Can they reuse or combine diagnostic scans?
45 Female 200lbs 5'6"
I am going through some issues for a couple of years where there is something going on but they have not been able to find the cause. after a while i developed anxiety/depression and that has been since medicated but my physical symptoms remain and are I have had MRI, Xray, 3D CT scan recently in the ER, and now a cardiologist has ordered a Cardiac CT. The issue is that my symptoms are very very specific but seem to span may systems (?).
The first time this happened resulted in a diagnosis of thyroid cancer and another head and neck cancer during surgery. The symptoms i have now was very similar to that previous time. The difference is i have no thyroid anymore. It has been many years since my Total thyroidectomy and neck dissection and i am on levothyroxine.
The diagnosis was not direct either, i had gone from doctor to doctor with no diagnosis and a family doctor in a different country suggested a thyroid CT knowing my family history of ATC and it came back with stage 3/4 ptc. surgery and treatment was successful. Though no one tied my symptoms to the disease, they went away after surgery/
i have/had weird breathing that picked up at night, chest and left scapula pain near T2 T3, rapid heart beats and chest pain that subsided the moment i became alert. the symptoms subsided after surgery and RAI and i went on to have a life.
Now those symptoms are back. However, the pain in my back and sleep disturbance is severe. I am worried with the cancer history all these scans are going to land me in more hotwater and push me towards other cancers
My kidney efgr is just above 60 so even mris are not that great.
thus far no one has looked at my spine in imaging not as far as i can tell. so that might be coming next. is there some thing that can be done to consolidate or have all these experts talk to each other and just order one imaging ?
my ER ct said that i might have something going on around the pancreas but the cardiologist is going to let my pcp deal with it. in the meantime i have a cardiac ct ordered.
obviously i am also googling and trying to match my symptoms to what ever is out there and one of the closest i have come across is metabolic acidosis. but i have no idea why that would be related only to sleep time and not connected to eating specific foods. feels like something is one a hair trigger and the unstable breathing is exhausting and if it goes on too long my back and shoulders start to ache badly
i am fine during the day though.
Tldr can they just order one imaging in depth and co-ordinate about diagnosis? i have had way too many CTs, iodine scans, xrays over the years and i have had 2 head and neck cancers and family hisotory of ATC. i dont want to tempt fate with too much radiation.
If you have read this far, i am grateful. thankyou
Posted Apr 8, 2026, 1:06 PM UTC