It was up to the RM in Sutton again on Friday 17th for the PET scan. Read the leaflets and they seemed to suggest the scan itself would take 30-90 minutes - sounded like fun!.
So, checked in to the special ward at RM and was called in within minutes - very efficient. A nice male nurse escorted my wife and I to a room with a bed and a chair in it, via the weighing machine again (had a few beers at the weekend so think I might be weighing more than I did last time!).
Having answered a few questions, and asked a few about the procedure, he asked me to get into some hospital overalls and lay down. He came back in and inserted a cannula into my left arm and disappeared again, only to reappear with a metal box, out of which he took a couple of syringes, one metal and the other normal. He worked them together injecting a bit of one, and a bit of the other, until they were all done. Suspect one was a glucose solution, the other was obviously the '(radio)active ingredient'.
The good news was that the nurse informed us that the new scanner they had would only take 15 minutes, rather then 30-90 minutes. Although I still had to relax for an hour. So 60 minutes later, following two episodes of Uncle, I was in the scanning room. The first surprise was that the scanner was longer then other CT scanners - somewhere between a CT scanner and an MRI scanner. Being a little claustrophobic this worried me a little so I asked exactly how it was all going to work to put my mind at rest....max 5 minutes with head directly in the scanner, then the bed would move out to do the rest of my body. The scan was to be head to knee.
Other than a sore bum towards the end it was all fine, no side effects from the injection etc.
Once they had checked the images to ensure they were good, they let me change and leave. That was it.
The next few days were fine, we were told that we would find out on the following Wednesday afternoon what the results were, once they had met and discussed my case with colleagues. So I busied myself with multiple cycle rides and an U9s rugby festival (as assistant coach for my son's team). They beat seven other teams to eventually win the whole tournament - now that MUST be a good omen!?
Unfortunately Wednesday afternoon came and went with no news. My wife got on to the RM to find out what was happening and we were told the doctor was in surgery and they couldn't promise when we would be told. We assumed tomorrow at that stage...
Thursday AM and my wife received a phone call telling her that the result was as expected. A (now slightly bigger) 30mm lymph node near the kidney (also near the aorta too, which is obviously a concern!), so plan A is on - operation to remove this and surrounding lymph nodes, then biopsy to ensure no spread.
If they find evidence of more spread into surrounding lymph nodes (that didn't some up on the scan) then full BEP chemo might still be on the cards, otherwise, it'll be a shot of carboplatin. Fingers crossed!!
Next steps? Pre-op meeting at RM in Fulham Road next week. Book appointment for operation possibly the following week?
One thing I have realised in the last few weeks, especially now I seem to have found an inner calm about the whole situation, is that this is more difficult emotionally for those around me than it is for me. My wife has the worst of both worlds - she doesn't want to show any sign of weakness lest it make me more worried than she assumes I already am, whilst she is probably feeling more stressed than I am in the first place.
Whilst dealing with this she is also having to organise everything in the house, two kids and working etc. No wonder she's having trouble sleeping! It's easy to get wrapped up in yourself when you're going through this - worth considering others around you (which I haven't done enough up until now!). Note to self....
