Ultrasound AFTER MRI?

[MaintainTheMolehill]

I know this probably isn't the right place to post this but worth a try.

I posted www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3707124-To-not-be-able-to-put-up-with-this-pain

A couple of weeks ago. Basically severe back and hip dragging pain and urinary incontinence. All seemed well after an MRI ruled out any issues with my spine and nerves.

I have since gone back to the GP though and she had chased up the results to see if anything else had flagged up. Apparently there is a cyst on my ovary that may be causing the symptoms and she has used 2 week referral to get me an ultrasound appointment for a week tomorrow.

My question is AIBU for thinking this is a waste of time? Everything I've read says that an MRI would be done AFTER an ultrasound as it's better at looking at these things so I really don't understand why this has to be done?

I know it's a long shot but hoping someone here may be an expert or have some similar experience.

Sorry should have said the cyst on my ovary was found during the MRI.

I know you are frustrated and in pain but why don’t you wait until after it’s done before ruling it a waste of time? We all know the NHS moves at a snails pace in illogical ways, you can’t change that and this just might be the thing that helps you get it resolved.

Radiologists are doctors who've studied for many years. They know things that we couldn't start to speculate or understand.

There is bound to be reason for it. Maybe it is because the MRI only picked up one small part of it, maybe because they need to investigate more by looking more in-depth but there is no need for you to have another MRI and anything can radiology wise can be picked up by an ultrasound.

This added to the fact that the wait for MRI is likely to be more than 2 weeks, to meet that target, an ultrasound is more appropriate.

not a hcp, but presumably the ultrasound will be looking mainly at the cyst, so will be more of an in depth look than the mri, which was over a larger area?

The MRI was a spinal MRI - it would have been done in a manner to focus on views of the spine and nerves. It has incidentally picked up something else but unfortunately wasn’t able to take optimal views of the ovaries because that’s not what it was set up to do. So now it’s been reported and the spine is not the problem, the ovaries need to be focused on and the first step is an ultrasound.

Think of it like if you took a picture of your child and happened to catch a butterfly in the background - if you zoom in you wouldn’t see any detail in the butterfly because that’s not what you focused on. If you want to see it properly you’ll have to take another picture and probably with a different lens more suited to the task.

I really hope that makes sense! 🤞

Definitely not a waste of time. They are continuing to investigate your health issue based on what they've discovered so far.
YABU-I'd be moaning if they were doing fuck all.

I had to have a cyst removed this year, but it took an ultrasound, then a MRI and a CT scan before they were finally happy with exactly what and where it was. I was grateful for all of them. Be happy that it will give them all the info they need

Thanks everyone for your comments, they do help me make more sense of it.

I do sound ungrateful that the doctors are trying to get to the bottom of it but I'm just scared that it's ovarian cancer and had hoped the MRI would have ruled that out.

Ultrasound better imaging for some things than MRI. We've had an ultrasound as a follow up to mri before now

I’ve had ovarian cancer. An MRI isn’t the best scan, I always had CT scans. Having said that, your MRI wasn’t done on your ovaries so wouldn’t have picked anything up. My tumour was initially seen on an ultrasound scan. I hope everything is okay. 💐

i had an mri for my spine and pelvis which picked up a mass on my thyroid. the consultant ordered a CT scan and an ultrasound as the mri didn’t give the best view of where things are.

as an aside, my consultant said ‘your thyroid should be small, like a butterfly. yours is a potato’.

thanks, then! thyroid now christened Eddie (after King Edward potatoes) and i am waiting to see how they’re going to get the fucker out.

fucking potato. even my thyroid is ugly.

hope all goes well, OP.

exWifebeginsAgainat46 sorry but that made me laugh, even at this worrying time you're finding humour in it. Hope it's sorted soon for you.

Hydrogenbeatsoxygen thank you for the info, I hope you're on the other side of it now.

Was going to answer as a radiographer but mrschanandlerboing has given a perfect explanation. The MRI was set up as a spine one and only picked up a general image of the ovary not a detailed one.

Other pp are right in that an ultrasound is the first port of call for gynae issues and likely a shorter waiting list than the MRI one.

Thanks Sewrainbow I appreciate your expertise.
Just to confuse things further I've just had a letter yesterday from the consultant where I had my MRI done and they now want to do a full spine MRI.
The cost for MRI is really high so I'm worried that there is a lack of communication somewhere...

They can't do a full spine scan in a way to look at your ovaries at the same time - the way MRI works is that they set the area they are looking at very specifically, so they would need to do a completely different scan for that as well. And when they did your spine before they only look at the part requested.
Imaging requests are always thought about very carefully, and each clinician selects the appropriate method and area, sometimes in conjunction with radiologists, so they aren't just going to request things randomly

I guess I've just got a lot of guilt over how much this is all costing. I'm sure MRI costs between £2000 - £5000, pregabalin is about £100, ultrasounds I'm not sure and then I have my first physio appointment this Monday (which is really quick) and it seems that they are all focussed on different things. I suppose after the ultrasound if it's found to be a problem caused by the cyst I can ask the GP to contact the physio and the spine consultant to cancel them.