The Frank Diary of Anne

I had my scan yesterday. I had to go to Sussex University where they have a clinical imaging department. I was taken into a small room with a bed and they put a canular in my arm (thought I had seen the last of those!) and then they put the radioactive sugar in. The lady that did it had to wear protective clothing in case the stuff got spilled on her and I had to use a special toilet that gets rid of radioactive waste. The  stuff that went into my arm came in a lead container which was inside a metal box with all these warnings on the front. Then they took my blood sugar which was low as you have to not eat for 6 hours prior to the scan so that the images show up clearly. Then I had to lie down for an hour to let the stuff travel through my system. I was quite bored and I wasn’t allowed to read a book or anything as glucose rushes to the parts of your body that move and that would show up on the scan. They told me that the scanner was basically a CT scanner with a Geiger counter inside it. The radioactive stuff would travel to cells that were multiplying quickly such as cancer cells and this would light up on the scan. It is all very clever. The radioactive stuff they put in me was only a tiny amount but the lady told me it cost £500!.

So then I had to lie very still in the scanner without moving. It was different to the CT scanner. This one was like a tunnel and the bit I was lying on shifted in and out of the tunnel at various stages. I felt uncomfortable in the scanner, it reminded me of when I first got ill and also it was very claustrophobic, I felt very closed in and couldn’t see out the other end. I was in there for 25 mins but it felt like about four hours! Then I was allowed to go home.

So now I just have to wait for next week for the results. Apparently, the results are discussed at the weekly meeting of all the haematology consultants at Worthing and Brighton hospitals to see if anything further needs to be done. I hope not.

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