Tuesday of this week was PET scan day. The preparation for the test sucked. Because of the way the test works, I had to be on a no carb, no sugar, no fruit diet for 24 hours before. Carbs, sugar, and fruit are some of the best things to eat! I was told to eat only meat and veggies , which is hard as a vegetarian who primarily consumes cheese.
It also meant no soda for me, big bummer there. Suddenly, I was deeply craving everything I couldn’t eat and drink - even things that I wouldn’t normally be jonesing for.
I cheated a little with dinner: nopales tacos. I know tortillas are carbs, but nopales are vegetables and I needed something to eat them with, okay?! I snacked on cashews and almonds that night.
The morning of the scan I was less nervous than I expected, and mostly daydreaming about the fries and coke I’d get afterwards. Astrologically speaking, June 24th is meant to be a very lucky day. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s referred to as the “day of miracles”, so I was feeling like it was a good day for a scan. As we arrived, we quite unexpectedly ran into someone really special (👋 hi!) which had me feeling extra positive and lucky.
When it was time for my appointment, weirdly, I was taken outside. I found out that the PET scan machine was on a mobile building.
The mobile building
The way the scan works, you are given an injection of a radioactive form of glucose (called a tracer). You then wait about 30 minutes and can then get the scan. The tracer accumulates in tissues and organs, particularly in areas where there is increased metabolic activity - like cancer cells. Some scientific stuff happens, and the final result is an image that shows the areas in the body with that higher metabolic activity. This can show how well cancer treatment is working.
I was told to stay away from children and pregnant women for 8-10 hours afterwards since I would still be radioactive ☢
The scan itself took about 10-15 minutes. I laid on the bed and had to lift my arms above my head - I was pushed through and back a few times and then it was over. Easy peasy.
Now is the hard part, the waiting game. I was hoping to have results before the post dropped so that I could share, but I haven’t heard anything yet. I’m nervous, of course, but have been focusing on my recent mantra of “good things are possible, and even likely”. I’m getting treated for this cancer, which is highly curable. I’ve seen signs of things improving (my pleural effusion has pretty much resolved, my swollen lymph nodes have shrunk), so I know the chemo is doing something. If the scan determines things aren’t working as we hoped, then we adjust treatment and move forward.
In practice of gratitude and positivity, here are some things that made me happy this week:
Getting to shower without a Pleurx tube taped up to my side
I had a particularly delicious açai bowl
New season of The Ultimatum: Queer Love dropped 🏳🌈 🙌