Oh, where to begin...
I stopped responding to conventional treatments about a year ago, and have been dealing with many abscesses and fistulas all year. During one of my hospital visits, about two months ago, I had a pelvic MRI to locate the abscesses my surgeon couldn't find the old fashioned way. I always ask for copies of my scans, and while looking at them I noticed what appeared to be a "hole" in the center of my thigh bone, where the bone marrow would normally be. I brought it to the attention of my GI and Colorectal Surgeon and requested a bone density test and more scans. They indulged me the bone density scan, probably just to shut me up. I never got the results of this scan since my GI has "done all he can for me" and has basically blown me off.
Fast forward to last week, I'm in Chicago being evaluated for a Stem Cell Transplant. The GI I saw gave me the go ahead for the transplant, but I obviously have to get the abscesses and fistulas under control first. So he orders some more advanced MRI's to assess what's going on in there. (This was done on my last day there, so I had to go home and wait for him to call me with the results)
Got the call Thursday, good news- they located the pain in my ass and will be scheduling me for surgery! Bad news- they found a lot more than we were looking for, including the aforementioned "hole" in the center of my femur, and he insisted I get X-rays done asap to rule out some sort of bone infection. Went to GP's office, got X-rays, didn't see anything... which rules out bone infection.
The report from the MRI in reads:
"A 1.4-cm T2 hyperintense enhancing lesion within the right femoral metaphysis is consistent with a chondroid lesion. Correlate with any history of pain and available radiographs."
I've been researching all weekend, and from what I can gather, a chondroid lesion is a bone tumor. And since the X-rays did not show bone infection, this means the lesion, hole, whatever is some sort of soft tissue which wouldn't show on an X-ray... right? Which basically leaves tumor?
I'm really not freaking out about it because I have to go through chemo for the Stem Cell Transplant anyway, but the uncertainty is bothering me... and it would help immensely to have some feedback so I don't stress too much about it between now and however long it will take to get some concrete answers...
Osteoporosis or something similar would make sense given my family history and years of being on Prednisone, but that would be more consistently spread out, not concentrated in my femur.
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I stopped responding to conventional treatments about a year ago, and have been dealing with many abscesses and fistulas all year. During one of my hospital visits, about two months ago, I had a pelvic MRI to locate the abscesses my surgeon couldn't find the old fashioned way. I always ask for copies of my scans, and while looking at them I noticed what appeared to be a "hole" in the center of my thigh bone, where the bone marrow would normally be. I brought it to the attention of my GI and Colorectal Surgeon and requested a bone density test and more scans. They indulged me the bone density scan, probably just to shut me up. I never got the results of this scan since my GI has "done all he can for me" and has basically blown me off.
Fast forward to last week, I'm in Chicago being evaluated for a Stem Cell Transplant. The GI I saw gave me the go ahead for the transplant, but I obviously have to get the abscesses and fistulas under control first. So he orders some more advanced MRI's to assess what's going on in there. (This was done on my last day there, so I had to go home and wait for him to call me with the results)
Got the call Thursday, good news- they located the pain in my ass and will be scheduling me for surgery! Bad news- they found a lot more than we were looking for, including the aforementioned "hole" in the center of my femur, and he insisted I get X-rays done asap to rule out some sort of bone infection. Went to GP's office, got X-rays, didn't see anything... which rules out bone infection.
The report from the MRI in reads:
"A 1.4-cm T2 hyperintense enhancing lesion within the right femoral metaphysis is consistent with a chondroid lesion. Correlate with any history of pain and available radiographs."
I've been researching all weekend, and from what I can gather, a chondroid lesion is a bone tumor. And since the X-rays did not show bone infection, this means the lesion, hole, whatever is some sort of soft tissue which wouldn't show on an X-ray... right? Which basically leaves tumor?
I'm really not freaking out about it because I have to go through chemo for the Stem Cell Transplant anyway, but the uncertainty is bothering me... and it would help immensely to have some feedback so I don't stress too much about it between now and however long it will take to get some concrete answers...
Osteoporosis or something similar would make sense given my family history and years of being on Prednisone, but that would be more consistently spread out, not concentrated in my femur.
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!