my right eye.......

now if they would have told me that location i would have known, lol. thanks for all the info!

Brian - excellent explanation for the layperson, thank you.

Bethers: you're still the coolest young person I know. Please continue to be brave and smart as I know you are.

d2

Thank you. I will be calling docs tomorrow to see what tumor board said. I am assuming no response means they are not going to biopsy, but of course now i have pain. My mind is a lovely piece of work sometimes with the games it plays on me,