I am radioactive - but only a little bit!

Had my PET scan yesterday. That's Positron Emission Tomography. You get this stuff called 18Flourodeoxyglucose, which is, as the leaflet says, similar to sugar. Since when does sugar have a half-life and set off the alarm on a geiger-counter?!!!

The best bit, and you won't believe this, was the IV line. It didn't hurt!!! Not a bit. I couldn't believe it. I had my eyes screwed up as tight as they'd go in case I might see the needle going in, and didn't want a repeat of the passing out affair I had a few weeks ago. But although I felt a small prick (no pun intended), I didn't feel anything after that. I even opened my eyes and watched the rest of the process. Actually, she'd taken bloods to test my sugar levels, and when these showed I was suitable starved, had administered the radio-active tracer and was up to the saline before I'd focussed on the thin line coming out of the crook of my arm.

She said, "I didn't like to say before, but I am good."

Good???? She's a bloody genius! I told her she could come and stick IV lines in my anytime! Perhaps my fear of the dreaded IV has been cured. Bloody hope so cos chemo starts on the 21st of January, and the IV is going to be a major part of saving my life.

After the injection you get to lie on a couch for an hour and 'relax'. In a battle-ship grey room within a portable unit with massive yellow radio-active warning signs everywhere. Hmm. But they did put radio 4 on for me, which was cool. And then some bloke comes in and announces that he's come to take me to the toilet. A special loo for the radio-active. And while he's waiting outside (I can hear him huffing and puffing, and worse see him through a crack in the door) he shouts in, "Do you wanna take your bra off an' all while yer in there." Oh the joys of being a patient.

Back in the portable unit thingy, the same bloke told me to "get on the bed there" and then he wrapped me in blankets (it was freezing but I looked like those people you see getting air-lifted off mountains on a stretcher), and strapped me onto the bed. In case the ride was bumpy and I fell off? In case I freaked out and tried to run away?!

Another hour. On my back with shoulder screaming at me to move. So I counted in Japanese from one to ten - old martial arts trick - ichi, ni, san, shi, go, rukkyu, sichi, hachi, cu, ju and when I lost count I started again. I could hear The Archers in the background beneath the squall of the scanner, like being on a train and listening to the Tss Tss Tss noise from someone's headphones.

But all said and done, it's quite clever this scanning stuff. Basically, having starved your body of sugar, the cancer cells seize and gobble up any sugars they can find. Unfortunately for them, they eat all the radio-active stuff, and then when you go through the PET scanner, they stand out all glowing and stuff, like Homer Simpson after work.

And we can see them. Catch 'em (well not literally like catching frogs). Kill 'em (with chemo).

It kind of works like that.

It was a really long day though. Nothing but water from 11 am till 7.30 pm, no exercise, not even a long walk. And no tea!

But came home and drank loads of tea, and had a really fab night's sleep. Oh the joy of small things, eh!

Friday! Argh! Coffee morning.... right, am on my way over to Novel Racers immediately!