Just Call Me Radioactive Man

Wow...what a week! There was a lot going on both at work and medically.

I would have provided everyone an update earlier but an unfortunate event happened the other morning--I spilled orange juice on the keyboard of my laptop. From what I've heard, IBM makes a pretty resilient laptop, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm letting it dry out as much as possible before I try using it again. It's been more than a day now but I probably will give it another 24 hours before I try it again.

So anyway, without a computer at home, I was kind of in a fix to get information to all of you. And I certainly didn't want to stay at the office any longer than what was absolutely necessary. So because of that, there are a few things that you all need to be updated on. The first are my two trips to the hospital this week. On Wednesday, I had an appointment with an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. The appointment went well but there was something in one of my lymph nodes that gave reason for him to be suspicious. I've got another appointment scheduled with him in two weeks to go over the PET scan results from yesterday's appointment.

Speaking of yesterday's appointment, it went as well as I would expect. However, it still isn't fun. They hooked me up to an IV--the fourth time I'd been stuck with a needle this week--and injected me with a radioactive tracer. I then sat there as it worked it's way through my system. The funny thing in this process is that nobody really comes within a few feet of you while you've got this stuff in your body because they don't want to be exposed to radiation. How is that supposed to make me feel as it's making its way through my arteries??? I suppose the argument could be made that they do this every day and they don't want to be repeatedly exposed to low doses, but still...I've got it running through my veins.

So after they inject me with this stuff and the IV bag is empty, I wait for another half an hour to make sure that it is fully into my system. Then I climb on the PET scan machine (similar to a CT scan or MRI if you've ever had one of those) and remain as motionless as humanly possible for 25 minutes on a very uncomfortable board. It was definitely a mind-over-matter type thing.

That was yesterday. My radiation oncologist was looking at the results today and then tomorrow I have another appointment with him on Monday to go over the results. The hope is that it sheds some light on what kind of treatment I need next.

In the meantime, I hope my computer dries out soon. Also, tomorrow I'm running in the National Race for the Cure. It's a 5K that starts at 8 a.m. It should be a fun time and it will be the first race for me since a 10-miler that I ran in April of 2002. I'm trying hard to get back into running on a regular basis, but it is really hard! I suppose that is why they recommend not falling out of shape in the first place.

So that's the scoop. I feel like I'm forgetting something and I probably am, but oh well...I'll figure it out later.