01 May 2008

cancer loves sugar

all done with the PET/CT scan. it's kind of crazy what they do - they inject you with radiation-laced sugar and then scan to see where the sugar goes. the cancer cells love the sugar so the sugar gathers in cancerous areas. or at least that's my understanding of it. you can read way more than you'd ever want to know about positron emission tomography here.

to get the sugars flowing, the lab technician set up an IV, then brought over a big lead box, pulled out what looked like a small silver nuclear device AND THEN HOOKED IT UP TO THE IV AND PUT IT IN MY ARM. that was a little creepy. now i have a letter that i can give to people in case i set off any radioactivity detectors.

i gotta say though, the hardest part is SITTING STILL. no reading, no checking email, no texting. it was 45 minutes before the scan and then about an hour laying on my back and staying perfectly still. i'm not good at sitting still.

so now i wait for results. i should have a full pathology report by the end of the day, friday morning at the latest. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that the cancer is localized to the mole/lymph node area on my upper left leg.

in the meantime, i'm hoping that my exposure to radiation and gamma rays will give me some sort of superpowers. i'm thinking flight, or maybe reed richards' stretchy body.

7 comments:

  1. I think your superpower would be reverse X-ray vision where everyone else can see through YOUR clothes. Oh wait...yeah, you're actually not wearing any.

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  2. The Rosenberg Family and Ogden Corporation would like to thank you for your promotion of Bad Company, and would also request your presence in Sharon, Massachusetts, so we might Geiger-count you.

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  3. and by Bad Company, I mean The Firm. Same thanks still apply.

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  4. yeah, i kind of like all this hospital time because it gives me a chance to walk around mostly naked in a public place.

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  5. when have you ever needed an excuse?

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  6. I just thought you were naked because it was "Thursday".

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  7. Who'd have thought Jonah and I would get dosed with nuclear technology in back to back days before we were both in our 80s. I guess it makes sense the weekend Iron Man opens.

    Oh, and I'm so glad that I know Lynne's backstory so I can get the Bad Co/The Firm joke.

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