May 9 Negative MRI

Monday:  I received good news at my appointment with the doc who did my surgery back in October 2020. Actually, I didn't SEE Dr. Onesti, but her PA--which assured me right away that the MRI was negative before she even said one word! Afterall, Dr. Onesti is too nice a doc to give me bad news through her assistant. 

I am posting these pictures because I use this blog as a photo journal--entirely for myself! It's a fun hobby and I can look back over the last 15 years and kind of know what I was doing and who I was with and sometimes even what I was thinking at the time, which I find helpful and sometimes interesting.

Even though I was a medical transcriptionist for 25+ years, I am terribly UNmedical. These pictures of where the pancreas is located are interesting because I didn't realize how LARGE an organ it is. My mom died of pancreatic cancer four years ago now--this is one reason they are monitoring me a little bit more carefully than usual.

Last year, the MRI showed exactly the same thing as this year--NO growth or change in position of the two mucinous (MUS-IN-US) cysts [which by the way are the kind of cyst that is the LEAST likely to turn into malignancy--only 5% ever do!]. The location of the two cysts is another reason why they are monitoring them closely ...

Both cysts are really close to the duct that empties enczymes into the stomach (the whole purpose of the pancreas). If the cysts grew significantly, the might possibly cause a blockage to this duct--if that happened, the encymes decide to EAT the pancreas--not good!

Next year I will have another MRI. If there are no changes in the cysts or my symptoms, they will probably decide to just do an MRI every TWO years. That would be just fine with me!