Like this:

Last Friday, I had a CT scan and a PET scan.  I took pictures of the machines, but I’ll have to post them later because I haven’t downloaded them onto the computer yet.  On the other hand, since I have access to my medical records, I was able to take screenshots of my scans and post them here. 

CT stands for Computerized Axial Tomography.  There’s a good explanation of what CT is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computed_tomography.  Basically, it’s a few hundred X-ray slices of your body.  They use it to provide a very detailed look inside your body. 

This is my pre-treatment scan:

 

This is my scan after 4 cycles of chemotherapy:

 

PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography.  There’s a good explanation of PET scanning at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography.  A PET scan takes advantage of the fact that cancer cells use sugar at a higher rate than other cells.  Before the PET scan, I am given a small dose of radioactive sugar.  I then have to sit quietly for a hour while the glucose is taken up and used by the cells in my body.  After an hour, I am placed into the scanner and the machine measures which cells have the highest concentration of radioactivity in them.  Busy cells use more sugar.  The brain lights up because it’s always busy.  You’ll also notice that on my first scan my breats lit up because I was nursing.

First PET scan:

 

 

 

 

 

 PET scan after 4 cycles of chemotherapy: 

 

 

 

 

 

The oncologist is happy with the progress – I’m responding well to treatment.  I’ll have two more cycles of chemo then another scan.  I won’t be happy until those white spots are completely gone (not the big one in my head, just the ones in my abdomen ).

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