Day 480 - PET & Seeds

Well, today was the day. The final PET scan. The end all & be all (I pray) of this chapter in my life. I don't know the results yet, but I am holding true to the belief that my scan will be cold. There won't be a cancer cell in sight.

Mom2 & I made 'almost tuna' this morning & she said it was great. I couldn't taste it because I was fasting for the scan. We quickly got ready & left for the hospital. Part way there, I interrupted her story to make sure she knew we were going to Foothills, right? Nope. She was headed for Peter Lougheed! Whoops! We altered our course, when I noticed the gas gauge. I interrupted the story again! $10 later we were back in business.

I raised a little ruckus at the Nuclear Medicine room. I am a little upset. This is my 3rd (& final) PET scan. I only found out yesterday that if you have a PET scan, you should avoid close contact with children for 6-7 hours - preferably 12, but 24 is even better. You shouldn't travel in the vehicle with them & if you do sit diagonally (?? Because radiation travels straight ahead?!?). I was quite frustrated that no one had told me this before & I was frantically trying to remember if I had visited anyone & substantially shortened their child's life span! Why doesn't it say this on the information letter every patient receives that gives directions to fast & only drink water? I saw a young Mom with a little baby in the waiting room, so I told her & her parents. They were from Medicine Hat & headed back today! The poor Mom was upset - as if she doesn't have enough to worry about! The Tech came & spoke with the parents after the Mom had gone in to prep for her scan & he told them to go to the Mall for a few hours & take the baby with so the radiation would have some more time to dissipate. I have since called the 'Powers That Be' to ensure that this doesn't continue to happen. It's such an easy thing to solve - just write on the paper that is sent to EVERY PATIENT - AVOID CONTACT WITH CHILDREN FOR 12-24 HOURS POST SCAN. And it's that easy.

I also gave one of the Tech Assistant's a talking to. She called Mom2's at 0700 this morning. She woke the entire house up just to see if I was pregnant or not. Wake me up at that hour & I could very well be the next OctoMom! 0900 is a far more respectable hour to inquire about someone's fertility status, no?

The scan went... well, it went. The scanner malfunctioned, so I had 3 scans instead of 2. Let's just hope they don't lose these results! (I still haven't heard the results of half of my last CT scan!) Additionally, I'm very grateful I have an Oncologist who doesn't believe in scanning me every 3 months. Yesterday & today I met people whose sisters & daughters are scanned every 3 months! That's insane! Don't they know that these scans CAUSE cancer?!? It's WAY too much radiation & FAR too unnecessary! Do your homework people! Yes, the scans can save your life by finding the cancer, however, listen to your body! You'll know when you need a scan! You can have a scan every 3 months & 4 weeks after the last scan, BOOM! You get cancer. Did the scan pick it up? No. Now you've had all that radiation for what? Sorry, rant ending now.

Mom picked me up & I clenched my teeth at her herky-jerky driving all the way across town. Apparently 3 weeks away wasn't quite long enough. She left me at Mom2's, or rather, I left her talking to Dad2 while I went downstairs to find a box. When I finally found it, she was gone. I came back up to find Mom2 coming in the door. I was officially starting to panic. I was trying to calculate how much seed I would need for the next 6 months. Oh, this is going to be fun.

Mom2 & I headed out to get ready for the trip. We picked up a Magic Bullet set, seeds for sprouts, sprout bags, seaweed, sparooli, mandoline slicer, kelp noodles... I'm very excited to get (un)cooking, but yikes! It's expensive! I've never been a kitchen girl before & I guess I never appreciated the cost that goes into eating! I'm learning fast!

I loaded up the car with my suitcases & headed home. I've got a busy few days ahead of me & not a lot of time to get everything done. I've started transferring old photos to a larger hard drive tonight, with the lofty goal of editing photos whilst on the ship with Jaco. That website is in the near future! I can taste it!

Oh! The 4 tray mini-dehydrator arrived today! It's perfect! It is small enough to fit into the luggage & I am very excited to have one to take along traveling. I know it will be put to good use! I've already filled Mom2's with nuts that we've soaked. I can't wait to make walnut taco meat & scarf down some dehydrated pecans! Yum!

Okay, off to bed... I need to sleep off the rest of my 'glowing' personality & get set for my dental appointment tomorrow.

xxxxMaria & Valentina (Mom stole Oceana for the night. Glad she likes to 'play house' every now & then)

Tweet Pea & Finny come along for the ride

Here's my last sentiments on PET scans & cancer!

About to be injected!

Here we go!

Radioactive!

An hour to kill!

In we go!

All done with the donut!