PET scan

Since Saturday I have an irritating tickle in my trachea. Last week I coughed up a piece of tissue, the pulmonologist told me that this could happen. He has burned off pieces of the tumor, but it may be that there are still a few pieces of tissue that are half loose. This feels like a piece of tissue that flaps because air comes in during breathing.

Because I can’t reach the lung clinic by phone, I decide to stop by this afternoon (March 16) before I have the PET scan. They contact the pulmonologist and he tells the coughing is nothing to worry about. When I am in the nuclear department for the PET scan, the pulmonologist calls me asking if I can come by after the scan.

I'm taken to a room in the nuclear department. There I can sit on a bed and they will put an IV. The sugary, radioactive liquid is injected through the IV and I have to keep still for half an hour. Lying on the bed and not moving. The sugar goes to the energy-demanding parts in your body. When you use your muscles, energy goes there. That is not what they want, the radioactive liquid must mainly go to the malignant cells.

Aftel the scan I go to the pulmonologist, he want to check the scan whether the cough is not caused by pneumonia. He is going to view the scan and tells me that he can, without prejudice, take a cursory look at the scan. My lungs look clean, no pneumonia, so the feeling of a flapping piece of tissue is probably correct. When he looks at the rest of the scan, he sees the tumor clearly light up. The rest of my body looks clean. He emphasizes again that it is without prejudice, the radiologist has yet to assess the scan, but it looks good.

Thursday March 19

This afternoon I have a telephone appointment with the pulmonologist. Hopefully there will be clarity if there are metastases and what next steps will be.

This, for us, crazy time is made even crazier by the lockdown because of the Corona virus COVID-19. The children are educated at home, M. works at home and no sports are allowed. In order to get a little exercise and to let the time go a little faster, I decide to do a pilates class. W. and T. are joining me so we turn the living room into a gym. While we are doing our exercises, B. finds it all very pleasant and buzzes in between.

The day lasts very long, but at half past five there is the redeeming phone call: there are no metastases!!!!

How happy you can be with the fact it is “only” one tumor. It still is cancer. Now I have to wait for a call from the chest surgeon for the trachea surgery.