PET scan

Today was the day for my PET scan. That meant I could have nothing to eat or drink other than water until the process was complete. I had eaten some crisps before I went o bed last night but that didn't stop me feeling pretty hungry this morning. The prohibition was not to eat or drink for six hours before the scan. Luckily my appointment was for 9:30. I would have hated it had it been made for late morning or even worse in the afternoon.

I had thought that the prohibition was so that nothing I ate or drank could interfere with the scan but that turned out not to be the case. The process uses a radioactive glucose as a tracer within your system. It's important that your blood sugar level be very low so that your body is forced to absorb the radioactive glucose that they inject into you fairly quickly and comprehensively. You learn something new every day. I think they have special procedures for the diabetics.

I arrived a good quarter hour early at the main reception desk and they called a porter to guide me through to the radioactive isotope department. I waited and waited but nobody came. I was getting anxious as my appointment time was approaching when a lady came and asked for the same department. I asked if she minded if I walked along with her and she agreed. So I got there on time.

I was called in pretty much straight away and after the usual form filling and explanation of what was going to happen I was taken into a waiting room where a blood sample was taken to check my sugar level and then I was injected with the radioactive glucose.

Once that was done I was left to listen to my talking book for an hour until my body had fully absorbed the glucose. But it was very very comfortable, a recliner in fact, and I was encouraged to doze off but it was a little early in the day even for me to go to sleep.

When the hour was over I was taken through to the scanning room. The process took about 20 minutes that was painless and quiet. In fact I actually did doze off for a few minutes while the scanner was running.

While I waited for them to check that everything had worked okay they provided me with a sandwich and a very large mug of coffee for which I was very grateful.

They ordered me a taxi and I was home around midday.

Since then I have eaten and drunk a lot more and have more than made up for my missing breakfast.