Pretty scared, what should I ask for? (30, M)
These past couple of months I’ve had low to no appetite, white spots in my stool, fatigue, nausea and pain in my stomach that comes as goes. 2 Saturday’s ago I started experience back pain in my lower left side near my rib cage that gets a bit worse when I lie down. The back pain started to go away until I started drinking this weekend when it flaired up. I know there are other pancreas conditions that can cause these symptoms. I my first appointment with a gastroenterologist on Monday. What tests should I be asking for?
Posted Jan 12, 2020, 3:41 PM UTC
16
The best tests for pancreatic cancer are an endoscopic ultrasound, CT scan using a pancreas protocol, or an MRI. All of those are rather expensive so a doctor would have to be strongly suspicious for pancreas cancer. You’ll likely get an external ultrasound (hit or miss on pancreas), an X-ray (worthless for the pancreas), or blood tests. But also since the pancreas may not be the problem, the tests used will need to be more general.
The CA19-9 test is hardly ever used in diagnosing pancreas cancer because there are so many other causes for a high number.
White spots in your stool are not the same as all white stools, so that seems to point to something else. Your age also points to something else.
Pain caused by a tumor usually does not go away on its own, but increases as the tumor grows.