PET/CT Scan...and Whats next

Today we went to Hershey Medical Center to have our PET/CT scan.  It is a moment that we have been waiting for because the last 3 days have been tough.   For anyone else that have had these scans, you know that the scan part isn't bad, its just the 3 days before that make the scan hard.  Joanna has been on a strict diet of pretty much just meat.  No carbs, no sugar, no dairy.  I'm sure it would be easier if you could ease into a diet like that, but going cold turkey certainly takes a toll on your body.  In addition, its already hard enough for her to eat with everything going on, her stomach feels like it is in constant knots.  It was really not fun, and made those 3 days seem very long.
So we arrived this morning 8am and we went directly to Nuclear Medicine in the basement of Hershey...

We checked in quickly and headed back toward small room (see below). They started an IV and shot her up with Radioactive sugar, Seriously! fluorodeoxyglucose....technical name for those who care.   So you ask why would they shoot you up for this stuff.... well..... "The positron emission tomography (PET) scan creates computerized images of chemical changes, such as sugar metabolism, that take place in tissue. Typically, the patient is given an injection of a substance that consists of a combination of a sugar and a small amount of radioactively labeled sugar. The radioactive sugar can help in locating a tumor, because cancer cells take up or absorb sugar more avidly than other tissues in the body."  - Thanks Internet    Basically, Cancer cells feed on sugar, and when you have no sugar for 3 days then flood your body with sugar, cancer cells will absorb the sugar first and it will show on the scan.  

We sat in that room for about 90 minutes as we waited for the sugar to circulates throughout her body.  We prayed together, sat quietly, read over Psalm 145 and talked as we passed this time.  She did great with the IV, but the scan was still to come.  Being locked up in a circular machine is not Joanna's favorite thing, to say the least.

So here is the PET/CT scan machine. The PET scan moves over your body, so she never felt confined like in the MRI, but it certainly leaves her a lot of time, to sit and think.  It took about 30 minutes.  Joanna came out to me in tears, just wanting to be done with all these tests.

Tomorrow September 9th around noon, we will be meeting with our Surgical Oncologist, Dr. Leung, to go over all the results of the MRI and PET/CT scan.  We anticipate going over a full treatment plan.  

What you can being praying for:
Strength to wake up and take on the day  
Negative Results from all scans
No evidence of disease in the rest of her body


We will update everyone in the evening.....