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Clear PET scan….. but they saw something in my lung…
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Clear PET scan….. but they saw something in my lung…

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Clear PET scan….. but they saw something in my lung…

  • Post
    • November 3, 2018 at 4:32 pm
    KarinaJ
    Participant

      Hello! I was diagnosed with Melanoma back in September. After that I’ve had a Wide Excision and they removed 2 Sentinel Lymph Nodes. One of the had microscopic Melanoma cells in it (My Dr, told me they weren’t even clusters of cells they were just cells).

      After that my Dr. ordered a full body PET/CT scan. Everything seems ok and the dr. told me everything came back negative ….. I asked for a copy of my PET scan report and I can see it states there is a 4mm subpleural non-hyper metabolic nodule on my lower left lobe. He doesn’t seem concerned about it. (All of this happened via phone call because we live almost 3 hrs away from the clinic and I couldn’t wait until my appointment to know the results).

      Obviously I’m terrified, we have an appointment on the 12th and I want to make sure everything is fine. Does anyone has had something like this on the PET/CT scans???

      Thank you for your support!!!

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    • Replies
        • November 3, 2018 at 5:50 pm
        MelanomaMike
        Participant
          Hi KarinaJ, lets hope its just an “Aerial” (a fly or a gnat) wich sometimes sneeks through our mouths & down into our lungs while we scan! Haha..just some humor for you..
          Just stay proactive & do yer scans & see what it does “or” doesnt do, it may disapear on yer next scan! 🙂
          • November 3, 2018 at 6:14 pm
          Janner
          Participant

            Finding things in the lungs  is NOT uncommon.  The fact that it doesn't show a high metabolic rate on the PET scan means it's probably left over from bronchitis/cold/pneumonia/whatever in your past.  Not necessarily cancer!  I'm sure they'll just verify that it's the same at your next scan.  Your doctor has probably seen tons of benign stuff in lungs.  Just make sure they have a followup scheduled at some point for comparison and don't stress about it.  My Dad had metastatic melanoma and early lung cancer and he also had junk in his lungs that wasn't related to either cancer.  Hang in there!

            • November 3, 2018 at 11:32 pm
            MarkR
            Participant

              Try not to panic about this.  I understand it is difficult but I have had 2 bouts of this.  On first being diagnosed I had a 10mm module that turned out to be nothing then two scans ago had growth of some modules from 2 to 4mm that again was deemed to be nothing to worry about.  Try to relax it seems your doctor isn’t worried so you shouldn’t be either.

              hope all goes well

              mark

              • November 4, 2018 at 5:00 am
              jennunicorn
              Participant

                Just like others have said, very common to have benign lung nodules. When I had a couple lung nodules show up in a scan and it scared me, my oncologist let me know that if she scanned 100 healthy people, at least 50 would have lung nodules. So, no need to worry, oncologists are very aware of when something is suspicious and when its just a boring spot. Scans and weird things showing up get easier over time. 

                • November 4, 2018 at 11:01 pm
                Threefitty
                Participant

                  Joining the Lung Nodule Scare Club Roll Call. 

                  3-4, both lungs, similar to your size. Not changing as of several scans now.

                  I don't think you can avoid being nervous, but hopefully can take away something from these posts – which are much the same as a year ago when I went through that first scan interval. So thanks to those usual suspects who keep posting to this question. It's always important.

                   

                   

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