Out on licence

I’ve been given time off for good behaviour and sent home. I knew it was looking good when Nurse Rose came into my room yesterday morning and took the cannula out. I saw the medic team later and was told that I’ve had enough gentamicin and so can go home and take the other two antibiotics orally. Sheila recruited Bill Smith to bring her in and collect me that afternoon so here I am back in the lodge, feeling a bit feeble after no serious exercise for 6 days.

The other good news is that it’s been decided not to attempt another EUS, praise be, but to send me for a PET scan instead. Positron Emission Tomography is a bit like a super-CT scan, involving infusing a solution of a glucose analogue labelled with fluorine18 into the blood stream. F18 is unstable and emits gamma rays as it decays. These are detected by the machine and used to produce a 3D image similar to the CT process. Since rapidly growing cells take up more glucose than ordinary ones, a tumour becomes apparent in the image.

So it’s time-to-wait time again. The Royal has made an urgent referral to QMC Nottingham’s Nuclear Medicine department for me, that being the nearest PET scanner, and I should be getting a phone call sometime soon, hopefully.  The estimable Jo James has already planned out how to take me there, thank you Jo.

Meantime, I just have to live with usual consequences of taking two potent antibiotics by mouth...