6. PET Scan

Thursday 8th December 2011, 09:15 AM


This time, St Thomas' Hospital London

Again, two scans, arms up and arms down.

My appointment for the exploratory/diagnostic surgery ( to look for the mystery 3rd site of the cancer ) arrived before the appointment for the PET scan. I phoned radiology at either Guys or The Royal I can't remember which, explained the situation and a day or two later had an appointment for a day or two later than that. Again everything happens quite quickly.

The PET 'bunker' is deep in the basement of St Thomas' Hospital, everyone was very friendly and sweet ( everyone, everywhere has been so far ). The PET image unlike the 3D still images taken by CT are of the body "in function" they take half an hour each. Like CT and some X-Rays they also require a marker dye to be introduced into the blood stream. However with PET the marker is "radio active". Introduced via IV it takes less than a minute to administer and is totally sensation free.

Not the 'actual' one I was in but very similar

Its worth noting that the radio active marker is kept, transported and delivered from a heavy, sealed, lead container, wheeled around on it's own little trolly ( at arms length ). I couldn't help wondering what my super powers might be after all this.

It takes at least an hour for the maker to work its way through the system, so I got to have nap in a quiet, darkened cubicle prior to the hour or so of actual scanning. Jo wanted to stay with me ( bless her ) but the nurse said she couldn't "as I was too radio active" and then she left herself. This made Jo cry, we said our goodbyes, Jo would come back for me in a couple of hours time and off she went too. Seeing Jo cry made me cry too, not my first time by the way, I probably not the last either. Once you are dosed with the radio active marker no one stands too close to you, it's 'harmless' to an individual but if you are working with it all day they like to be on the safe side, only just slightly reassuring...


Imagine my disappointment to discover that having a PET Scan did not involve being gently frottaged with soft little kittens. They really should make that clear from the outset.

Not fair why does he get a kitten and I don't ?

The only hard part about having the PET scan ( apart from seeing Jo cry ) was having to keep my arms above my head for half an hour. Why arms up ? Because, one of the scans is to look through the upper chest and as the beam enters through the side of the body the upper arm would be in the way.

So, so far...

Blood Test

Ultrasound Scan

Biopsy

CT Scan

Pet Scan

Next up, first surgery...


Edited by Jo W, with thanks