PET Scan

Tomorrow I go to my appointment for a P.E.T. Scan. No, I am not bring my cat, Katie to the doctor. Actually the P.E.T. stands for Positron Emission Tomography. What happens is I will be injected with a radioactive isotope that will seek out and attach itself to the glucose in my blood. All cells in our bodies use glucose as fuel. Because cancer cells are rapidly growing cells that use more glucose that regular cells. This scan will not be looking at the structures in my body, but actually how my body is using the glucose. PET scans have been able to demonstrate areas of metastatic disease that cannot be picked up by other imaging techniques. We are going forward with the PET scan due to the fact that the pathology report on my second surgery from last week reported 6 of 6 lymph nodes had cancer....in fact, they were almost entirely replaced by cancer cells (not good).

Plus, I think this is probably the ONLY test known to man that I haven't yet taken, so we just have to take it. I mean, why leave this one out, right? WHAT'S ONE MORE POKE? Well actually, one more test probably means about three pokes and one that hits the vein.

So no eating after 9:00 pm tonight (I got up early to get a head start) and no exercise today (that was a difficult one - NOT). But I can drink all of the water I want! Woohoo!