CancerHacker

The MUGa Scan was another scan where I was the radioactive one. The goal of this scan is to evaluate the condition of the heart. Before the scan started I was injected twice -- once with some sort of tin fluid and once with the actual radioactive stuff. For more details on the actual injections check out the Wikipedia article . Funny side note: the guy who gave me my first injection just happens to live in my building. Again I had to lay on a table which moved up and into the scanning machine. The technician hooked me up to a bunch of electrodes. When he started the scan I just had to lay still, nothing to do, nowhere to go. I tried doing some relaxation breathing during the scan. I could see the read out of the electrodes, so I occasionally watched how my breath affected the reading. Once the scan was over the technician was awesome enough to let me watch the video of my heart. All in all a very easy test with a bonus video at the end. Test Ratings Time Required [short, medium,...

The MRI was by far my favourite of all of the tests I had to do. If you have never been in an MRI machine, be prepared, it is LOUD.

My second, and least favourite, test was the CT Scan. I've had two CT scans before, so I knew what to expect. This one was actually much faster than either of the others -- maybe because I had warned them that the contrast medium makes me incredibly nauseated.

My first test was scheduled for the day after I first met my team. It was a bone scan - my very first nuclear test. My mother had had several scans using nuclear isotopes during the period of her life when she had non-Hodgkins lymphoma (she's been in remission for over 2 years), so I was able to grill her regarding her experience. Mine was only slightly different - I was allowed to leave the hospital during the waiting period.

It was Leap Day, February 29th, when I found out I had breast cancer. What's worse - it had metastasized in my lymph nodes. I would have to wait another week and a half before I could see my new Surgical Oncologist, who would be coordinating my care. I felt lost. I was certain I was going to die. It was the longest and worst part of this experience so far. I finally met "my team" at Princess Margaret Hospital on March 12th. They immediately had me scheduled for several tests to determine if the cancer had spread. Regardless of the outcome, they knew exactly what to do now. They started a search for the first available Medical Oncologist - chemo doctor. Because the cancer is in my lymph nodes and is a fair size (about 2 cm by 3 cm) chemotherapy would be administered first. This should shrink the tumor (possibly even wipe it out) so that the surgery can be less drastic. It will also give the medical oncologist a good idea of how my cancer responds to the drugs given. Afte...