I had my regular monitoring scan on 7th July and catch-up with my onco on 29th July. There is no problem and we agreed to catch-up again in March 2026.
But wait!
Two weeks later my onco phones out of the blue! There is a problem. They have found some anomalies on my liver and I need a MRI for a closer look. Nooooooo . . . this wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m due to go on holiday in September. Due to my excellent response to treatment and because insurancewith wouldn’t cover a bike tour, I have travel insurance which excludes kidney cancer. This uncertainty is the last thing I need.
I thought that would be it, until my return from holiday. Scan appointments are like gold dust and you have to wait your turn. But a week later I get my MRI date for 29th Aug and a phone appointment with the onco for 23rd Sept. I try not to think too much about it but the speedy response was not lost on me and yes, I did think what’s going through your mind right now!
The MRI passed without incident.
But, I had developed upper arm or shoulder pain in August. Cubital tunnel syndrome started in March and I’ve been wearing an elbow brace whilst sleeping. I stopped wearing the brace thinking it had caused the shoulder pain. It definitely had symptoms of a muscular injury. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about Chris Hoy’s experience. He had shoulder pain and he went to seek a quick medical muscular fix, only to leave with a cancer diagnosis. These are all typical thought processes of someone with cancer.
On my return from holiday an appointment arrives for a CT scan in October. Ah! MRI all normal, I deduce, repeat CT scan to “check”. It’s 3 months after the problem one, so although unplanned, it can be justified on the usual monitoring frequency and to get back to, or confirm the “no change” state.
A week later the onco phones. Out-of-the-blue again! The agreed date was the 23rd Sept appointment. The MRI is all normal and they don’t know what the awry detection was on the liver. However, he didn’t request a second CT scan. He thinks it’s a mistake caused by his request for a CT scan in March 2026 and will cancel it.
Back to "normal", then.
