Recently, my myeloma specialist sent me for a PET/CT scan. I have had many annual skeletal X-ray scans, but since I now have had two cancers (multiple myeloma and breast cancer), and the PET/CT pro­ce­dure scans more deeply into the bones and tissue than regular x-rays, this seemed like a good idea.

Results of the scan will provide a base­line for my health going for­ward. If there were any hotspots of fast- growing can­cer­ous tissue cells in my sys­tem, the test would show them.

My husband accompanied me to my appoint­ment late on a Friday afternoon. As advised by the medical staff, I had not eaten or had any­thing too drink for six hours pre­vi­ously.

After I checked in, a nurse measured my pulse, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. All was nor­mal! Two young technicians who I know stopped by to say hello, and I felt reassured to know that I was in good hands.

Soon I was put into a small examining room, where I sat in a reclining chair. A needle was inserted into the back of my right hand. I can no longer use my left arm or hand for any blood draws or in­fusions since I had lymph nodes tested on that side during breast cancer surgery (there is a risk of getting lymphedema after that pro­ce­dure). A radioactive sugar solu­tion was injected into my hand, taking less than a min­ute. It felt cool.

After that, I had to wait for almost an hour while the solu­tion circulated around my body. I dozed off for a bit, and then my mind started to wander. I thought about how amazing it is that I live in an era where it is possible to get in­for­ma­tion about the cancers in my body from a pro­ce­dure that doesn’t take too long, does not involve surgery, and is painless.

Since I am by now a bit of a chronic worrier, I also wondered what the test would find out. Since I know from blood tests that I have a low level of myeloma (monoclonal) protein in my blood, there could be some can­cer­ous locations, especially in my bones. That could be in the ribs, vertebral column, hips, legs and arms, and the skull. I know that I have lytic lesions in those locations.

Thankfully, the technician interrupted this reverie by turning up the dimmed lights in the room. Since my clothing had no metal parts, such as buttons or zippers, on it, I didn’t need to change into a hos­pi­tal gown, and I was taken to the room where the scan would be per­formed. On the doors in this area of the hos­pi­tal, the Nuclear Medicine Department, all of the doors have triangular warning signs indicating that radioactive sub­stances are used.

Another pleasant technician got me to lie down on a narrow exam table and strapped me onto it so I would not fall or move around. I had hos­pi­tal blankets put on top to keep me warm during the test. The scanner was shaped like a doughnut, and was about five feet long.

After getting me set up for the test, I was first scanned back and forth as the exam table moved through the scanner. This was the ‘CT’ (computed tomography) part of the test. A low dose of radi­a­tion would show where the internal landmarks, such as the skeleton and organs, were located. This would be helpful for the radiologists reading the test to match up the PET (positron emission tomography) scan results to the CT results.

The CT part of the scan took about five min­utes, but the PET part took much longer, about 30 min­utes. This is the test where the radioactive sugar is scanned. It seemed like a long time, and I started to try to remember half memorized songs and psalms during this time to calm myself. My husband and the technician came into the room at one point and I could hear them talking, but I did not talk to them since I was supposed to be very still during the test.

I was relieved when the test was over and the technician said that the scans had come out alright.

At that point in time, we went home. It was about 6:30 p.m., and since I did not have any restrictions on what I could do or eat, we treated ourselves and picked up a pizza to eat at home.

Almost two weeks later, I got the results back at an appoint­ment with my oncologist. I almost fell off my chair when she told me that all had turned out to be nor­mal. Even though innumerable lytic lesions can still be seen on the scans, there were no metabolic findings to suggest multiple myeloma.

This was definitely the best news I could have ex­pec­ted from the base­line PET/CT scan. I left the appoint­ment and went out into the sunshine with a spring in my step!

At this point, I do not know when I will be scheduled for another PET/CT scan.

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The quotation for this month is from an anonymous source: "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails."