The pet I hate

I hate this pet! Let me quickly reassure my  animal loving friends that the pet in question is not a fluffy or furry soul but the Positron emission tomography better known as PET scan. This is part of what is called nuclear medicine and uses a radioactive tracer that is introduced in the body. No matter what anyone may tell you the fact is that it  involves exposure to ionizing radiation. The total dose of radiation is significant, usually around 5–7 mSv. However, in modern practice, a combined PET/CT scan is almost always performed, and for PET/CT scanning, the radiation exposure may be substantial. Not very reassuring as again no matter what anyone says radioactive substances do not leave you easily. I remember being told when we were in Prague and the Chernobyl disaster took place that we had all been exposed to the acid rain that fell on the the city the next day. Remember this was communist Prague and there had been a complete black out of the news. Those were days before the net and cell phones. I only came to know about it when Mama rung up from Delhi! It was a French Doctor who had come to measure radioactivity levels that told me that one should not forget to mention this fact where we faced with a diagnosis. I did mention it to Ranjan's oncologist and he sort of acquiesced.

Till date Ranjan has had 2 PETs! The first one gave us a better understanding of his cancer, the second which was after 4 cycles showed improvement one being the reduction of the size of the largest node by about half. If you remember the saga there was a time when we were told that 4 cycles, 8 chemos would be sufficient. However though the oncologist said we were 95% through, he insisted on another 2 cycles of 4 more chemos and we caved in. However the Ranjan's physical and mental state after chemo 11 compelled me to 'negotiate' with the doctor and make him admit that the last one would not make a difference. However he insisted that we have a PET scan immediately. Both my other Docs were apprehensive and thought that we should wait 3 to 6 months to get a real picture. However negotiations are all about give and take and I had to capitulate and accept the PET!

Ranjan's low blood counts delayed the procedure by a week and we had the scan last Saturday and the results yesterday. I do not know anything about scan plates etc but my knowledge of English is tolerable. This is what was written in the conclusion: as compared to previous scan dated 15-1-14 the scan findings are largely unchanged. No new lesion noted. Puzzling is it not? When I sent this to the oncologist and asked him if it was good news, he answered: Yes!

Donning my common sense hat I feel a little disconcerted. If there has been no apparent change, then it is not wrong to think that chemos 9, 10 and 11 had no real effect on the cancer but increased the toxicity in the body for no real reason and suppressed his bone marrow unnecessarily thus reducing the effectiveness of the body's natural immune defences. I could not but kick myself for not having heard the silent cries of Ranjan's body and my gut feeling. Actually it was a catch 22 situation and there is no point of crying over spilt milk. One lesson learnt is that next time, though I hope there will be no next time, one will listen to one's gut feeling.

Yesterday my heart skipped a beat and I almost choked when Ranjan candidly asked me whether his cancer had gone. How could I tell him that for the medical fraternity any cancer patient was in remission for 5 long years with a Damocles sword hung on his head? All I could say was that we were done with the modern medicine line of treatment and that I had always told him that in the best case scenario chemo could only deal with 80% of the problem, the remaining 20% was to be taken care by his own immune system. I know modern medicine does not believe in total cure. However there is a cornucopia of treasures that nature has given us that can heal and cure cancer if one is willing to play the game.