Blood test to replace mammo
Has anyone else heard or read about this? A research centre in England have successfully detected breast cancer using blood tests earlier than a mammogram would. They are currently doing further trials. How awesome would that be! I wonder if it will also detect metastatic. The blood test can apparently detect it up to five years before any symptoms appear. I am thinking the mammogram centres will try to block these trials ever coming to Australia. Oops, that is probably not a nice thing to say.
I HATE BLOOD TESTS
OK. I NEED TO VENT. Does anyone else dread the blood tests ? My veins are shot post chemo and it hurts :( I always seem to get the nurse at the path place who is hopeless and has difficulty getting blood from me and leaves a big bruise. I always try to quietly ask for someone experienced because I have had previous traumatic experiences with giving blood, but today the hopeless nurse confronted me about it. I calmly tried to explain my history to her, but she just didn’t get it. Why should I have to explain myself? I swear, she must work there 24/7 and is always free when I get there!!!!!! I DONT NEED THIS :|
Cysts - pancreas
Hi, I had a successful lumpectomy/radiation 3 years ago and have been cancer free since then. I've been so lucky. However, on the latest 6 monthly blood test, Ca19.9 levels were up and rising, so I was sent for Pet scan (clear of obvious cancer, hooray!). But then another blood test showed they were still going up so I was sent an MRI to check for very small cancers. The surgeon who read the MRI told me that I had small cysts on my pancreas, and that they are harmless now but could turn cancerous. His method for dealing with that is to watch them. I'll be sent for another MRI in a year. He also said the Ca19.9 readings can indicate pretty much anything, from not very significant things to serious, and I'll also be having an endoscopy/colonoscopy to double check. Has anyone out there had a similar situation? I know pancreatic cancer is pretty scary.
Problems with blood tests
Hi I had chemo therapy 2 years ago. When I now go for blood tests there is difficulty getting blood out of the vein in my elbow. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it caused by the chemo (I had FEC)? Has anyone got any tips for how to improve this? I also find it quite upsetting whereas prior to cancer it didn’t worry me having a blood test.
