Ultrasound Update

[zellyf]

A year ago I had a routine u/s and they found 2 7mm lesions that appeared to be benign hemangiomas.  I had a follow up MRI and only one was visualized and it again, appeared to be hemangioma.  A u/s 6 months later showed it to be completely stable and the second one was still not visualized.

Last week, I had a follow up u/s shows that there are now THREE lesions.  The previous 2 are measuring 9mm and the third one is 8mm.  Again, they still give the appearance of hemangioma.

I'm a little alarmed.  Here's what the doc says:  the difference b/n 7mm and 9mm is within the margin of error for lesions that small and do not necessarily indicate growth.  The third lesion was probably there all along and just not visualized.  He and the radiologist want to follow up with ultrasound in 6 months.  He says he cannot rule out HCC without actually removing them but that no surgeon would mess with 3 tiny lesions that look like hemangioma (and I wouldn't elect that option if it were presented) but that he feels these are harmless.

Any thoughts?  

[stevenNYer]

Gosh...if a .1 or .2 jump in AFP makes me worry, I could only imagine what it feels like to follow this up and the waiting.

It is comforting to know that after 1 year, the change is really not significant.  I read some time ago that HCC is really aggressive in the beginning.  It could double in size 6 month to 1 year.  So by this logic, if it's HCC, it would have really show itself to your radiologist by now.   And if you have a hemangioma, your risk of getting a couple more goes up, but risk of HCC stays the same low.

I know it's hard, stay positive, stay strong, for yourself, for us :)

[zellyf]

Bump

[zellyf]

Not for another 6 months! Bleh.

[Peteshine]

Anymore news on the lesions findings? I'm thinking of you mate...

[cajim]

It's best to share your thought with the radiologist and see what he says.

[zellyf]

Sounds like, but I'm wondering if that's good enough.