Ultrasound..what does it show

08-10-2006, 09:18 PM

My GP ordered an ultrasound for the area around my ribs and abdomen that has been hurting so bad. He was concerned about it being my gall bladder. Well, it came back clean. What exactly does ultrasound show? Would it pick up an ulcer and can it show Cancer. My Oncologist hasn't been concerned because my CT and PET were clean. But my side has been hurting for awhile. Has anyone else had this pain around that area, I'm beginning to think its the Herceptin. HE put me on Nexium and said if it it kept hurting we'd look further. I'm beginning to think I might have an ulcer or something of the sort..sherryg683

Christine · 08-10-2006, 09:48 PM

Sherry
Ultrasound can picture through Soft tissue and can help To find cysts, inflamation , but has limitations. It can also show enlarged nodes . to make a diagnoses that is conclusive. You may find you may need more tests. Bone Density, UpperGI TO GET MORE INFO, and even blood chemistry can help your Onc or GP with a Diagnosis.
Hope you get good resuilts!

Chelee · 08-10-2006, 11:30 PM

Sherry, When I was doing chemo"TCH" I had alot of that rib pain. It did go away but I have noticed just lately the RIB pain is back. I am only doing herceptin and the rib pain showed up after I tried going to the 3 week dose of herceptin instead of my weekly? So I switched back this week to WEEKLY herceptin to see if the rib pain went away? It hasn't. Seems to be worse on the right side for me.

I have also JUST starting having these little sharp jabs of pains in and around my stomach. Its really hard to explain. You know when your a kid and stick your tongue on a 9 volt battery to see if it still has a charge and you get that little jolt like pain. I get little pains like that in my stomach on on the right side of it? I just started taking my Protonix again. I have been taking herceptin since Feb. 2006...so maybe its just herceptin doing all this? Mainly my right side? I hope it goes away. I am concerned I might be getting a ulcer or something? If it doesn't go away soon..I know I will mention it to my onc at my next visit.

Hope yours gets better SOON Sherry.

Chelee

penelope · 08-11-2006, 08:39 AM

Yup I have this. It is like a little spasm, the battery is a great analogy. At any rate, I had a clean ultrasound and was told that there were no aliens there but that my gallbladder had a very thick "sludgy" bile in it. The spasms went away last week. I had been out of the Tumeric I have been taking. I started back up with Tumeric this week and it has started again and when I was reading the back of the bottle it said something to the effect of do not take this suppliment if you have bile duct issues. Something like that anyway...so I have decided to stop for awhile.

I also thought that I had read somewhere that AC chemo was particularly hard on the digestive system. I thought maybe it was this also but Herceptin is also a thought. All I know is that I have never had a health problem before, not even a case of the flu, just the occasional cold, and then boom....they say "you have a deadly, incurrable disease". Ever since they screwed with me....everything is wrong!