another couple tests

The test I had last Friday - a complete bone scan came back perfectly fine. It does not show any metastases in the bone or any other problem. Even my foot problem does not show up. 

The next test I have to have is called a MUGA scan. This one examines my cardiac function, specifically by looking at health of the left ventricle. It is explained below. 

This is something I was not prepared for. I knew about the surgery and the upcoming chemo, but the sheer volume of tests, scans, needles, blood work, etc has surprised me. I should be entitled to my own parking stall at Nanaimo Hospital by now. People are starting to recognize me and call me by name. As nice as they all are, I'd rather be meeting these people on the sidelines at a soccer game or at the mall.

Doctors have developed strategies to minimize the risk of damaging the heart muscle with certain chemotherapeutic drugs. These strategies include: avoiding the drug altogether in patients who already have heart disease; keeping the total dosage given to each patient below a certain “threshold” value; and monitoring the patient’s cardiac function by means of the MUGA scan.

The MUGA scan (MUltiple Gated Acquisition scan) is a noninvasive test that produces a moving image of the heart. From this image, the health of the heart’s major pumping chamber (the left ventricle) can be assessed.

A MUGA scan is performed by attaching a radioactive substance, Technetium 99, to red blood cells, then injecting the red blood cells into the patient’s bloodstream. (The level of radiation to which a patient is exposed during this test is considered minimal.) The patient is then placed under a special camera (a gamma camera), and with some fancy computer manipulation, a “movie” of the beating heart is made. From this moving image, the MUGA scan gives an accurate and reproducible way to measure the ejection fraction of the left ventricle.