The most stressful thing about the PET Scan today was finding the parking garage and the proper entrace door at the hospital that was one I'd never been to. The scan itself was no big deal other than the fact it took about an hour & a half. For those who have never had a Pet Scan, the scan itself is pretty much the same as a standard CT Scan with tracer, doesn't take more than 10-15 mins or so. It's the prep work for the PET Scan that takes a full hour or so before you go into the scanner.
When I first got there they took me to a small cubicle and sat me down in a cushy recliner; like one you might have in your living room. It has a side table on either side and you lay your arm out on that table for them to insert an IV into your arm. The IV drips a small bag of FDG (Fluorodeoxyglucose), which is a safe, mildly radioactive form of glucose (sugar) into your vein. That only took about 5-10 mins.
After that they tell you they're going to close the curtain and leave you there for 1 hour and you need to lay back in the recliner and don't move at all for the hour, not even your arms or legs or any body part. Your not allowed to take anything in there with you. No tablet, phone or even a book to read. You just have to remain completely still for 1 hour. This is to allow the stuff they shot into you time to move into ever cell withing your body. Apparently any movement impacts that process negatively. I had never sat completely still for an hour of course and let me tell you - it's really hard to do! 1 hour seems like several in that situation. After the hour is over they take you into a room where the scanner is and run you in & out of the scanner a few times and then, you're done and free to leave.
The idea of the FDG mixture they put into your body is that cancetrous cells absorb sucrose (sugar) like crazy and the radioactive stuff in the mixture will make any cancerous areas light up on the scans they take. So that's that - done now. Now I simply wait to get the results of the scan back sometime later next week to see if any nodules in my lungs lit up on my scan.
To @Cbdave This tracer stuff is different from the tracer stuff they sometimes give you for a regular CT Scan. I've had that stuff too and yes, it makes you suddenly feel warm, like you peed yourself (). This stuff they gave me for the PET Scan didn't do that.
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