Tuesday - December 11, 2012
PET scans require a LOT of time lost in your own mind - not the ideal situation for someone dealing with cancer even when recent news is good! After being injected with radioactivity, you need to absorb / distribute the nuclear tracer evenly throughout your body and this means remaining still, in the dark, on your back, in a bed, covered by a warm cozy blanket :) At VCU (and perhaps elsewhere) books are obviously out and so are iPads and radios. No stimulation at all ... just rest ... no movement ... in order to not create false "activity" readings. After an hour, you move to the scanner where you are once again prone, still, eyes closed and eyeballs unmoving, flat on your back as the machine moves you forward and back taking 3D images that reveal "activity" in the form of cancers as well as scar tissue and heart ailments.
For whatever reason, today I was completely awake during this ideal naptime and ended up musing over the last seven months since I was diagnosed on May 11. Seven months to the day. I spent my hours of enforced inertia reviewing all 12 of the hospitalizations, trying to order my RNs and attendings - match them up to the chronology of those dozen hospital stays - as well as family visitors, any side effects, highlights, lowlights.... It's been a whirlwind. Now with this 3rd PET we are hoping for confirmation of the Aug. scan that showed "no evidence of disease" - complete response. The scan and the wait are always a bit unnerving. I'll find out the results next Tuesday. Then I can breathe more easily.
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