PET Scan is Done

I arrived at 2.50 for my 3 pm PET scan. I had to go for 6 hours without eating. Since I had an appointment at 8 this morning, my last meal of eggs only was at 7.30 am. (You have to skip all sugars and carbohydrates prior to a PET scan. They said I could have any kind of eggs and some bacon. I just had eggs.)

I knew the appointment would take several hours. They break down the appointments here so that at 3 pm was my "PET Prep"; 3.30 was my "PET Injection & Localization" and 5 pm was my "PET Scan." Also, the prep literature had explained that they would give me an injection of radioactive sugar and then I would need to lie still for 60-90 minutes. I also knew the scan would take about 30 minutes. So, I figured I would be done by 6.

Unfortunately, they were running almost 2 hours behind schedule. I didn't finish until about 8 pm and I felt pretty lousy by the time we finished. The test was easy. I was just hungry and tired. And, today I took the shuttle so I had to wait an additional 25 minutes for a ride back to the hotel.

But, really the ride was one of the best parts of my day. The driver was so nice. He introduced himself to each of us as we got in the van and then called us by name the rest of the time. I was the 2nd person picked up and we picked up another 7 people. Somehow that driver made all of us feel so comfortable that we were chatting with each other. One of the women was being dropped off at the hospital to see her husband who is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Another from Tennessee has a rare form of cancer in his lower abdomen. They are hoping to shrink his tumor so that they can do surgery. He's on his 5th round of chemo and had just received his new dosage. A lady from Arizona was being treated for breast cancer. A man from Alabama was there with his mother. She's been fighting colon cancer for 5 years. The drs in Alabama wanted to send her to hospice. The drs here have given her hope for another few years.

So what do a van full of cancer patients & their support people talk about? Food. We discussed all the various options for food. We laughed and talked as if we had been friends for years.

That's one of the amazing things here. The place is full of people who are going through tough times, but you know I haven't seen even one person act grumpy or impatient or rude. Everyone is really polite and friendly. I wish all these people were not going through tough times, but I love that they are, as one nurse said, "the strongest of the strong." They give me courage and strength.

I'm off to get some sleep now. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Oh, and no, I do not have any results yet. I should hear from the doctor tomorrow as to whether they want to do the biopsy of the lymph node on my neck. He is also still trying to get me a Hepatologist consult for this week. I'll keep you posted.