Yesterday's PET scan

Monday seems long ago and far away.

That's when I got the call from my eye doc telling me that Friday's brain MRI showed that cancer has metastasized to bone in my brain.

Today is only Wednesday.

In that time my sister has started her drive down from New England to arrive here this afternoon. She'll take me to my oncology appointment tomorrow.

I've been processing a lot. And so far I'm still feeling mostly peaceful. I know I could have a short time, as in weeks, of life. And I could also have several years.

But what I DO have is right now—beautiful October day when I have a laptop in my lap, writing about my life journey and its current challenges while two cats snooze nearby. My back hurts some but not too much. A heating pad helps. As do pain meds. Through the miracle of the internet and social media I can tell my story to friends and family who are interested. And I can read their comments and know that they think of and/or pray for me.

That's a lot to be grateful for.

The MRI itself

Fourteen years ago I had a PET scan to find out if breast cancer had spread. It had not.

This time I know there IS metastasized cancer. Where in my body is it? Is there more than what's in the bone in my brain? Tomorrow my oncologist will tell me.

Writing that does give me a catch in my chest, a tiny fleck of dread, of fear.

So I try to breathe into my heart. To open it to accept all blessings that are connected with this journey.

I didn't have any fears yesterday, even of the fact that the PET scan might be difficult.

And I'm glad I didn't have those fears because the whole process was pretty easy.

As soon as I arrived at the PET scan center I had to drink some contrast. It was easy to drink because it was in a cup of Crystal light lemonade.

Shortly after that they took me back to a small room with a medical recliner and the tech put in an IV for the contrast that is delivered intravenously. I was expecting to have the IV during the scan, but no, she put in the radioactive contrast and then a couple of syringes of saline flush to push the contrast into my system,. And then she took the IV out.

So it was just a couple of minutes with an IV.

And then it was a waiting period for the contrast to go throughout my system. With a warm blanket (the office was COLD) and a recliner I was very comfortable in the room where she had dimmed the lights. I was lying all the way back but then my side started hurting some so I shifted to a position I have figured out in the last few weeks to relieve that particular pain.

My bathroom call came just a few minutes before they would have told me to go to the bathroom. My urine was radioactive.

Then they had me wait in a little recessed area in the hall hear the PET scan room. Soon they took me into the scan room. The top photo is of the PET scan machine there.

Fourteen years ago I had to be ABSOLUTELY still through the scan. But now, with a very new, million-dollar scan machine, not moving didn't matter nearly as much. The new technology is much more forgiving of movement.

I lay down on and put my hands over my head, crossing my wrists, so that she could get a good scan of my body.

She said it would take about 15 minutes.

Into the machine I went. The first part of the scan my head was outside the far end. But as the scant progressed a different part of my body would be scanned as the board I was on moved toward the front. I didn't keep count but it seems it moved four or five times. It was quiet when the board moved, and then I'd hear a whirring sound during the scan.

I was calm and relaxed the whole time. And when a little electronic tune played my first thought was "is that my phone?" even though I knew it wasn't. That tune indicated the end of the scan.

I was through. I got up, asked if I could take a photo. The tech's helper said yes.

And then the tech offered me snacks and soft drinks. I chose water. She emphasized that I should drink lots of liquids for 24 hours to flush the radioactive stuff out of my body.

So I've been drinking extra since I got home. I bet I l flushed most of it out in the first several hours.

Tomorrow I get the results.

I'll share that with y'all. It might not be right away, but I will share.

And in the interlude please continue sending up prayers and sending me good energy.