follow-up ct scans

thanks Lee and Pat
Glad to know what all that meant. Pat you are a walking medical school!!!!! Lee sounds like you are on a pretty typical schedule maybe Im on the 6 month plan. Pat I will look into the pelvic Ct ONLY I know abdominal CT gives much more radiation maybe I could alternate. Pat Melodie mentioned you thought I used a 18 french Cath OUCH!!! LOL
I use a 16 french but as the mucus becomes less I also am using more 14 fr. You all have helped me sooo much make choices and help guide me through all my complications. Cynthia I appreciate all your knowledge and this site has been a such a RESOURCE.
THANKYOU julie

Julie...the term pTPM is for pathological tumor node staging
NO...means no nodes were affected
MX...simply means no distant metatisis can be determined and thats what they all pretty much put down.
Each institution has their own schedule of CT scans, x-rays, blood work. I was at Cleveland Clinic and theirs was ..a CT scan every 6 months of the pelvic area ONLY for 3 yrs and 1 yr after...(i fudged on that and dragged it out to 8 months as long as i was asymptomatic and blood work was good)...a chest X-ray once a yr...blood work drawn every 6 months for 5 yrs.
I had my work all done locally by the best hospital in the area with the latest CT scan. All discs, x-rays, and blood results sent to my surgeon in Cleveland to confirm. They always agreed.
glad Tinklebell is settling down!!
pat

I have my RC scan follow up done by the U of Chicago Hospitals. I started out with every three months for 1 year then every six months the second year and now every year (first annual due in May). Now as it turned out after surgery mine was noninvasive with no lymph nodes involved so no chemo before or after.

I spend the day at the hospital until about mid afternoon. I get the scan in the morning and they give me a disk. I then stop for my blood work. My appt is in the afternoon for my checkup and I then get a copy of the report. They "lobbied" me to use their scan instead of at my local hospital because they knew the machine and the type of work. I agreed, although I am not sure it really matters much. All scans are done with IV contrast. Mine are done thru the chest so no x-ray.

Hope this helps.

Lee

Dr Steinberg gave me scripts for and abdominal and pelvic CT scan , chest X ray and blood work. He wanted me to have these in april which would be 6 months from my RC. Dont most people get scans done at 3 months? Then what is the schedule after that? I did have a CT scan of abdomen 2 weeks ago with oral contrast only to look for fistula (didnt have one)I wish he had just ordered IV contrast too!! (not so much radiation)
so next CT in april will have both Oral and IV contrast.
One more question acout scans Dr S said go ahead and have them all done locally. Did you all go back to major cancer center for scans,Xrays and blood? Im not sure that the local Hosp will be as good?
Now for some good news!!! I am starting to feel alittle better with all the pain and spasm in the pouch!! I have been off Bactrim for 5 days and so far not to bad. Maybe I finally took enough bactrim to kick that pouch irritation(infection).
I am planning a trip to florida leaving next week and coming back April 1st!!! Wish me luck!! not to many good Docs in florida but I could go to miami dr soloway if needed.
I did get all my papers to bring with me and my final diagnosis read pTNM: pTis,NO,MX What does this mean?
the path report also said biobsy: papillary urethelial carcinoma high grad invasive into lamina propria
Tumor type: Urethelial carcinoma in-situ
thanks i know my all my buddies here will know what all this means.
Julie