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what is a the best diet i can follow in anticipation of treatment and with these scans which i will to be taking valium for since i often get panicky in these machines
for example, i am having a brain MRI will i be fully enclosed for that? will a machine come all the way down on me and make me feel trapped? if so i will definitely need valium
i will also be having a full body petscan which i will definitely need valium for(unless they let me lie on my chest which i did last year)
I needed IV Librium for my last MRI. I took the valium at home then a second one at hospital and I was still shaking/ crying. I am claustrophobic. Your entire head and shoulders has to go in. Ask your doc about the strongest thing he can give you.
i already got a valium prescription from the oncologist. i only needed one for the last petscan but they let me lie on my front which helped a lot
i get the feeling i will definitely need a valium for this. are most mri's the open or closed variety? i hear the closed one only takes 10 minutes whereas the more open one takes 20-24 minutes and that they're loud, which can aggravate the claustrophobia
last year i had a nuclear mri for pre-op. at first i panicked, fussed and fumed. they aborted the procedure. they then turned up the AC, took off the silly velcro cover and had me wait 40 minutes to just relax. i then retested. no problem at all.
I am very sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Is the lung cancer related to the melanoma? Melanoma tends to spread to the liver, the lungs or the brain.
What level was your melanoma? Clarks Level? Breslow thickness?
I too had a melanoma removed and am always worried about it coming back and speading. Melanoma can sit dormant and then spread like a wildfire in your body. That is my very non-clinical way of saying things.
I too was in the medical field (no longer am) and I will verify if you work in the medical field and are a patient you often have employers with zero compassion. Sad to say but true.
i don't know the details but it is related to the melanoma. i am having a brain mri and a full body petscan i guess to check the liver. i have elevated liver enzymes which my gi doc believed was related to just being overweight. since i lost 25 lbs since last October the enzymes had improved. my Gi doc wanted me to have a liver biopsy but that was cancelled because he felt that it was just related to being overweight.
well my employer so far has always been compassionate. always lets me take time off. no threat or fear of job loss that i know of. how can they be non compassionate? if you take time off you will end up using your accrued benefits but that is anywhere. just that when you get better they expect you to return to work. should i be looking for anything that im not aware of?
our executive director who was a real ballbuster, a real tough guy just resigned from his post due to medical issues. so if he was non compassionate (i think he actually was compassionate about medical things) i never knew about it. at my job HR tells you that you are entitled to short term disability if you will be out for medical reasons, etc
OK I had read in post #66 about your supervisor being mad about something so I might have jumped to conclusions. I am glad your employer has been compassionate, you don't need extra stress.
The PET scan is an excellent idea as it will pick up everything that is going on in terms of cancer, not just with your lungs but everywhere.
Your diagnosis at least to me is that you have melanoma that spread to your lungs. I first saw your post in the auto section where you talked about having lung cancer but never smoked. Either way you do have cancer in your lungs but your primary site is the melanoma. Melanoma unfortunately loves to spread to the lungs, liver and brain.
The good news is that they are checking everything out. There are treatments. You do have disability insurance available. I am assuming you have fairly good medical insurance.
I do want to say I am very sorry this is happening to you. I was diagnosed back in 1996 and every abnormal chest x-ray, or weird lump they want to do a CT scan on, just scares me to death. I have seen cases where people are fine for 25 years and then bam....it has spread everywhere. So unfortunately with melanoma you are never cured. It is not a cancer you can go five years and forget about. It is not a simple cancer but a very dangerous and scary one.
Please keep us posted and I know many thoughts are prayers are going out for you.
i get the feeling i will definitely need a valium for this. are most mri's the open or closed variety? i hear the closed one only takes 10 minutes whereas the more open one takes 20-24 minutes and that they're loud, which can aggravate the claustrophobia
The technicians seem to be very supportive of the patient. I had a CT scan before my diagnosis and a PET scan after, and neither was too bad, both under 10 minutes. If you need something to de-stress, as you said, your doctor will give it to you.
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