A surprise finding: The pancreatic lesion that changed everything

Dr Lee's office rang to bring my telepresence meeting with him forward, and arrange an earlier appointment. 

The results of the CT scan came back, showing something on the pancreas. The structure could have been a lymph node - something benign - but given its location on the pancreas, we couldn’t afford to take any chances. Dr Lee recommended a dedicated pancreas MRI to get a clearer look.

I was also requested to undertake a series of further blood tests: CA19-9, pancreatic serum, and cumulative serum. The request for more blood tests felt like another wave of uncertainty. Each vial of blood taken seemed to carry a little more of my hope with it, as I waited to see what these new tests would reveal. The results came back within normal ranges, but somehow, that didn’t bring the relief I was hoping for.

With the MRI scheduled for 20 September, I found myself in a strange in-between - knowing something was there, but not knowing what it meant. The days leading up to the scan felt like they dragged on forever, filled with endless “what-ifs”. Everything was up in the air, and I couldn’t help but wonder how one scan could change the course of my life so suddenly. I was hoping for answers, but a part of me feared what those answers might be.

[Ros] Jim's doctor (also my doctor) rang me and said that Dr Lee would be contacting Jim, to bring his appointment forward and that I should attend as he would likely need my support. Ok so that's strange, I thought. Thinking to myself, that can't be good news, I said to Jim our doctor rang and said Dr Lee would be getting in touch to bring the appointment forward, to discuss your results, Jim said "yes they just rang me, to arrange". We both said it was strange that the doctor would want me there, and said it might be something, but never really had any clue of what was to come. When Dr Lee was talking, I didn't really grasp the significance of what a "lesion" or "structure" meant. He had a very calming voice and explained that there were a number of things that it could be, a lesion being a growth on the pancreas, could be a lymph node that was above the pancreas, but said that we needed to do further follow ups to confirm that it was a growth on the pancreas. I asked what a lesion was, and what that meant, it meant it could be a tumour. So now it makes sense as to why our GP suggested I attend this appointment.