Bone Nuclear Scan - Dec 15-17, 2022

December 15, 2022 

Woke up this morning at 6am a little nauseous and headachy. The weather was calling for freezing rain. It didn’t matter since I had to go for my nuclear bone scan. 

“A nuclear bone scan is a type of nuclear medicine tool that uses trace amounts of radioactive substances, called radiotracers, to evaluate physical and chemical bone changes. A special camera, called a gamma camera, detects radiation emitted from the radiotracers. A computer creates 3D images from the gamma camera data.”

We had to go twice.  We arrived for our 7:15am appointment. The procedure begins with an injection of radioactive tracer called 99m-Technetium in your veins. That only took a few minutes. I felt like singing the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragon’s. You re instructed to drink a lot of fluids for the next 24 hours, to wash your hands thoroughly after going to the washroom, use separate washroom if possible then others, stay arm’s length away from pregnant women, infants or children for the rest of the day. There were no other restrictions from daily routine.  They gave me a form in case I cross the border and set off their radioactive detectors. I just wanted to go home and relax. 

We had to wait 4 hours for the substance to flow and work its way through my body.  Apparently, the substance spreads through the body, the bone’s cells naturally gravitate to areas that need repair.  The substance ‘s radioactive tracers follow these cells and collect in spots where bone I damaged. It’s taken up in regions that have a high blood flow.  The damaged areas where the substance has settled, appear as dark spot on the image. It creates a 3D effect.   

We went back to the hospital for 11:15m.                                            

Shawn, the technician, told me to lie down in the unit and tied my feet together with an elastic so they do not fall sideways and then wrapped my arms in a heavy rubber Velcro cover so that my arms stay close to my body. 

During the first part, the machine scans your whole body, which takes 15 minutes. Then it scans rotating around first my pelvis for 8 minutes, then my abdomen for 8 minutes and then the bead for the same amount of time. The hardest part is you cannot move.  Voilà…that was it.  

Very interesting technology. I thanked Shawn and back home Steve, and I went. Good thing Steve likes to read for the amount of time he has to wait for me. I'm so blessed he is there for me. 

Dec. 17, 2022

Yesterday was a good day however today I woke up staring down at the toilet bowl and had a headache all day. Not sure why that happens. I spent most o the day on the couch or bed.  Steve is making sure I eat since I am trying to gain weight.