This afternoon was the PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan. It is much like a CT scan but uses a nuclear/radioactive ingredient which is attracted to sugars in cells, and makes cancer tumors "glow" and be even more visible than on a CT... at least that's what they say. This was also different than the CT scan in that it wasn't just the chest area, but took images covering head-to-toe, looking for tumors in other places than the lungs.
We got to the Cancer Imaging Center at 12:30pm, and after some paperwork Lisa was taken to the back by 12:50. She was finished and came back out just before 3:00pm. She said they gave her the nuclear injection, followed by saline, and she had to sit in a recliner in a "lead-lined room" alone while her system started metabolizing the nuclear material before moving to the imaging room and being put in "the tube". Neither the injection nor the scan itself was bothersome, just somewhat time consuming, and of course she had to sit or lay still during each part of the process.
Because we have an appointment with the thoracic surgeon early tomorrow morning, we were given a disc with the PET scan to take to him. I already had installed the capability to view CT scans on my computer either as still images or as a movie-progression, so I am also able to view the PET scan the same way. I wish they'd done post-processing to change the grayscale into what's called "false color" thermal imaging interpretation, since the hot-spot glows would be in a different color, but what's on the disc is all grayscale, and I don't have the skillset to decipher what I'm seeing. The primary lung mass in these images doesn't glow at all, but instead looks exactly like we saw in the CT, with the same gray levels. There's another series of glowing type images, but they appear out of focus and I can't tell what part of the body they represent.
The radiologist's report is supposed to be faxed to the thoracic surgeon in the morning at about our 8:30am appointment time. I tried calling the imaging center to get a copy of the report, but they won't actually give it to us. Fiefdoms must be honored, I guess. We'll have to wait for tomorrow morning's appointment *if* that doctor will even give us the details since he's not the oncologist... he may tell us nothing more about it than how it affects the potential for surgical resection (removal) of the lung tumor or implementation of the airway opening laser treatment.
Michael
