My positron emission tomography scan, or PET scan, showed no additional areas of concern beyond the areas we know about already. I am relieved. Husband is relieved. Friends and family are relieved. Dogs are napping.
The person who brought me in and prepped me for the scan did a great job describing it. You are not to eat for 7-8 hours before you get scanned. Before that time, you should avoid sweets and carbs. I ate some chicken and a salad I made with lettuce from our garden. I didn’t eat any tomatoes out of abundance of caution. I put homemade Italian dressing on and some feta cheese. And then I had a snack later in the evening of smoked pork. Then I went to bed.
On the way in to the office I saw an employee walking down the hallway carrying cupcakes. I briefly toyed with the idea of tackling him, but decided that would be frowned upon.
The prep once you are there. They check your blood sugar to ensure you are not out of whack because the delivery system for the radioactive drug, or tracer, uses glucose to move throughout the body. In my quick research, it appears that the tracer can be swallowed, injected, or inhaled. Depends on what they’re testing for. In my case, it was an injection.
When the radioactive glucose (not what they call it, that’s what I call it – not a medically correct term!) is initially injected into your body, it goes through your bloodstream and if they were to scan you right then, your scan would be gray. This is because you have been fasting and everywhere wants some of that yummy glucose.
Your brain and heart, of course, do not rest. I was told they would appear yellow on the imaging. Areas of concern would also show up in a similar way because the cancer cells are greedy and keep a hold of the radioactive glucose long after the rest of the body has had its fill. Therefore, they show up on the scan.
They’ve conducted all the studies, of course, and determined that 45-60 minutes after the radioactive glucose is introduced is the best time to run the scan. In that 45-60 minutes, you rest. I saw in a recliner in a room with subdued lighting and a warm blanket over me and dozed off. It was 7:15am when I went there. We’d had to get up at 5am to make this appointment. I was tired.
After this time, they come and get you and then you have to take a wee. I’d read that online before I went, so I was prepared when they wouldn’t let me go any further without a pit stop. Done. Then on to the room. This particular room was very relaxing. Subdued lighting during the actual test, and a color-changing ceiling with little points of light to resemble stars.
That helps you keep calm and to not think too much about your arms behind your head and hands maybe trying to fall asleep. I was face-up on a table with my head between two squishy things and then slid into a tube. It’s open on both ends, so unless you are super claustrophobic it’s not too bad.
First they did a computerized tomography (CT) scan. It’s a fancy X-ray that provides much more information than a normal X-ray. I was told they would overlay the PET scan on the CT scan, so try not to move. No problem. That was the short part.
Then the PET scan. The actual imaging surface is not very wide, so I was slowly moved into the machine as they started around mid-thigh with my imaging. I moved bit by bit and was as still as I could be during the whole process because I wanted good pictures on the first try.
They wanted to be sure there was no cancer anywhere else. This is the best scan they have for that. They didn’t see anything beyond what we know already. I am pleased. Still mad at cancer, of course, but glad that we caught it so early due to screening.
Apparently after I was escorted out of the waiting room they started handing out shakes! No fair… (they were meds for screening, so I was only jealous because I was hungry)