Got scanned today

So I went for the first post-treatment PET scan today. For those who don't know, a PET scan is a 3-D look at metabolic activity in your body. It's a usefull diagnostic tool for my type of cancer. They inject a glucose solution with a radioactive tracer and that will be absorbed preferentially by the more metabolically active areas in your body. The bottom line on this is that any residual tumor mass should be just scar tissue, and thus should not "light up" at all on the PET scan.

This was actually my most pleasant PET scan. I must be getting good at it. I didn't have to take any contrast home (the horrid Barium OR the less horrid but still bitter gastrograhpin (sp?) ), as they administered something on the spot that basically tasted like water. 2 glasses, no problem. They moved me through quickly and I was able to finish up w/o any delays. The whole process still takes a couple hours. They have prep work to do and they wait an hour for the glucose to be absorbed by your cells before the scan.

I had blood drawn beforehand so I went back up to the doctors office afterwards to get the counts. My WBC counts were low as expected. That's become routine a week and a half out of chemo. For those who know, WBC: 0.86, Neutrophil: 0.1. I love it when the result sheet says "Critical results called and verbaly read back ..." So they gave me 300 mg of Neupogen and sent me on my way.

Expect results when I see my doctor on Thursday. Looks like no rain the next two days, so I expect I'll get another bike ride in. Curious what the bike rides become when my red blood counts recover. Doctor said that would take about a month. I could definitely use some more hemoglobin.