Whirlwind Week - Tuesday

This morning I had my PET scan and for those of you faithful followers, you will remember that as of noon the day before my diet was supposed to be low carb, high protein and low sugar. Can I just say I had no idea what to eat? How do you Atkins people do it??? I could barely last for half a day.

I get to the office where they asked a bunch of questions and checked my glucose level. Basically, cancer cells feed on sugar and this test was going to highlight any activity in my body, which would reveal where the cancer is (besides my very obvious tumor). Since my sugar was low from the diet, I drank a solution that would head right for the cancer and we’d see if there are any more places it could be hiding. In order for a good contrast, though, I had to minimize all other activity 45 minutes prior to the scan. So after placing in an IV to shoot some dye in for the test (they didn’t use my port and although I’m scared to use it, aren’t tests like this the whole reason for having it? To replace any IV’s?), I was told to recline back in an easy chair with warm blankets on me for the entire 45 minutes. Um, OK! It was a nice little rest and they were ready for the scan well before I was ready to get up again.

Similar to my MRI, I was asked to lie down and would be scanned for a period of 23 minutes. Unlike my MRI, this was a quiet machine and the position I was laying in was more comfortable. It was up before I knew it and that was it.

This, too, was an easy test, but I did have one issue with it. A dear friend had this test a few weeks back and was told that due to her radioactivity, she was unable to hold her infant for a period of 24 hours to spare the child of the radiation. When I was informed that this test was coming up I asked my surgeon if the same orders would apply to me. She assured me the doses were minimal and that I shouldn’t worry about it. When I asked the tech at my appointment, she too gave the same speeches about keeping 6ft away from my baby until after 8am the next day. Great. If I would have known the same orders applied to me I could’ve secured childcare for her. I was told that I could carry her from one place to another, but not to hold her, feed her or read to her. Thankfully, my precious mother-in-law drove over for each feeding until Teague got home. The small upside to not feeding Presley that evening? I got to sneak out for a bit to the Mom’s Night Out at Panera and have some girly-time.