The Scans

On Tuesday June 17th I went up to the Shands Radiology department for a bone scan and CT Pelvic scan to see if the cancer had spread into these areas. From what I have read, prostate cancer can spread to your bones and we wanted to make sure I was clean before my surgery. This was one of the longest days of my life and thank God my wife was with me to lean on. It all started with an appointment in radiology at 9:30am for my bone scan. In this appointment an IV port was put into my arm so they could inject some radioactive material in my arm and I was asked to return at 11:45am for the actual scan. I sat in the lobby with my wife and worked from my laptop on this day to help pass time. I returned at 11:45am and had the bone scan done. Before I left the office I was given a large bottle of a well known drink sports drink (to mask the taste)that had some type of contrast in it that was to prepare me for the pelvic CT scan. I had to drink one cup every 30 minutes up to two hours. At this point I felt sick from the stress of it all and hadn't eat anything since early that morning. We took the shuttle over to the hospital from the medical plaza and reported to radiology in the hospital. Once I drank the last drink around 2:15pm they immediately brought me back for the scan. This scan was interesting because they told me I would feel a warming sensation in my pelvic area and have a metallic taste in my mouth and they were correct on both accounts. I was done with the scan around 2:50pm. Our next mission was to go to Dr Parakettil's office as soon as possible. He was working us in so we could get the actual results of both scans. We were not leaving his office until we knew the results. They took us back to a room around 3:15pm. I was the last patient of the day and he was running really late but we refused to leave. The nurse practitioner (Lisa)was really great, she kept checking on us and found out we hadn't eaten anything and brought us some juice and crackers to hold us over. We sat in this room for a few hours and so many thoughts were running through my head from the earlier bone scan. My wife told me a bible verse that came into her head while we were waiting and I felt a calming peace come into my heart. Finally, Lisa the nurse practitioner came in the room and was able to give some good news on the bone scan, it was negative. My wife asked her to say it again for reassurance. We both looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear. The doctor came in a short while later and told us both scans were negative. That was music to our ears! After a long day it finally ended and we went to Cracker Barrel and had some great comfort food and celebrated a great victory on this day. After all, this means my cancer has not spread outside of my prostate and after the surgery on June 30th, my surgeon says I have up to a 95% chance of being totally cured. When was the last time you heard anyone use the words "cancer" and "cured" in the same sentence? Well my surgery is 1 week and 1 day away. My next blog entry will be several days after the surgery when I get enough strength to blog about that day. I am at peace with my decision and am ready to continue my life's journey.

For more information on Bone Scans please click the following link:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bone-scan/CA00020

For more information on a CT Pelvic scan please click the following link:
http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/radiology/ct/abdomen.htm