Well, that was an interesting experience. I was told to pee before the procedure stared. It was freezing in the scanner room ("to keep the machines happy and the bugs/germs out"). I asked if I could see the scans afterward, which he said was fine, so long as I didn't ask him any questions about them. No problem there, just want to see what lights up where.
Note to self: For the 2nd scan next Monday, remember to not wear capri pants and to wear a thermal top!
He took five "pictures". The first one, of my entire body, took about 30 minutes - the first 10 minutes I lay there as still as possible, the next 20 I was slowly pulled through the scanner. I felt like little people or ants were carrying me through the machine, kinda like the Lilliputians carrying off Gulliver. The only means of entertainment going through my head was a song by Culture Club, I think it's called "Time won't give me time", or at least that is part of the chorus.
Next, he took two more "pictures" at 10 mins each, one with tape markers on my neck and below my ribs and one without the markers. My lower back was killing me at this point, so he let me stretch out my back before the last set of pictures were taken.
In the next room, the very same room I sat in a short five days ago, he took two more pictures, this time five mins each, the first with markers on my neck. My shoulders were at the edge of a pillow so my neck would be angled backwards. Not the most comfy position, but at least it was only for 10 minutes total.
The scans were pretty bare. I could see a faint outline of my body. He showed me four shots, total. On the first "picture I could see black dots gathered in an area that I'm guessing was my neck/thyroid bed area, and one down by my groin area - probably residual radiation from when I peed earlier. The two middle scans showed fuzzy and clear dots clustered once again in my my neck/thyroid bed area. On the last "picture", I saw a black dot that looked like it was in my nose area, along with about three or four distinctive dots in my neck/thyroid bed area. The radiologist that was supposed to review the pictures to make sure they were 'good' had stepped out for lunch, so they said I could go home. On Monday, when the second round of scans are done, they will be able to compare and tell me if they need to do any additional scans or not. Wonder if they will be able to tell me anything next Monday.
Last night I joined the ThyCa email discussion group. Since I've been collecting my used disposable plates and utensils, I posted a question asking when it would be safe to throw out my trash. Wow, never thought I'd be so harshly criticized by my thyroid cancer peers. WTF. Not like I had a lot of time to look into this, and no one, not even the people at my local ThyCa meeting told me otherwise. A few people posted back that I was creating more unnecessary radioactive waste, and that I shouldn't be using plastics because the radiation can easily be washed away with water, that I should cut up all paper towels etc. and flush them down the toilet and into the sewer system, blah, blah, blah. Well, I was only trying to protect my family members that I live with from any unnecessary exposure to radiation, and then there's the whole SoCal drought situation. How much water am I already wasting since I have to flush twice each time I use the toilet, the extra water wasted because I have to thoroughly rinse my hands, the sink and the tub after each use. Now you want me to flush all my used paper towels and what not down the toilet and wash all my used plastic utensils? I can't make anyone happy. Supposedly the half life of my radiation dosage is 8 days, so I'm thinking in 16 days it should be safe to throw out my trash. So, I'm going to triple bag all of my radioactive trash, hang it from one of the rafters in the patio for a couple of weeks then throw it out with the weekly trash. We don't get charged for trash pick up here, but we do get charged a premium for water usage, so sorry all you radioactive-trash-haters, but trash wins over water!
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