A Colorful PET

Christmas Eve began with an early morning PET scan. My oncologist waited until January 11th to unwrap the colorful results.

A PET scan is a colorful imaging test that helps reveal how your tissues and organs are functioning. An injected radioactive tracer collects in areas of the body that have higher levels of chemical activity which, in my case, corresponds to areas of cancer. These areas show up as bright spots. In terms of my treatment, the point of these scans is to monitor the progress made by chemotherapy. Our hope is that future scans will show smaller and fewer bright spots.

My doctor slowly unwrapped the images to focus on the brightest areas. He started in the renal pelvic area where the cancer originated and pointed out a luminescent left kidney, a smaller and dimmer indeterminable lesion on my liver, the previously noted nodules in my lungs and high levels of chemical activity in the lymph nodes of my retroperitoneal space - the area between your abdominal cavity and your back.

This scan is very important as it will be used in conjunction with previous CT scans as the baselines to which future scans are compared. One such scan took place on Tuesday evening. No results expected until the end of the week. As much as I enjoy the sensation of viewing deep, rich, and bright colors, I am hoping that this scan and subsequent scan results are, comparatively speaking, blasé.

In this personal war on cancer, I am ready to march into my next battle…cycle 3, round 1 (7 hours) scheduled for tomorrow pending the results of this morning’s lab tests.

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4: 6-7