- Dr. Peter Venkman, "Ghostbusters"
So, do I have some goodies for you all today! As I have my appointment with our Radiation Oncologist on Monday, I received copies of all my chart reports, surgery info, and SCANS! Naturally, I took a look and made a copy. So here goes the slide show:
Here is a picture of a comparison of my October scan (when I first found out) to my February scan. In a PET scan, I get injected with radioactive sugar. Canc
er cells tend to eat this sugar a LOT faster than other cells, so after some time they appear on the scan. Some other cells also chew this stuff up: The very dark, large black spots on my head and in my groin are normal things - my brain and my bladder. The heart, liver, and kidneys can also show some uptake safely. What's not normal is that nice big set of black in the middle of my chest on the left, as well as up in my neck. That's called Hodgkin's lymphoma, friends. The right hand scan looks much nicer, don't you think? It all cleared up! Oh, and don't worry about my bones showing in the newer scan - That's from the growth factor (Neulasta) they give me so my bones produce more blood cells (to keep up my immune system). All in all, can't be too upset with that.Here are some more detailed scans, that combine PET and CT imaging. I think its pretty neat stuff, but really shows how incredible these technologies are. The images are both showing me from the back, on my right side (first being from October, second from February). The images in the upper left and right, and the lower left are CT images showing "slices" of my body. Check out the glow in the upper left frame on my October picture -- That stuff's dead, woohoo! Oh, and one edit -- I accidentally circled part of my heart in the October frame (the lowest circle) - That's safe stuff, and not bad.
October, 2007:
February, 2008:
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