My Liver on FEC

What did I do with my time before I spent it all at the hospital?

Yesterday I was up for another liver MRI as the first one in June had shown an odd lesion.  Probably benign, they told me, but we should check it again in a few months.  Don't worry.

Don't worry?!  How can you not worry about the fact that the cancer might have metastised to the liver?

I was no less worried after spending the morning at hospital: the MRI went on for ages with the machine moving me forward and backwards for 'just a few supplementary images.'  Clearly they had found something.  So I was very nervous indeed when I went back up to hospital today to meet my oncologist and get the results.  

The good news was very good - the lesion is benign.  It was only when the diagnosis was confirmed that we realised quite how worried we had been about the alternative.

Unfortunately, nothing with cancer is ever QUITE that straightforward.  The MRI also showed odd water retention around my liver.  That can be an indication that the chemo has caused a blocked vein in the liver which is, apparently, treatable, but could mean a few days in hospital.  But I hadn't had any pain and my oncologist pointed out, no-one usually does an MRI of a liver in the middle of chemotherapy.  So it could be that it is normal for a liver to look like that a few days after a dose of FEC.  We have to look into it, just in case, he told me and he was most apologetic though I could tell he was secretly delighted to have a chance to learn more about the effect of FEC on a liver.

 So off I trotted for an ultrasound and a full set of bloods.  What's a trip to the hospital without someone sticking a needle into you anyway?

Incredibly, they managed to do all the test within a few hours and my liver got a clean bill of health.  So, I have spent two whole days up at hospital just to work out that there wasn't a problem in the first place... but that's just fine.  

I don't have cancer on my liver.

But you never know, perhaps my liver will appear in some cancer reasearch journal one day under the effects of FEC.