Barium Schmarium

PET results in: all good! Normal uptake in neck, no nodes lit up, abdomen good, and bones clear. A great first scan post-chemo, mastectomy, radiation, and more chemo. ~happy dance!~
What all this nerd-speak means: no evidence of metastatic cancer.

I drank it all up in a personal
best time. Do I get a medal?

Yes, I "got" to drink the chalky Barium* drink again..."mocha" flavor this time. Not too bad for most of the 16oz...but the last 1/4C or so was more of a challenge to choke down. Ugg. Also got injected with sugar/radioactive material before the scan. After all the fluid intake, they give you ~30min to recline and let them spread all into your system. Then the scan happens. That takes 10-15min and is painless. They even put spa music on for me - not that I was fooled or anything!

My first PET scan was June 13, 2011 - before we really knew exactly what we were dealing with  cancer-wise and right before I met with Dr. K for the first time. I'll try to get images up on the blog sometime - they're fascinating to look at. You can "twirl" my body around and see various innards as different layers, you can also see 1,300+ various "slices" of my body from head to toe. Really cool. In the meantime, if you're the curious type, check out Wikipedia's article about PET (positron emission tomography) imaging. You'll see what the system looks like and an example of images made from this amazing invention.

*Barium: a mixture of barium sulfate and water, opaque to X-rays, that is swallowed to permit radiological examination of the stomach or intestines.