The images from my CT scan did not make my doctor as happy as she would like, they found more puffy lymph nodes and an enlarged thymus. "At my age" no body should have a thymus. Your thymus gives you your immune system when your young and then shrivels up and goes away. However, not in my case. Which means one of two things....1. It completely explains what is going on in my lymph nodes and based on my online research isn't a good thing. Or 2. It is just a fluke and I am a freak of nature. At any rate, they set me up for a PET Scan.
So I started off my Friday with nothing to eat or drink for several hours and headed to the hospital. Then the started an IV, in my hand, which is relatively painful; and shot me up with radioactive sugar. Peter Parker became Spiderman when he got bit by a radioactive spider. I am not sure what super powers radioactive sugar will give me....but I am hopeful!
After the radioactive sugar, they dump and entire bag of saline into my veins and follow it up with lasiks to make me pee. Good times. Then I have to wait 2 hours. The idea is that cancer cells are hyperactive, they absorb sugar quicker than healthy cells. SO....if the sugar is radioactive and cancer cells absorb more of it...the cancer cells will glow on an xray. After 2 long hours of sitting in a room by myself, they stick me in the machine shown above. I slide in and out while the PET scan creates a 3D image of the inside of my body. It's a pretty cool thing if you think about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography
Here is a link to look at a PET scan. They have actual images from a scan and describe in much better detail the whole process. I am not sure what kind of uber-geek created this machine, but it's impressive! I bet his or her mom is proud!
2 comments:
Goodness me, I hope that any news you get following all the tests is good news. Take good care of you. x
uh. WHAT?!
I had to read this like 3 times.. I swore you were writing for someone else.. (I missed the CT blog)
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