Thursday

Tomorrow is the day. Hopefully I shall come home apprised. And then, apprise you in turn.

But in the meantime, let’s do a partial parse of that radiology report.

First off, it’s waaay too long. Big, bushy, unwieldy. Loaded with details that I both want to know, and don’t. As in, this might be interesting if it was not my body they were talking about.

And then there is the dictionary inducing terminology. We’ll start with sentence one: There is biapical pleural scarring with increase in the adjacent pleural fluid at the left lung apex. I was googling furiously, starting with word three: biapical. It means two apexes, the next word I googled. Let’s start there. Apex is an anatomical feature denoting the place where the upper lobe begins. So correct me if I’m wrong, but biapical would seem to imply two lungs.

About that scarring. Another word for it is pulmonary fibrosis. The scary thing about it is both the associated lack of function (breathing) and the fact that it is considered irreversible. Concerning. To say the least.

Next up–parenchymal. This is defined as ‘relating to or affecting the functional tissue of an organ.’ And, in this context, consolidation: essentially–‘when the air that fills your airways in your lungs is replaced with something else. More loss of function.

‘Anteriorly and inferiorly‘–front and back, top and bottom.

Subpleaural nodule: exactly what it sounds like. A nodule, below the pleural lining (‘a thin membrane that lines the surface of your lungs and the inside of your chest wall.’). Intralobular septal thickening: (to be distinguished from interlobular septal thickening): ‘a form of interstitial thickening.’

Still with me?

Lymphangitic spread of tumor: (I’ve got this one)–cancer that has spread to your lymph nodes.

Loculated left pleural fluid: associated with conditions that cause intense inflammation, like empyema (heaven forbid, that one–it involves pus, despite the fact that it sounds like something you might order in a Mexican Restaurant).

Reticular opacity: ‘belonging to a broad subgroup of pulmonary opacification caused by a decrease in the gas to soft tissue ratio.’

Subpleural bands: more opacity. Alectasis: complete or partial collapse of lung. Loculation: ‘the compartmentalization of a fluid-filled capacity into small spaces (locules) by fibrous septa: ‘anatomical or pathological sheet-like structures that subdivide a component of normal anatomy or a lesion.’

So there you go. Now you can read my radiology report with bravado.

Now let’s hope we can find a way to address this laundry list of pathology.