Inside The Giant Donut

Weight: 136.2
Pain areas: Throat areas, esp. when swallowing – noticeably more pain than yesterday. Heartburn isn’t as bad now-a-days. Its not really an issue compared to the pain in my throat.
Numbness: Right hand, right foot (only slight when waking up. A little shake and its gone)
General Attitude: Positive

I’m losing so much weight that I’m getting worried. I’m down 0.8lbs from yesterday and down nearly 4lbs 10 days ago. The other concern is my throat – I noticed some white patches in the back of my throat (and some redness). Pain started the morning after my endoscopy with Dr. Ferrell on August 27. Eating is becoming very difficult because of the pain – up to a pain severity of 7 when swallowing. The throat lozenges that Sarah bought for me were a godsend – pain subsides after about a minute.

I just got a call on my cell at 11am saying that UCLA might have a spot for me later today to take my much anticipated PET scan. I can’t wait – best good news today. Now I just have to starve myself for the rest of the day (I can’t have anything to eat before the test). Maybe that’s why I’m losing so much weight?

The PET procedure wasn’t so bad – about 2 hours in all nearly half of which involved just waiting around for the stuff to go through my system. It was actually a PET and CT scan combined into one. I had to swallow some tracer in the form of a smoothie and was injected with a radioactive tracer. I had to wait about 35 minutes for that radioactive substance to be circulated around me system. While in the machine itself I was injected with different contrasts – one of which caused a burning sensation all over my body (which I was told in advance). That makes 4 IVs that I’ve had so far and at least 6 blood tests.