PET/CT on Tuesday

My first PET/CT for this year is scheduled for Tuesday. Of course, as usual I am anxious.

I am extremely aware of the body pains I still have and at times tie them to the inbred fears everyone who has survived cancer has..."that pain means something" which eventually leads to
"what if they find something this time?"

It's totally irrational but human nature nonetheless. I am only scheduled to have two PET/CT scans this year. This is my 2nd year out of treatment and my scans last year were basically every quarter, this year just twice. As it goes next year I will only have one...and so on.

But either way, right now I am sort of sweating this scan. I have experienced more body pain recently than I have in a while. It reminds me of the pain I would get after the white cell booster shot I got the day after chemo.

The large bones ached. My back and hips especially. I was told it was because the shot was making my body create white blood cells. I'm looking for meaning in this pain this far out of treatment...mostly I think it's the early stages of arthritis and then I think it's a sign something is wrong.

I have the routine down. I'll get to St Clares in Dover and find my way to radiology, I will be escorted to the "radioactive closet" where I will be injected with the radioactive isotope and left in the room to let it travel about in my body. It will be looking for activity that shouldn't be there
(also known as Cancer)...in about an hour I will be asked to empty my bladder and then spend 20 blissful minutes in the CT machine with my arms over my head as they take a look at my guts in another room. This is approximately my 9th time thru the CT machine, you would think my shoulders would be used to it by now...but no, about 5 minutes into the scan they start to hurt.

Then I'm on my way home and I wait for the phone to ring...


Ahh cancer, making life so much more complicated all the time.



Be well.