Testing Testing and more Testing - Am I clean from cancer yet?

Two weeks ago I did what I hoped would be the last of the large tests to see if the cancer was gone or not. It started with a shot in the rear end with Thyrogen. (around $1300 a shot) I then returned on Tuesday for the second shot in the neighboring cheek. (another $1300, dont worry, having met my $5500 deductible this year I am only responsible for 20%) By Tuesday I have spent an ipad3 worth of money on a sore rear in an effort to trick my body into thinking that it is HYPO thyroid. It is critical that I am hypo thyroid for my blood test later in the week so we can see if my thyroglobulin levels are where they were supposed to be. I can either stop taking my synthroid for 2 weeks or get this shot. Looking back on this I am wondering why I did not go two weeks and buy an iPad 3. Since I was in Provo already I did get to run a few errands one of which was buying a $10 bow saw at Sears and cutting a few large branches that fell on my rental property near BYU. Something about cutting some wood into smaller pieces that was therapeutic that morning.

On Wed I had a weird unrelated visit to the ER after having unbelievable abdominal pain.

On Thursday afternoon I went to do the blood tests.

On Friday I was able to move my appointment for the CT (Cat) and PT (Pet) Scans up from 8:30am to 7:30am since I had a flight to catch to Phoenix and had to be at the airport in SLC at 12. When I arrived to the Utah Valley Outpatient building (the one near Kneaders) after registering they pricked my finger and managed to squeeze out an enormous amount of blood to test my blood sugar level and test my kidneys. Those tests went well so they put an IV in my arm and gave me some radioactive liquid in a syringe to prep for the tests. Then they had me sit in a dark room and drink a lemonade (they asked if I wanted different drinks and I chose lemonade since I rarely want a soda). I sat in the dark room on a recliner (hospital style) with a blanket (also hospital style) in scrubs for around an hour in and out of conscienceness. Eventually they came to get me to take me to the room with the petscan/catscan machine.

I layed on the thin bed with my arms on my side (held in place with a velcro strap) and the bed moved into place. First were the cat scans where I moved back and forth 3 times and each time the machine would say (breath out, breath in, stop breathing). After the CT Scans the bed moved outside of the large donut so only my feet were inside of it. The PT scan took around 35 mins and every few minutes the bed would move and part of my body closer to my head would be scanned.  Eventually it was done and I changed my clothes and headed home for final travel preparations and goodbyes. I did get a paper to show the airport security just in case I set off the radiation detectors, but I did not get to use it as I set nothing off out of ordinary when I went through security.

Now I had to wait till next week to see what the blood, CT and PT scans showed.