If you take a measurement tool for your nodes, how do you measure them & by what? Is there any other way to measure the sizes, besides the CT scan method?

Thanks in advance!

JoJo
Mine have never shown up on a CT of the chest and abdomen...my onc. monitors the lump or lumps by feel and measurements with a small centimeter ruler. I have found that I can monitor my own by feel and I know when it starts to enlarge at all....sometimes it gets bigger then it gets smaller...I had them removed once, but they won't remove them again as they said it is the only way to monitor treatment on them. I guess we were just blessed with very reactive nodes.
Hugs
Sheila

I used to feel them above my collar bone after I was initially diagnosed. Mine were about less than 1cm and there were 2. Now after the chemo and radiation they disappeared but still there is some hard area which feels like some scar tissue(that is what my onc told me) espicially after the radiation. Mine appeared in the hollow area above the collar bone.

Julie

We monitor mine by feel also. I've become pretty sensitive to changes in size, etc. My oncologist can also tell if something is different from the last visit. Scans have be unreliable, except for PET.

To Sheila, at least I am not the only one who can feel enlarged glands and not have them show up on a CT. I had this problem with my neck and wasted nearly 12 months confirming what I already knew, you could see them and feel them but according to technology they were not there, but it took a MRI to prove it. There must be something about our HER glands that get past the CT and not the MRI.

Love & Hugs Lyn