The procedure involves injection with a radioactive sugar and I will describe it in detail in this post for any who are interested. The tumor cells along with some other area of your body will absorb that radioactive sugar at a much higher rate than the other cells in your body. So this allows them to take a picture of the tumor which now glows from the radioactive sugar. The area that shows up shows the extent of the cancer "activity" so if the tumor is still there but all the cancer cells are dead, no sugar takeup would occur. Thus this is very good test to monitor the progress or regression of a cancer.
This PEM image is from the top looking down on the tumor:
In my case it showed an area estimated to be about 15mm - the doctor was more conservative and said 18mm - but I saw the borders of the glowing area measured to be 15mm on the screen. What this tells me is that the second MRI I had done was way off on the measurement which they gave as 27mm. This way off measurement served to panic my doctors and briefly, me as well, when it seemed it had grown so much in 6 weeks. But now we can see for sure that this is not the case. I could tell that by simply *looking* at the MRI pictures, which apparently the second MRI doctor had not done, even though I provided him the cd's from the earlier MRI for comparison. This is what really IRRITATES me about conventional medicine. They don't WANT to see good news. They see only worsening cancer unless of course you get their "treatment" and then they start to see improvements - but only if THEY effect the changes.
The next image is from the inside view from the left:
To further illustrate this annoyance, the doctor interpreting my PEM scan delivered the information with the typical cancer scare tactics. And I quote. "THIS is CANCER. Cancer only gets bigger" She further went on to try to find out what kind of treatment I will get and how soon. When I told her.. no conventional treatment has been chosen.. she gave me a look as if to say "are you nuts". Time and time again I have to withstand the overwhelming opinions of doctors who see only one way to treat cancer and this is to the exclusion of many other viable and proven methods! For many people, they might succeed in wearing down the patient unti they finally give in to the pressure from family, friends and well-meaning, but uninformed doctors and get the conventional treatment. But I am not like many people and their attempts to coerce me only strengthens my resolve to follow my own path and not take the toxic treatments that they think are so effective.
I also would like to mention that although they tout the PEM Flex test and also PET scans as having no side effects from being injected with radioactive sugar, this is not the case. The side effects are real and not enough to prevent me from using PEM scan for monitoring this cancer. However, I would not get one more than twice a year at the most.
The side effects I experienced from the radioactive injection included fatigue for 24-48 hours after the test. I have not been fatigued since I went on this new diet and cut out the junk food. I have had boundless energy. However, I was noticeably fatigued after the test and instead of playing volleyball after it, I took a nap. This is not like me. I also experienced some minor ulceration on my tongue and some tongue swelling like you would get if you had a food allergy or some other food reaction. My tongue is still sort of thick today - more than 48 hours later and the ulceration is not quite gone. It did not cause me much trouble. But these are definite side effects that I beleive the supporters of PET scans and PEM scans would not like you to know about.
Here is what to expect if you go for a PEM test. I went to Bucks County Advanced Imaging and it is a brand new facility. It is located in Bensalem. The staff is very friendly and the facility is quite modern and very clean. Before the test I needed to refrain from eating carbs or sugar for at least 12 hours before the test and not engage in any exercise or exertion 12 hours before the test. I was to drink only water after midnight and have no other food after midnight. My test was at 11am so I probably could have gone till 2am with that because as a result I did not eat for close to 24 hours - just because of the timing of my schedule etc.
They take you in to a sitting room and test your blood sugar to make sure you don't have a high blood sugar which would make it less likely the tumor will take up the radioactive sugar. Then they inject you with the radioactive sugar and you are left there to either watch TV or rest of about 45 minutes. They don't want you to even read because they want the tumor cells to get all that radioactive sugar. If you exert your muscles, some is diverted to those muscles.
After the 45 minutes you are taken to the PEM Flex scanner. It looks like a portable mammogram machine with two plates on a rolling base and a computer is next to it. They compress the plates over each breast one at a time, but the compression is not as much as is given for a mammogram. It only serves to immobilize the breast and the scan takes about 10 minutes for each breast. There are a total of 2 views taken of each breast and one of the axillary lymph nodes on the side with the lump so all tests last about 55 minutes.
Right after the test you are able to view the images and receive the doctor's interpretation of the results. This is good to be able to see the results so quickly. However, they don't provide a cd for you to view the images yourself at home. This would be a nice improvement. I asked for some printouts which they gave to me.
What this test shows is the "activity" of the cancer cells. If there are no cancer cells there, there is no glow. Thus they were able to rule out cancer cells in the axillary lymph nodes, which makes me feel good about thinking I didn't need the sentinel lymph node biopsy to tell me the exact same thing. It's unbelievable that so many women buy into this procedure and so many surgeons feel it is just fine to remove lymph nodes just to CHECK for cancer. Meanwhile there is a test such as the PEM Flex or even a regular PET scan that could provide that information WITHOUT removing any lymph nodes!
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