4 mm

4 mm. 4 mm of lung inflammation may derail my enrollment in the vaccine trial. The CT scan that I had yesterday showed some inflammation in my right lung right where I had my boost of radiation. So, your saying the invisible treatment really did do something? My oncologist came into my office this morning and told me "Don't worry, but I want to show you something". Every patient's favorite phrase. She took me into her office (which is literally around the corner from mine) and showed me my CT scan. She scrolled through the slices (views) and there was a slight little bright spot. We reviewed the radiologists report to which basically just said there was something there and we should take a look again in 4-6 weeks. My oncologist told me it was not abnormal after XRT to have some lung inflammation and usually patients wouldn't have a CT Scan this close to finishing treatment, but for enrollment in the trial it was required. She will submit the finding to the medical review board of the study and they will decide if we can proceed. She is fairly confident that it should be fine, but there is still a chance that I won't be able to move forward.

Not being able to move forward would be disappointing especially after the marathon of tests I squeezed in between work. I started my day with a bone scan. Being a runner with a history stress fractures, bone scans are old hat for me. In between seeing patients I started my day with a visit from the IV nurse. The lovely people of nuclear medicine remembered that I was a hard stick and one of the fantastic IV nurses came in and got me hooked up in a jiffy. The nutrition department works closely with many of the IV nurses and this happened to be one of my favorites. She looked at me and said "Sara, I really have to get something off my chest. I didn't realize that you had been sick. I thought you were someone who had shaved your head for kids with cancer or something. I feel awful". I told her she needn't worry about it, especially if she was going to be putting IV's in me with such ease.

After I had my IV and another dose of radioactive technetium I went back to work for 3 hours. Well, having been the bald colleague and now I'm walking around with an IV hanging out of my hand (yes hand, that's where some of my only good veins remain) garnered a lot of attention from my colleagues. One of the nursing assistants in the MICU decided that it was not ok for me to walk down with an IV hanging out all day and wrapped up my wrist and IV so it looks like I just had an ace bandage. Did I mention I love the people I work with?

3 hours later I had a bone scan. This is really simple. You nap on a metal slab for an hour as a machine silently moves up and done. It was nice and warm and quiet in the room, which was great. Bone scan looks good per the oncologist (Yay for no bone mets!).

Next up came and EKG. This is hilarious to me. It takes the nursing assistant longer to put on all the leads then to do the the EKG. It's over in a heartbeat (ok that's a bad joke).

Finally I ended my day, after squeezing in 8 hours of work, with the previously mentioned CT scan. Thankfully no more radioactive injections! I am a spider bite away from being spiderman. Unfortunately, it also meant the return of Mochachino flavored barium! After eating 2 pieces of banana bread for lunch I was hungry, but Mochachino barium was the last thing on my list. I sucked down the first 450 ml no problem, the second 450 ml proved to be a challenge. The little old lady who was my waiting room friend gave me the knowing nod as she too was working on her second barium shake. In between making noises like this:

we both finally got our shakes down. I burped it up for the remainder of the night. For my repeat CT in 4 weeks no barium!

After the hour of Mochachino barium drinking came the actual scan. Without the PET scan a CT  only lasts for 10 minutes. However, the special dye is the one that makes you feel like you pee your pants! Oh holy uncomfortable feeling. Don't move, hold your breath for 30 seconds and feel like you peed your pants. Awesome. What would have helped is if they rhythm of the machine made me think of Jimmy Fallon. So I added fighting off laughter into the CT mix.

For now, we'll just wait and see what the review board says. Finger's crossed!