PET Scan

Today was the PET scan. Yet another procedure to see how he's doing. In this test they put him under, give him a fluid, and the fluid lights up on the images wherever it detects abnormality. We are certainly hoping and praying his images don't "light up like a Christmas tree".

We arrive at the downtown location of the hospital at 8am for a 9am appointment time. Since he has to go under, there are the normal consent forms (our favorite... just kidding as we have obvious consent form baggage).

A technician comes in to talk to us about the procedure. She says, "I'm going to give you an overview. After we put him under, we give him this radioactive material that will light up under the machine but don't worry it's totally safe".

I must say in all my years, I've never heard the word "safe" used to describe "radioactive material". Those two words should never be used in a sentence together. Really? Radioactive material that is totally safe. Really???

The different doctors and nurses get him ready and we're about to take him back to the imaging room, and Jenson says "Where we going?" to the nurse. She replies, "We're going to get pictures".

Oh no. Let's just say Jenson knows too much about pictures and starts freaking out, crying. "I'm scared mommy. No, go this way. No go get pictures." He has way to much experience with this type of stuff.

"No buddy, these aren't x-ray pictures. No pictures. No cheese (referring to his hilarious quote from before when getting x-rays)", I say. It doesn't help at this stage because he's too scared. He's crying and keeps saying, "No pictures. Need go home."

They put him under and Doug and I leave for the long wait. Three hours later he emerges smoothly from the procedure which is a big relief.

We're discharged but not to go home...now we're off to get him chemo treatment #4 for the week at the hospital closer to our house.

With his new chemo, he gets treatments through his port for 5 days straight. Then he has 3 weeks off before the next full week of treatments. Tomorrow will be the last day for this "round".

We ask about the PET scan results and they likely won't be in until tomorrow. We talk to her about the severity of the leg pain and that he still won't walk. She ups his dosage of pain medicine which does seem to help him (he's the happiest he's been all day). We're basically waiting for the results of the PET scan to see if they show any insight. She says he will likely need another MRI to figure out what is going on. Ugh.

So the mystery and waiting continues.

Kristin