#4 Radioactive!

Angie and I met at the One Step Diagnostics Lab in Sugarland to take care of the PT scan.  I was asked to fast again.  Angie thought ahead and brought Marie Bench's killer cake (the whole thing) for me to eat afterwords.  Once we got checked in, things seemed to move like clockwork.

• Come on back,
• Roll up you sleeves.
• Start IV
• Push Radioactive Tracer through lines and wait 45 minutes.
• Hop in the PET scan machine and hold still for 30 minutes.

It was interesting to watch the tech move two lead lined casks that weighed 80 pounds a piece for two small vials of radioactive tracer.  It was also ironic for me to be getting injected while listening to the tech explain to Angie to stay away from me, and that I would be highly radioactive for several hours.  I was covered up with an electric blanket and put into recline mode to wait for the tracer to run its course.

I have found that it is in those moments that your head clears up and you get to analyze.  Up until those moments, you are busy trying to get scheduled, take the next step, make logistics arrangements with kids /work etc. When you finally get hooked up, or when you are spending time in the CT machine holding completely still, you get a great opportunity to count blessings.

The song "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons has been a #1 or #2 most played song at our house for the last several weeks.  It has a new meaning when I hear it now.

Angie and I asked the tech for copies of the CDs so we could take a look at the images.  The tech hooked us up with the software and we ran home to take a peek.  My initial reaction was completely shocked when I could plainly see two large tumors in my pelvic area, and additional hot spots running up my spine and into my lungs.  In my eagerness to do a quick survey, I moved the small slider controlling the depth and height of the 3d image too quickly.  I had mistakenly identified my kidneys and my ureters as my lungs and spinal cord.  Shock and ,,,,,,,, AHHHHH,,,

Everything else showed as clear, and confirmed by a physician.   I don't recommend attempting to read pt scan images.

As it turns out, Pet Scans don't do a great job of finding cancer in bone marrow so I was scheduled for a bone marrow biopsy to confirm.