An Appointment At The Cancer Clinic
[ Monday March 3rd 2025 at 3:55 pm ]
The local hospital very recently redid the cancer clinic. They changed the physical space as well as modernized it with new equipment. What has been created is really amazing. They have done a wonderful job. I can see that they have done their best to make it peaceful for those people coming for their cancer treatments.
The MRI finding from January 7th 2025 is very unusual. As well MRI imaging isn't the appropriate method to determine bone marrow cancer. I knew this before my appointment today. A PET scan is the authority on making a bone marrow cancer diagnosis. The hematologist has responded to me today the same as the emergency department doctor did on February 6th 2025. Based on my blood work they don't think I have bone marrow cancer. But since this was referred to the cancer clinic this isn't acceptable for the burden of proof they must meet.
I have undergone an unusually high number of MRI imaging. This now presents all kinds of opportunities for a radiologist to compare and contrast my January 7th 2025 MRI result. The next step is for one of the cancer clinic clerks here at my local hospital will put together all of my MRI imaging since 2010 and refer it to the cancer clinic at the hospital where I go for my orthopedic appointments. Once a week a radiologist meets with doctors to discuss unusual cases for further clarification. A radiologist will be required to present my MRI imaging to the cancer clinic team where I have my orthopedic appointments and decide what my next steps should be. It is already too late for this to happen in this weeks meeting. This will happen during the week of March 10th 2025.
To go along with this an unusually high amount of blood was drawn today. A complete blood work analysis is being done on me. This is to see if they can see cancer in my blood and if there are medical outliers that hint at it being cancer. A much simpler version of this was done on February 6th and again on February 19th 2025 at my local hospital emergency department. The emergency department doctor said my blood is "remarkably" healthy. From the discussion at the emergency department of my local hospital I don't think this will give new information than what they already have.
I will have an appointment around March 13th - 14th or during the week March 17th 2025 to be told what was decided about me and what the next steps are.
I asked what is the possible outcome since MRI is not the appropriate diagnosis. The hospital where I have my orthopedic treatment is getting a new PET imaging machine in April 2025 and will be available for patient appointments in May 2025. Alternatively Mississauga has a 4 week wait for PET imaging. I said my disability benefits would cover the cost of the travel and a hotel for me to have this done in Mississauga since I need the artificial hip replaced. If PET imaging must happen the absolute best is that this delays my surgery another 2 months. But this could very quickly become 4 months.
I am going to ask for an appointment with my surgeon. I need to sit down with him to explain how this continues to evolve and that the wait for this is already doing more harm then good. I think we should be figuring out the surgery for my knee now. I spent about 2 hours digging into the history of my right knee so I could give new information to my surgeon. My right knee feels the same as when both of my hip joints were tearing themselves apart. At this point it is still reasonable for me to say this could be internal bleeding from my knee degrading. I also to talk about my right artificial hip and the possibility it is going into hardware failure. Something has gone wrong with it. Additionally I think it is necessary to remind the surgeon that I am more than a set of joints.
In one sentence: The hematologist doesn't think it is bone marrow cancer. But he needs to meet the burden of proof before he is willing to say this "officially".