Hi all
I have a question about surveillance after surgery. I was very lucky and had a stage 1, grade 2 renal cell carcinoma completely removed surgically a month ago. Margins were clear and I'm told the risk of it coming back is low.
My surgery was done at the Royal Free in London but my follow up scans are meant to be done at Colchester Hospital where I live. I was expecting to have a CT Abdomen and Chest scan, but Colchester ordered a Neck, Abdomen, Chest and Pelvis scan. From my research I can't find any other hospital that scans the neck after partial nephrectomy? I've never had anything in my neck. Anyone else been asked to have neck scans?
I don't really want them scanning parts of my body unnecessarily. I've had 4 CT scans this year alone and I don't want to have anything scanned that I don't absolutely need given the cumulative risks of CT's over the years. I told them I didn't want the neck included in the CT and was pretty much told that's how they do it and they cancelled my scan and said I can go elsewhere. I am going to complain as I felt this was a really over the top reaction from them and they weren't in the least bit interested in hearing my concerns. As far as I can see the NICE guidance doesn't require a neck scan so I don't get why they're being like this.
Am I being unreasonable?
Hi
I am sorry you are having some challenges with the scope of the CT scans that you are having and have now had your scan cancelled. I don’t have kidney cancer but I do have metastatic breast cancer and am on regular scans of thorax, abdomen and pelvis for a cancer that had metastasised to my liver. I understand the logic is to capture all organs except the brain, plus surrounding lymph nodes. For me, I appreciate the reassurance of this. I don’t believe the level of radiation in a CT scan is particularly high and suspect the addition of a small part of your body makes little difference to the exposure you get from the scan overall. The cancellation of your scan does make some challenges to what you do now. Hospitals have a PALS service for complaints which would seem your likely obvious channel for resolution.
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I have metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer, in remission
