Fwd: Yes had bad days too!

[Guest guest]

Just trying to pull them out but yes we will have to edit a lot

Narice

[Guest guest]

Okay, so day #2 in the tubes....

I get there at 8:00 supposedly for a combination PET/CT scan inside

the stereotactic body frame for the purpose of conformal radiation

planning, and.....

They inject me with the radioactive tracer, I wait. Well, its

finally time to do the scan, I go into the scan room and there's a

bunch of people there. Interestingly enough, one of them is a

Siemen's technician, and they're all standing around the control

computers. " You can't get on yet, we have to calibrate the machine "

somebody says. OK. So I wait....and wait...and wait....

Well somehow the machine is screwed up so it can't store the images

correctly. Guy says " well look on the hard drive, maybe its full " ,

and the other guy does a " FILE PROPERTIES " (well duh, you mean you

idiots hadn't looked at that an hour ago?! You might have considered

checking this before giving me a hefty dose of liquid radioactivity

for nothing you morons). No, there's 60 megs left, plenty of room.

Then they start talking about the cables...maybe there is a break

somewhere...they call Siemens to get help....they wait and fool

around.....

If any of you have ever called tech support before you know how

likely they are to actually resolve anything with an answer besides

" Reformat the hard drive " (universal solution to all computer

problems). But I don't think they actually ever got an answer back

of any kind while I was there.

So finally at 10:30 (after waiting a couple hours) I said look guys,

you're clearly screwed up, you obviously can't resolve this anytime

soon, I've got other things to do and I'm leaving (well actually I

used a bit stronger language than that but this is a public board so

I won't tell you what I really said). I leave...and at 12:00 I call

them back. " I'm getting ready to have lunch now, BUT I haven't eaten

anything yet today and if you've got it fixed I can be back in 15

minutes " I told them. " No " the guy replies, " I don't think we will

have it up today.... "

I assume they will fix it over the weekend so I have the fun of going

in for Day #3 at the Keystone Dept. of Radiology early next week.....

During the waits I did overhear an interesting tidbit or two I'll

pass on

The Siemens technician said something about a combo scanner being

installed in Tampa, Florida (that has to be the Moffit Cancer Center,

who else would be big enough to afford one?). All of the " better "

cancer centers will be getting one of these soon, so if you're

interested in getting one of these scans (I highly recommend it!) you

should check with a MAJOR CANCER CENTER near you (smaller

institutions will NOT have the resources to purchase one of these

scanners).

I was also discussing the hypo vs hyper fractionation issue with a

physicist...he told me that there were several other institutions

experimenting/going to experiment with a similar protocol to that

used at IU: he specifically mentioned University of Colorado, MD

, Jefferson (PA), it would appear there IS interest in

doing things this way at other cancer centers.

So, there you have my report for today. Now let's recap the lessons

so far...

(1) When you go into be scanned, you should always bring a couple

large cans of Crisco with you, this will help you fit in the machines

better

(2) Be sure to also bring any documentation that came with your

computer, along with extra computer cables as this may help the

technicians. Bring a copy of " Windows for Dummies " if you have this

book, they may need to look up some things.

(3) While being injected with radioactive tracer 3 times in a month

is probably not good for you, you can still turn it into a positive

experience. Try to sit really, really close to someone you don't

like (say for example the doctor whose decisions caused the problems

to begin with) for as long as possible so they can be exposed to

unhealthy doses of radiation along with you.

Well, you can't take all this too seriously guys! Hey the weekend's

here, won't have to look at another doc for at least a couple days!

Best Wishes,

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

Hi Narice,

I have just got into our stories group. Great, You have done a wonderful job

!!!!

Lydia

flipper759@... wrote:

Just trying to pull them out but yes we will have to edit a lot

Narice

[Guest guest]

ROTFLOL!!!!

Marty

On 10/25/2005 2:23:52 PM, colon_cancer_support wrote:

>

>

> Okay, so day #2 in the tubes....

>

> I get there at 8:00 supposedly for a combination PET/CT scan inside

> the stereotactic body frame for the purpose of conformal radiation

> planning, and.....

>

> They inject me with the radioactive tracer, I wait. Well, its

> finally time to do the scan, I go into the scan room and

> there's a

> bunch of people there. Interestingly enough, one of them is a

> Siemen's

> technician, and

> they're all standing around the control

> computers. " You can't get on yet,

> we have to calibrate the machine "

> somebody says. OK. So I wait....and wait...and wait....