Scan DONE. Results...pending.

One of the first things I was told this morning walking to radiology was that Dr L would have the results of my scan this afternoon. For some reason I didn't question why he would get them so fast...was he looking for something after all? Or was it because he is part of the St Clares system and not a non-staff dr ordering a CT scan at another facility?

St Clares in Dover has a lobby that looks like a hotel. It's very quiet and serene. I was taken into to register fairly quickly. Soon after that I was instructed how to find Radiology and again minutes after I arrived I was escorted into a small closet like space where I was administered my nuclear injection and left behind closed doors to allow the nuclear dye to travel thru my system.

In this little radioactive closet I had a recliner and my own 17" tv with 30 DirecTV channels to choose from. I read my book and watched a little "Deadliest Catch" for most of the hour in there until I was summoned to the CT machine.

The experience in the machine is always the same. Today's visit seemed to take longer than I remember. My shoulders started to ache after just a few minutes. (If you have never been in a CT machine they ask you to place your arms above your head to elongate the body I suppose and as one tech told me to not confuse images between body parts- you don't want to find an elbow where your liver should be...) I did this immediately and the technicians remarked about my knowledge of procedure.

"You've been thru a few of these tests before huh?"

I had recapped my history to the nurse who walked me into the CT area and who led me into the radioactive closet. No joke there is a huge emblem on the door that reads "RADIOACTIVE AREA" on the door to the closet I was killing 60 minutes in waiting for my turn in the machine.

I made small talk with the techs checking my blood sugar levels and administering the dye into my arm like I have known them for years...They had the same steel cylinder encased around the syringe holding the radioactive stuff that would light up my guts inside the machine.

Since the dye is also sugar based they need to make sure my blood sugar is at a level that can handle additional sugar in my system or the test won't work.

You can't tell me cancer doesn't thrive on sugar. When I first has this PET/CT done (sometime last year) I was told any cells that are active that shouldn't be will attract this dye. Any cancer in my system would be active and thus show up on the pictures taken.

Basically nothing should be active that isn't supposed to be. Heart and Lungs don't count.

All in all I walked into St Clares about 10:45 for an 11 o'clock and walked out at 1 pm on the nose.

Not bad in my opinion.

Since I hadn't eaten in over 12 hours I was starving but I didn't stop in the cafeteria afterwards for my usual coffee and egg sandwich as I usually do in Chilton because the kids were at a friends house and I felt they had been there long enough. I didn't want to impose any longer.

I don't expect to hear from Dr L today and unless there is bad news any calls today from his office would only raise my blood pressure. Even if he called to tell me everything checked out okay...I would still answer the phone too anxious to speak.

We don't want the bad news but as the general rule we all know if there is anything to talk about they will call quick. If there is nothing to discuss you might get a call next week.

Sometimes I wouldn't mind getting it over quickly...but then again no news is good news.

Besides my mind wondered on endlessly in the machine today, I'm in no mood for results today.

Like I always do when I get a scan I immediately remember my first CAT scan that led us to cancer (maybe it's really a time machine because I always go back there-never fails), I tend to dwell on the loneliness you feel in the machine and realizing that even with all the emotional support in the world I am totally alone in this cold room on my back lying on a surface no bigger than your average Popsicle stick being moved back and forth in and out of this giant machine zapping my body with radiation to take pictures of my guts to make sure there is no cancer to speak of.

Not to mention I wonder if the radiation used to light up my insides and the radiation coming off the machine do any me any harm. The technicians are all in another room while the machine moves me back and forth.

And what if we suddenly had an earthquake (on the east coast- but it could happen) while I'm in the machine and nobody knows I'm in there. What if all the technicians are all killed in a partial building collapse and I'm stuck half way in the machine...what if the world ended with me midway thru a CT scan.

You have a lot of time to think in there.

I am totally alone with my thoughts drifting in and out of sleep, kind of dozing because it takes at least 30 minutes and you can't move. Regardless of how tense your body gets trying to stay still, I always drift in and out of sleep.

The whole experience is exhausting. It gets easier each time I do it, it just sucks that I have to do it. It sucks that Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with concurrently acquired Computer Tomography (CT) is a part of my vocabulary.





Be Well.

14 months N.E.D. and counting...