The diet was followed perfect, and I was looking forward to a clean scan. I packed an egg sandwich to eat after the scan.
I drove to the PET scan place, arriving at 10:00 and did the whole procedure of injections, pills, and drinking peppermint tasting fluid.
I took my prosthetic leg off while there, and just used crutches.
I did the scan, then she said she wanted to re-do a section. So I ended up doing a total of 40 minutes in the tunnel.
Then they told me to go wait in the cool down room because I was too radioactive to be near anybody for an hour or so. Normally they allow me to eat then, but the lady said no food. About 20 minutes later, she said the Doctors wanted another partial scan.
So I went back into the tunnel, but this time it was only for about 10 minutes. They just did my groin area.
Then I went back to the cool down room. They said I could now eat.
After eating, I started to put my leg on, to go home. Then the Lady told me to leave the leg off for a bit longer. After another hour she came in and asked me to follow her on crutches, to the ultrasound room.
There they did an ultra sound probe of the area next to my groin on the stump. The cute ultrasound Lady said the area in question was next to, the groin lymph node.
After 10 minutes she had a pile of picture paper on the floor. She picked them all up and left. About 20 minutes later, she came back with a doctor. He did another 10 minutes of ultrasounding my thigh, and he produced another pile of paper pictures. They both left with the pile of pictures, and told me to go wait in the cool down room.
About 10 minutes later a lady told me I could put my leg back on. They they came and gave me a big sealed envelope and told I could leave now, and me to give the envelope to the Oncologist. They said that it takes 3 or 4 days before the pictures are interpreted and the report will be sent to the Oncologist.
On the way home I felt depressed, so bought a pizza.
At home I looked at the CD. All images are in DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) format.
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June 23
It was not easy to see the DICOM images. I had to use GIMP (Graphic and Image Manipulation Program) to convert them to png format.
Here are 2 of the PET scan pictures.
It is easy to see what the problem is. On the groin muscle is a bright spot on the PET scan photos.
The bright dots above it are my balls, and the big ball above them is my bladder.
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Today I also spoke with my prosthetists. He made a cast of my stump almost 5 weeks ago. I wondered why things are taking so long.
He has been going on courses to learn a new system for prosthetic attachment.
Normally, like with mine, there is a seal, and a one way valve, that allows air out of the bottom of the socket when the stump is forced into the socket. This forms a suction in the very bottom of the socket, and that keeps the prosthesis from falling off.
With this new system, the seal is very high on the stump, and a small vacuum pump keeps the whole stump under a vacuum. This is supposed to keep the volume of the stump the same, and force the sides to be in contact with the socket. This is supposed to give greater feel, and less stump shrinkage through out the day.
Until very recently this system has only been available for below the knee amputees.
The brochure says it is for people that:
Well, I have need of all of those. As usual, they want the price of my house for the vacuum system.
One company also has a new foot/ankle system that allows walking on uneven ground.
Again big prices. Add to that a good new knee, and the total for a new leg will be +- $155,000 or R1,900,000
My prosthetists say he is trying to get a loaner vacuum rig so he can practice building a system. He wants to learn on me. He also wants the medical aid to pitch in for most of the cost. I may have to also add some money.
All this is very exciting for me........
But now I have a shining spot on my PET scan pics. :-(
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