Spleen Trouble

[lcann25]

Hello everyone,

My health Anxiety is back in full swing again now.. I've been having tenderness under my left ribcage for a while now, so I went to the Doctor about it and upon feeling around, mentioned that he thought he could feel my spleen... :ohmy: which he shouldn't be able to. He sent me for an ultrasound. I went and had this done and then all of a sudden they call me and left a message while I was out of town saying they want to further investigate the mass on my spleen by doing a CT scan. I was like WHAT?!?! ----- MASS?!?! so now I am totally losing it about this. So I of course googled spleen issues and read about everything from Rheumatoid Arthritis to Lymphoma!! all of which do not sound good. And to really get the mind going, there is lots of Cancer on my Dad's side of the family, but practically none on my Mom's side.. I know you can live without a spleen, but it's there to filter out a lot of bacteria and other things and keep you from getting sick. So of course if they have to remove it, now I'm going to be paranoid that I'm going to be getting sick all the time. Gah!! I hate this!! I really wish they wouldn't have used the word "mass". Enlarged sounds so much better. I know ultrasound is a pretty basic way to see things and I really need to relax till we see what the CT shows, but I am totally in panic mode over this. Can anyone offer any words of wisdom? this is an awesome forum and I don't know what I'd do without it!! Thanks everyone

[Fishmanpa]

As a survivor of head and neck cancer, I know how scary hearing something like that can be. There's really not much you can do until they find out what's going on. There's a saying among warriors, "It's not cancer until they say it's cancer". So, until then, do your best to remain calm and let the medical professionals do their thing.

Positive thoughts

[lcann25]

Wow Fishmanpa, hats off to you for being strong enough to deal with your situation!
I am trying to be strong but this just adds to the anxiety and stress already in my life and seems at times it's too much to handle

[lcann25]

Well, I finally got in to actually talk to the doctor about these results instead of just relying on what the answering machine message said. And he basically said they wrote it funny, there is not a mass ON the spleen, however they are concerned about the mass OF the spleen. Its at it's upper size limits of where they are comfortable apparently and want to do a CT scan just to take a closer look. I am of course still worried, but it's better now knowing there isn't a mass of something growing on it!! However Dr. Google still worries me when you look up causes of enlarged spleen with reading things like lymphoma and R.A.

I told him how anxious a I am over all this and he wrote me a prescription for Ativan, which I am also scared to take lol :doh:

Wish I could just turn these feelings off and relax..

[Fishmanpa]

Well, I finally got in to actually talk to the doctor about these results instead of just relying on what the answering machine message said. And he basically said they wrote it funny, there is not a mass ON the spleen, however they are concerned about the mass OF the spleen. Its at it's upper size limits of where they are comfortable apparently and want to do a CT scan just to take a closer look. I am of course still worried, but it's better now knowing there isn't a mass of something growing on it!! However Dr. Google still worries me when you look up causes of enlarged spleen with reading things like lymphoma and R.A.

I told him how anxious a I am over all this and he wrote me a prescription for Ativan, which I am also scared to take lol :doh:

Wish I could just turn these feelings off and relax..

Well keep on it and find out what's going on. Great news that it's not a mass ON the spleen. Many people have spleen issues so try not to get so worked up and definitely try the Ativan! I had that to relax me when I was getting treatments. It's good stuff! ;)

Positive thoughts