PET Scan

For those of you wondering how my scan went, it was fine. No idea about the results yet. I'll find out next Thursday! I had a missed call and a voicemail from the hematology nurse this afternoon which nearly gave me a heart attack but they were merely changing my appointment time from 2 to 215. That was worth the anxiety.

The PET scan as an outpatient took much longer than the one I had back in November as I didn't seem to be top priority for some reason. They were running behind and then I ended up with a student who was super slow. She went over everything thoroughly on the form and once I finally got a room, spent a long time looking at my veins to put in the IV before, thankfully, getting someone else. I didn't want the student trying to put in the IV. The other woman listened to my "put it in the back of my hand" suggestion and also used a heat pack to draw out the veins which helped her get it the first try. Yay!

Once the IV was in, the student pushed through the radioactive glucose. They were much more intense this time about the proper handling of the glucose. People always follow proper procedure when students are around. The glucose is kept in a lead box in what looks like a built in wall safe. Inside the lead box, the actual needle containing the radioactive glucose is contained in a little metal tube with only the end sticking out. The person then rolls up a short lead divider between me and them and attaches the needle to the divider. The nurses stand behind the divider but then have to lean over it in order to actually attach the IV to the needle. The glucose is then pushed through the IV, along with a flush, before the waste goes back in the lead box, the barrier is removed, and the box, with the waste, goes back into the safe.

I was then wrapped in warm blankets (the room was really cold), they dimmed the lights, and I listened to podcasts and dozed for an hour while the sugar made its way through my body. Right before the scan, the nurse had me pee so my full bladder wouldn't interfere with the results. In the scan room, I laid on the scanner board and was wrapped in some fresh warm blankets. The board and I went into the scanner for 20 minutes and I dozed off once again.

I had to wait around for a few minutes afterward so a doctor could confirm that the pictures looked okay and then I left.

Except I couldn't go very far as, unfortunately, it was raining and the windshield wipers on the car stopped working so we had to sit around until the rain stopped. We got groceries and wandered around a few stores but mostly just sat in the car waiting for it to end. It was a long day.