The THING

For anyone new to the topic, I have a THING. I promise to go back and fill in all the nitty gritty details, including all the interesting bits, but for now you get a brief recap and an update.

I had a body scan as part of a firefighter physical, and a mass was seen medial to the right kidney. A second, more detailed CT confirmed a baseball sized tumor (we prefer "mass") medial to the kidney, touching the duodenum and with slight mass effect on the inferior vena cava. Without the medical speak: Thingy in there. :)

My doc sent me to an oncologist - more on that later. Since I was unable to get an appointment, my doc sent me for an MRI. It was called in as a contrast CT - more on that later too. :) I managed to get a copy of the radiologist report (before my doc did, as usual) and....

THING has attached to the musculature near the spine. Not attached to the kidney or adrenal gland though! No adenopathy, no jacked up lymph nodes. (What!? The radiologist really said that! Ok, maybe not...) Considerations include schwanoma, paraganglioma, and sarcoma. We hate option 3, by the way, but the other two are nothing to pray for either. :)

So. if I were staying here, my doc would send me to a neurosurgeon to get that thing taken out. In fact, he said he would send me to one of the "Big Boys" at UT Southwestern in Dallas. I assume his use of the word "Big Boys" was not intended to infer that there are no adequate female neurosurgeons. *sigh*

I am happy about the neurosurgery thought because it seems to not involve an oncologist and therefore not involve the word "biopsy". We hate that word. (Unless otherwise specified, "we" refers to the cat and I. She generally has the same opinion as I do, whether it is because I feed her or because she genuinely agrees, I am not sure.)

We'll see what the docs in Canada think! I leave in the morning, pre-supposing of course, that I stop doing this and go pack. Might need clothes. Talk soon!
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