Recalled to radiology for futher MRI – now worried!

Last Friday, I had an MRI of T and L spine to investigate a four year old back pain / meralgia paraesthetica issue.

This morning, the radiology secretary called me to ask me to attend for further sequences at the request of the radiologist
who had just started writing up the report. I’m going back this evening.

Now I’m a natural worrier (have had CBT for health anxiety) and this recall has scared me.

My rational self is saying “they may need to get some of the sacral spine” or “perhaps L3 & L4 were blurred and need to be re-scanned.”

My worrying self is saying “they’ve found a tumour around T1 and they want to see if it’s spread into the cervical spine.”

Come on kids – tell me it’s quite normal to be asked back to get more images and that it doesn’t necessarily mean something sinister.

Fanks

Could be any number of reasons… Good luck whatever it may be.
Pretty sure if your back pain was cancer you’d have been killed to death long ago..

Most likely is that the images aren’t clear and they need to do it again.

Either that or Cat AIDS, anyway.

Nobody likes to be called back in cases like these, but I try and tell myself “worry when you actually have something to worry about”.

What coping strategies did you learn with CBT for this sort of event ?

Good luck.

You’ll never know ’til you go.

I’m not a doctor but have been the recipient of several NHS standard letters.

I had a recall for a diabetes blood test, receptionist said the doctor was concerned about high potassium. Dr Google said I was dying, repeat test was normal and nurse advised that it was probably a spoilt sample, happens from time to time.

Also had a letter about a retina test that showed signs of damage, that was more serious but it’s being treated and was luckily caught early.

It’s really easy to say don’t worry, but…..

Derek,

Do you have someone who can come with you ? This will help relieve the anxiety.

Best of luck

Try not to worry (easy to say)

Images would not be blurred, that is why a radiographer is with you while they do the scan as they are making sure the image is good quality.

It could just be that they want you to be laid in a slightly different position to get a different view.

Either that or Cat AIDS, anyway.

Yep, blurred MRI is first symptom of advanced Cat AIDs, that and coughing up fur balls…

Can you afford to speed the process up by going private? Might be worth it if you’ve suffered anxiety before, it’s not worth sleepless nights.

Sorry I can’t be of more help Derek, I’ll be thinking about this thread all week!

It would seem that they could potentially recall you, even if it’s not a tumour. As others have said, maybe they need a different angle for something entirely different.

A common problem for spine surgeons is that of ‘mixed messages’. Patients can sometimes be quite worried by ‘dramatic’ descriptions of what scans show. A loss of water content in a disc makes it look darker than others. This can be normal . It can be described as ‘degenerative discs’ a term that might cause concern, but if it was described as ‘ a bit like getting grey hair’ that would be less frightening. Normal discs will ‘bulge’, and this is not the same as a disc ‘prolapse’. A disc prolapse can sometimes be entirely pain free, but will sometimes cause symptoms. A health care professional who deals with spinal disorders should be comfortable with advising if a scan is required and interpreting your scan in clinical context. They should be able to show you the pictures and explain them to you.

allan23 – Member 
Also had a letter about a retina test that showed signs of damage, that was more serious but it’s being treated and was luckily caught early.

Optician had concern like that with me and wanted a further check up later to see if it changed. Booked check up, different optician saw me, looked at the scans and just said it looked perfectly normal and couldn’t see what the concern was in the first place.

Maybe they want to ask you about the coke bottle ?

Though if you have started peeing on the couch and miaowing to be let out of rooms it is definitely The Cat AIDS.

next time lie still… 😉

All sorts of reasons can lead to this. Movement Artefacts, wanting to look at something with a contrast injection etc etc

TomW1987 – I’m going back tonight for another scan. It can’t get much quicker than that!

They needed a clearer picture to see how bad the Cat Aids had become…

As long as you’ve not been in any dropships to remote alien worlds based on spurious instructions to investigate a distress signal for the company….

I had a flap after a regular new patient health check last year. Got called back in to find they had got me on their system as 4’7″ instead of 5’7″ and also a 40 a day smoker which even at my reasonable 70kg put me into a rather high risk group. Think the doc was expecting a nicotine stained weeble to walk in. Oh how we laughed!

Derek, good. Gets this shit out of the way of quickly, hound as many people as you can.

The chances of you having a malignant tumour are very very low btw. There are so many other things it could be, including being a perfectly benign growth – or perhaps you just moved during the MRI.

As others have said, you’d be very dead by now if you’ve had this for four years and it was a malignant tumour.

Hang in there matey.

Starship stop worrying until such time as you have something to worry about.

Good luck Cat Aids is painful 😉

They have found a lego man up your arse and want clearer pics for the office wall?

I had to go back for repeat x-rays of my lumbar spine because they wanted to see how it looked in different positions, that is bending forwards and backwards. Perhaps they need something like that from you?

Not the same, but I got bitten by a tick or something a couple of years go. Arm went red, and hot.

I attended GP – they wanted to do a blood test for Lymes. I gave them a hancock (that’s nearly an armful). They called after 10d to say that they couldn’t be clear either way and could I come back for another test.

I haven’t been back, nor am I dead yet either.

If they *had* found something. I guess you’d know. Its more likely they’re not sure that they *didn’t* find something.

@jumu you might want to read some of the threads on here about Lyme and/or speak to cinamon_girl

OP feel free to post up tomorrow, will be thinking of you.

Well I feel better after having been told by the driver, sorry radiographer, that the radiologist had compared the images from scan no. 1 with the musculoskeletal referral and decided that the former didn’t satisfy the latter. So, more imaging was required. These were gained in a stress-free 10 min recall scan this evening.

Phewee.

Thanks for your responses team.

OK everyone seems to be avoiding the obvious question… is there a long lost handlebar wedged somewhere inside your gut? 😳

Where do we send our consultancy invoice??.. this over the internet medical advice isnt cheap ya know…….

Have you plugged your bar ends?

I don’t want to worry you but I had the same message – yes, it was cat aids. The giant dildo was a simpler issue.

Slightly seriously, as Ghandi (or someone like him would say), save the worrying for when there’s something to worry about. As STW would say cat aids ride your bike and try to forget it. My son, following heart surgery at 5 months old, had an ECG. The Dr. spent 30 minutes (when it should take 5) umming and ahhhing and examining it all in great detail. They were so pleased with the results, they wanted images to reassure parents going through a similar thing. It’s likely to be nothing.

edit: seen your update. Great news 😀

derek_starship – Member 
Well I feel better after having been told by the driver, sorry radiographer, that the radiologist had compared the images from scan no. 1 with the musculoskeletal referral and decided that the former didn’t satisfy the latter. So, more imaging was required. These were gained in a stress-free 10 min recall scan this evening.
Phewee.
Thanks for your responses team.

Great news! 🙂

Radiographers can be good. Got more reliable information from them than from the consultant. They’ve seen it all before and know what’s going on.

Awesome Derek!