Radioactive Dan!

[caption id="attachment_3515" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Danny Arrives @ Hospital for PET Scan[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. My apologies for my absence, these past two days, as I have been involved in the ‘Staging’ process with my cancer. Yesterday, the topic of this article, was full of fun and excitement with a P.E.T. (Positron Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography) scan. I know how could something like that be… entertaining? Well, I will tell you just how and give you; videos from the day, images from the day, and images of/about P.E.T. scans and the process. At the end of this article, I will share some of the actual images from my scan! Tell me that is not exciting!

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However, before I get started on day-before-yesterday I want to say a few words about yesterday. Yesterday I left, at 6:00AM, for my ‘Bone marrow Biopsy’ procedure. We arrived at Los Alamitos Medical Center at 6:30AM. My Dear Readers, instead of one procedure? They did two procedures. I did not leave the medical facility until 6:00PM last night! Twelve hours at the medical center, one bone marrow biopsy, and one ‘Porta-Cath’ placement later I am one very sore puppy. It was a terribly long day with nothing to eat or drink for more than TWENTY-TWO hours!

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I will be writing about yesterday, later today… if I have the strength. Today is Friday and I know that there are a lot of people, out there among you My Dear Readers, that are looking forward to another episode of ‘The Horror in Smithville’. Whereas, I have about thirty pages, yet unpublished, I have not had the time and energy (at the same tome) to edit the very next section of ‘Part 14’. I hope that everyone finds understanding about this situation. I very much would like to publish more and more of ‘The Horror in Smithville’.

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With Halloween rapidly approaching, I do feel the heat of my looming deadline. It is just that my Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is making more demands upon me, than there are hours in the day. I will be working on the pages I do have, and trying my best to publish another episode, as soon as possible. However, My Dear Readers, my first chemotherapy is next Wednesday. From what I am being told, I will not feel like; writing, publishing, living for several days after this first chemotherapy. We shall see what happens and I will publish my intentions ahead of time.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/-_XOQYhJ5A4]

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On to the topic of the day, ‘Radioactive Dan!’. I saw this because this was my very first P.E.T. scan and I was completely unaware of just how ‘toxic’ the material they use, is. Once I had arrived, and the technician was made aware of my arrival, I was taken to the very distant back of the imaging area. Here everything is heavily shielded. The room I was told to “sit quietly in for an hour” had huge shielded doors! I noticed this as I was awaiting the arrival of the ‘nuclear technician’.

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Once in the shielded room he brought my injection, into the room in a lead safe! It was about the size of a large shoebox and was made of all lead and steel. Once he had a good vein, he ran a saline rinse… then brought out this HUGE LEAD SYRINGE! It looked like something out of a sci-fi story or a cartoon!

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/9Wsy5yM6drk]

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Seriously, the technician walks into the room, holding one syringe in his hand and in the other is this large metal box! It has the yellow and red ‘radioactive’ symbol on all sides and is as large as an old bread box. He sets them both down, and proceeds to put an IV shunt into the vein in my left arm. Once done, he takes the first syringe and “clears the butterfly… makes sure the IV is patent’. Once done, then he takes is huge lead encased syringe out of the radioactive box. He explains that this is the dextrose solution with the radioactive isotope.

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He explains that it was made at University of California Irvine, and that he is now going to inject it into my body. He presses the plunger and the radioactive solution enters my vein. It is, initially, cold to the touch. Within a few moments I have a heavy metallic taste in the back of my throat. He removes the butterfly IV and wipes the injection site, again, with an alcohol swab. Then he wraps the injection site with a bright red gauze bandage.

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I am now told that I am to “Sit in this shielded room for one hour, to allow the solution to be absorbed…” He wraps me in a warm blanket, turns on a little electric candle, turns off the lights and closes the lead-lined door. As I sit there I hear, very low in the background, some kind of tape of forest sounds and non-descript melodies. I sit there, falling in and out of sleep. I had not slept, the night before, out of anxiety and pain.

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Within about fifteen to thirty minuets I feel incredible burning feeling just below my rib cage. It is in the front of my body, and wraps around both sides. It also radiates in the area, of my right side and back, where Allen and I had found an all new lump and where I have been experiencing a lot of pain. As I am thinking about the pain, and the burning sensation, the technician opens the door.

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“Is everything alright? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Are you in pain? The chair you are sitting in is set up to measure activity and heart rates. You seem to be in distress.”

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Super a ‘smart-chair’, and it is ratting me out to the technician! I, calmly respond;

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“Yes, I am feeling pressure, pain and some distress just below my rib cage. It made me a little upset…scared. I will try to relax, again.”

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The technician nods and tells me to just try my best to relax. Sometimes, when the radioactive dye collects in tumors or cancer cells that it will fell like burning. That it is just the nature of the radioactive dye and the process. He leaves the room and closes the door behind him. I sit and try to breath slowly, and calm down. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I know Allen and the technician are waking me.

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They both help me walk into the room with the scanner. I am still feeling pressure and burring just below my rib cage. Now it is also in my neck, throat and head. The burning in my head has me really concerned. For the next thirty minuets I sit in a tube as the motorized platform goes in and out of the tube, ever so slowly. This part, I cannot sleep through. I am just all too concerned about the burning, and the pain.

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[caption id="attachment_3517" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Upper Torso with 'Hot Spots'[/caption]

(Upper Torso with 'Hot Spots')

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Soon enough, the scan is over and I am removed from the tube. Allen helps me get back into my power chair, and for the first time since I arrived, I relax. The technician comes up to me and tells me that someone will arrive with my disc of the scan, just to wait right there in the shielded part of the room. Within ten minutes another white coated technician arrives. She hands me the CD, and a package of information.

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She explains to me that I am, now, radioactive. Not enough for concern but I am to: not go out to eat, not go into a store, not be around groups of people, not be around children or old people at all! For the next twelve hours, whenever I go to the bathroom, I am to flush “several times to make sure all radioactive material is clear of the building…”. She gives me a handout (that I put up on Facebook a few days ago) that immediately reminds me of ‘Instructions for a Zero Gravity Toilet from 2001 A Space Odyssey’. I head out to get picked up by the OCTA access bus.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/cCU97Ax8LcI]

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Surprisingly, they take me directly home. No stops, no pick-ups, no drop-offs, just me and Allen alone in the van taken directly home. The rest of the day I rest, but for most of the day I feel great pressure and pain under my ribcage, still.

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That, My Dear Readers, was my adventure with my PET scan and the story of ‘Radioactive Dan’! Tomorrow, if my pian allows, I will return with another tale! This time, about the torture of my bone marrow biopsy… and the implanting of a ‘Prota-Cath’ device under my SKIN!

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[caption id="attachment_3519" align="aligncenter" width="630"] 'Hot Spot' on PET Scan Just Below Rib Cage[/caption]

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In spite of all of that I have done my best to keep busy… to “Keep Moving Forward!”. Now, I have been hit below the belt with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma CANCER! With limited to Spartan resources, my battle might well be quite short. With your, My Dear Readers, HELP? I stand a fighting chance of beating my cancer and not damaging my body, my liver, my kidneys… due to a lack of proper nutrition and proper amounts of fluids. I am NOT lying. I DO lack the money to purchase these ITEMS.

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Thank you for dropping by… and PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO Danny’s Cancer Treatment Fund @ Indiegogo![1]

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Adieu!

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Thank YOU!

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[caption id="attachment_3338" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Danny in Rolling Hills Estates August 12, 2014[/caption]

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© 2010 – 2014 Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe

 

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[1]https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/danny-s-cancer-treatment-fund/x/753895