i finished radiation and chemo eight weeks ago. On wednesday i went for a cat scan of the neck and a body scan. no changes where found on the scan, it showed the same suspicious thing as the scans prior to chemo and radiation treatment. the dr. believes that it is a false positive because it was done too soon and the tissue might still swollen from treatment. He recommends another scan in eight weeks. Has anyone heard of this? should i get a second opinion? i go to sloane kettering for salivary gland cancer treatment and they are world known but this is really bothering me. if it was too soon what they sent me to do it? i open for opinions.

It makes sense to me that the scan could just be showing inflammation from the treatment at 8 weeks out. I don't know the answer to your question about why they did it so early--but they really are one of the best if not the best for care so I think you're in good hands.

coquito,

I Had a CT about 8 weeks post Tx and my docs told me "complete remission". They then told me there were 2 small spots in my lungs BUT NOT TO WORRY, most likely inflamation. I had another CT 3 months later and those spots were gone BUT there were 2 new small spots. AGAIN THEY SAID NOT TO WORRY. I just had another CT, April 24 and they said NO SPOTS but my thyroid was a little messed up and they put me on Synthroid. I mean why don't they just shoot me? I feel like the lizard my cat eats the tail of; throws it up in the air; puts it's paw on; carries it around in it's mouth; runs when I try to rescue the lizard but won't kill the darn thing.

I'm going through the same thing. My scan was scheduled at 6 wks. It showed uptake at the lymph node that was the main concern. The surgeon was optomistic that it was inflammation. After my team met they decided the scan was to early and they weren't as optomistic and want to do a new scan next week which will be ten weeks. This will be the deciding scan for my neck dissection. I hope it is clear. And I am glad I have insurance. I think I would be a little upset if I had to pay 7000.00 for a set of scans and then be told I think we did it to soon. Hopefully your scans will be clear. It sounds like what they are doing is normal though.

David,
Those cats do love to torture their victims, don't they!

Pam

Pam,

Yes torture, that's the similarity I was speaking of except it's free to the lizard and doesn't last near as long.

I also had a cat done 7 weeks post tx. which showed swelling & my docs said not to worry. I just had my first PET done at 10 weeks post tx which still showed "activity" which my docs think is swelling. They said i probaly went too early......then why in the world did they decide to put me thru all of that?.?. Oh well, at least there wasnt anything new & abnormal.

Marvin just had his 1 month check up and the rad doctor decided to schedule a cat scan but then when we saw the surgeon later that day he called the rad dept to find out why they were going to do a scan so early. He said that he would not do anything until after 12 weeks. So they cancelled the scan(the insurance company should thank him)and said that they will just have us come back in 1 month to check to see if the lyphm nodes were the same size (small mass)they think it isnt anything to worry about at this time. As all have said above to early yet may still be side effects from rad.