Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Forgetful - liver ultrasound update


Life happens and you forget things.  I seem to have forgotten very important things  - one in particular. 

 

Claire had her liver ultrasound 2 weeks ago at her Duke checkup.  Preliminary results were good as we found out when seeing the hepatologist after the ultrasound.   I kind of forgot about asking for the final results until yesterday.  I went online to the portal Duke has that usually posts all of the test results and everything.  Still no final result.  I remembered they were in the process of switching over to a new portal so I am figuring there is a longer lag to post radiology results.  So I just called the nurse. 

 

When she returned my call, she said everything looked good on the ultrasound.  The right side of Claire’s liver that is regrowing looks good.  Then she said “There is one picture that shows a residual piece of hamartoma.”  “What?!  Where did that come from?!  Did they measure it? What size is it?”  These were my questions.  The nurse said the doctor was not concerned about it and that it was probably just left from the surgery.  They didn’t even measure it so it was not significant. 

 

Well it is to me!  AHH!  So I started freaking out.  I went back to all of Claire’s old radiology reports and read through them.  Then it hit me.  They did leave 1 cyst on the left side of her liver during the surgery.  I remember the surgeon saying they couldn’t remove it because it would have taken too much of her remaining liver on the left side.  So since it was really small they were leaving it and going to watch what it did. 

 

Ok, ok.  So I am assuming this “residual” that they saw on the 1 picture is that cyst that the surgeon had to leave.  How could I have forgotten that?  How did I forget there was a cyst left in there?  I am thinking I probably pushed it out of my brain so I wouldn’t worry about it.  I have replaced those fears with fun memories I guess.  Which is a good thing!  But it scared me for a minute.  And then brings back those fears of “oh yeah, there still is a cyst in Claire’s liver we will have to watch….. forever.”

 

I am still waiting to read the entire final radiology report whenever it gets posted.  Until then, I will just keep cramming new, fun memories in my brain!  It’s more fun that way!
 
Love,
The Scott Family

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