The sheer narrowness of the bed struck me when I went to get my PET/CT scan yesterday. My arms hung down awkwardly until they put a wide strap around them to hold my hands on my chest and my elbows in.

Apart from that it was similar to a CT scan – lying in a tube being asked to hold your breath or “please breathe”. There was a lot of time just lying there though.

But the main difference is in the prep. No sugar for 24 hours, no strenuous exercise the day before, no food four hours before. Why? Because instead of contrast alone going into your vein, as in a CT, the substance that is used for the PET is a radioactive glucose. To get clear results they don’t want you to have high blood sugar already or have tired out muscles crying out for energy.

That radioactive glucose needs to go straight to the cells in the body that burn up sugar the fastest and these are the cancer cells. Tumours will light up.

The radioactive stuff is made in Wellington and if there’s a glitch there, the whole country has to reschedule the PETs. This happened to me on Friday and as the tech person pointed out, we’ve had PETs for eleven years in Auckland. Maybe it’s time for an additional production base.

If you have the scan late in the day, it’s a real pain but once you’re there, everything is very peaceful and the going is easy. A line in the arm: the radioactive glucose goes in for 3 minutes and then you lie there for about an hour while it travels to where it wants to go. A soft Laziboy at Mercy Radiology and a TV with Netflix. You’re in a room by yourself. I couldn’t find anything I wanted to watch on Netflix so watched all the Covid argy bargy on my phone. It was the day we found out if Auckland was going to Level 4 again in which case procedures like this would be put on hold.

Then it’s into the scan room where there is a combined PET scan machine and CT Scanner. I don’t really understand the machine part of this.

In comes the CT contrast into the vein and that characteristic warm flush whooshes through your body and ends up in your groin. Then the usual rotating machine and robotic voice but as well as that a long time just lying there with not much noticeable rotation. I was comfortable in my straitjacket but I was glad to get out of there and to see the bright blue water of Lake Pupuke sparkling between the houses over the road.

The DHB pays for this private treatment. In fact it was a treat for this public hospital gal. (I kind of missed the hospital though.) They believe that the patient should be the custodian of her data so I should be able to access the results soon.

They will be what they will be but after all that hard prep I think I deserve a good result.