My sister just called me. As I wrote in an earlier post, my younger sister is in an acute rehab facility recovering from a blood infection. A CT scan of her back showed abnormalities.
Yesterday the bone scan results came in and she and her hospitalist thought she was OK - arthritis according to the spine surgeon.
Apparently the oncologist came in either early this morning or late, late last night and reviewed everything. Her conclusion was that everything is consistent with myeloproliferative metastatic cancer.
The hospitalist came to see her this afternoon and shared this with my sister. He was downcast and she said he felt that the oncologist's diagnosis was most likely correct because she has access to all the records, CT, bone scan, labs etc. and the spine surgeon was just looking at the CT.
Next step is a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.
I do not know what she will decide to do once the biopsy results are back, if they confirm metastatic cancer. If it is metastatic disease then I would expect it carries a grim prognosis. Until we know more about the type of cancer it's hard to say for sure. My sister said the oncologist's notes suggested radiation treatment.
I think my sister thinks this is for treatment to cure the disease. My guess it would be treatment to alleviate her symptoms since she is in very bad pain, using a PCA with dilaudid around the clock.
I cannot travel to be with her so I was very relieved to hear that our youngest sister is able to go for this week and be supportive to my sister and my mom.
Healing thought, wishes and prayers are welcome - healing of the body and the spirit.
Yesterday the bone scan results came in and she and her hospitalist thought she was OK - arthritis according to the spine surgeon.
Apparently the oncologist came in either early this morning or late, late last night and reviewed everything. Her conclusion was that everything is consistent with myeloproliferative metastatic cancer.
The hospitalist came to see her this afternoon and shared this with my sister. He was downcast and she said he felt that the oncologist's diagnosis was most likely correct because she has access to all the records, CT, bone scan, labs etc. and the spine surgeon was just looking at the CT.
Next step is a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.
I do not know what she will decide to do once the biopsy results are back, if they confirm metastatic cancer. If it is metastatic disease then I would expect it carries a grim prognosis. Until we know more about the type of cancer it's hard to say for sure. My sister said the oncologist's notes suggested radiation treatment.
I think my sister thinks this is for treatment to cure the disease. My guess it would be treatment to alleviate her symptoms since she is in very bad pain, using a PCA with dilaudid around the clock.
I cannot travel to be with her so I was very relieved to hear that our youngest sister is able to go for this week and be supportive to my sister and my mom.
Healing thought, wishes and prayers are welcome - healing of the body and the spirit.