Thursday 12th - Nuclear Medicine

We tried to get into nuclear meds straight after the gyno, and for a moment it looked like we'd be able to. Then the assistant came back to tell us (just caught us before we went down the lift for a coffee) that we'd have to come back at our original time after all because my little appointment would involve quite a few people. So nice of him to catch us, which meant we could plan our day a little bit.

So we went out for a lovely lunch at a cafe in Paddington and looked around the antique shop for a bit until it was time to head back. We managed to find a park near the hosptial that we didn't have to pay for - that was good because the parking was costing about $17 per day.

Back to the hosptial and back to nuclear meds. D rang when we were sitting down outside and we arranged for him to meet us in the hospital that afternoon. I went in again and had the usual name/birthdate/operation questions and they had a nurse and a doctor talk to me about the upcoming procedure and I had to sign another consent form. We all got taken through into the room with a big imaging machine thing and I got to lie down on the narrow bed bit - it was quite nice to lie down as we were exhausted already after the day's activities. Mum and L got to sit.

Then Mum and L had to leave while I had the ultrasound person use the ultrasound to find my cancer, and the doctor injected 4 needles ('north, south, east, west') around the cancer. Ouch to say the least... it was excruciating. I did say a few four letter words as they were doing it. Then I had to massage the liquid in (which I wasn't too keen on to begin with because it was bloody sore), and then they covered me up again with dressing gown and started to take pictures of the liquid draining through my lymph glands to the sentinel node. It wasn't the blue dye as I'd previously thought, but a radioactive fluid to find the sentinel node. The blue dye comes in later, during the actual operation.

That was pretty boring because I had to lie still for 10 minutes, then the nurse came and wiped up some dribble of the liquid on the outside of my breast, and then another 5 minutes, 5 minutes, and 5 minutes. You have to keep having the 3x5 minute pics done every 10 minutes until the liquid drains to the sentinel node. It can take the first run, or it can take several goes at 3x15 minutes. Mum, L, and also D came in after the initial 10 minute one, and I could chat to them as best I could staying still and muffled like a sandwich under the imaging machinery. The first ten minutes was a bit miserable because it hurt like anything and I was by myself. And why is it that one always gets an itchy nose/earlobe when having to stay perfectly still?

Luckily, the sentinal node was found right away - the second fastest the technician has ever seen he reckoned. The doctor then came in then and helped the technician (acutally, the technician helped the doctor) mark 2 spots with permanent marker where tomorrow's surgeons can find the sentinal node to do that biopsy. Then we were pretty much free to go. By then it was about 4.30pm - a hugely long day with so much information. L dropped Mum, D, and I off at home and then he did the grocery shopping for tonight's tea AND he picked up series 3 of Outrageous Fortune for me on DVD (we are so addicted), which we're going to try to put on his iPod so I'll have something to watch while lying awake at night on Friday night. L MIGHT even be able to stay over the night with me - we will ask them if it's possible tomorrow.