NM HALF BODY FDG PET CT SCAN RESULTS

Hoping everyone here is doing as well as possible. Any feedback and comments are welcome…Thank you  ️ 

A bit of context;

For months and months I felt short of breath and struggled to breathe; every night I’d wake up 2.00..3.00 or 4.00 in the morning with an excruciating barking cough and wheeze and carry on during the day. I was exhausted. I’d wheeze and hear a crackling sound moving up and down my throat and chest. I had bad phlegm, an appalling taste in my mouth, acute indigestion and would constantly loose my voice! 

My GP assumed it was COPD nothing more. I asked to be seen by a Pulmonologist or Respiratory expert asap but he refused. I was pushed/coerced into ‘care in the community ‘ with the local COPD team who didn’t seem to really know what they were doing but following a set script given to them by the honchos in head office. They seemed to me to be more interested in filling out forms and ticking boxes.

I knew I was alone and desperate so I went on the internet and googled ‘top Respiratory Consultant near me’ and researched the information to the best of my ability. I had to make some calls and unbelievably managed to get an appointment with a respiratory consultant in a private hospital about 50 miles away! ( I was desperate for a good caring doctor who would be honest and accurate).

I was examined and sent for blood tests, lung function and respiratory tests and given a CT thorax scan for the chest. The Consultant was really friendly, helpful and thorough and the Hospital and staff were fantastic!

As a result, I now know I do NOT have COPD but do have Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Cough Variant Asthma. The consultant prescribed a change of inhalator plus medications and a special diet. This was in November ‘23 and I’m still following it. My cough is much better and also the amount of mucus and bad taste is much less but I still have a bit so touch wood I’m on the right path ️

When I saw the doctor next, the CT thorax with contrast imaging results had come back. He looked worried, shocked even (so was I) and told me there ‘could’ be a small cancerous pulmonary nodule in the lower lobe of the bronchus and a few other things. He immediately wrote me a two-week NHS referral for a PET CT Scan and possible biopsy. He suggested it could be METASTASIS abut wasn’t sure!

Because I had already been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer (Aug.’23), the NHS Respiratory Consultant advised me to proceed with HT treatment for PC as in his opinion the results of the PET CT Scan were ‘inconclusive’ and it wasn’t ‘dangerous or significant enough’ and he would need to refer this to his ‘team’ of Oncologists, anaesthetists etc.. Eventually they forgot about me and I had to phone the clinical cancer nurse who passed on what she had heard at their meeting which was; ..’it appears highly unlikely that the nodule is cancerous..’! and to come back in a few months after my Prostate Cancer therapy (HT & Ext. Beam Therapy) is completed!!

RESULTS INTERPRETATION (Summary);

1. 13mm solid left lower lobe pulmonary nodule demonstrating moderate FDG uptake (*BTS score 3) suspicious for an early lung malignancy. If confirmed, there is no definite FDG avid loco-regional nodal or distant disease; low-grade uptake in the non-enlarged 4L node is favoured reactive in nature.

2. FDG avid periodontal disease involving the UL6 tooth in the left maxillary alveolus with erosion into and secondary inflammation in the left maxillary antrum; dental opinion recommended.

*BTS scale; Score 3 (Moderate)

PS The scan also told me I need dental treatment (see 2.)

Hope this makes sense…