I had the famous Gallium-68 scan done yesterday at UCLA Medical Center, 200 Medical Plaza, Los Angeles. I was able to have it done because I am being cared for by Dr. Edward Wolin of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It was quite amazing to have something done that I have read about in www.carcinoid.org for two years. People have flown across oceans to get this done.
In an earlier post I had written about going to Dr. Oberg at Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden. That is not necessary because this scan works the same way. The only difference is in the radioactive element used to make the tumors light up.
When I got to the Nuclear Medicine Center, I filled out paperwork (as usual) and then went back to talk to Dr. Schiepers, the radiologist. He has worked at one of the German treatment centers that does PRRT and has helped over 3000 patients. He is a kind man who explained to me that the Gallium-68 scan can be done in a PET scanner because they used gallium, rather than the indium-111 used in an Octreoscan . I wondered why Octreoscans had a special scanner. So with the new scan, the PET and CT scans are overlapped to give a 3-D image.
The Gallium-68 scan is easy! I had the IV of the radioactive Dotatoc; drank 2 cups of berry flavored barium in an hour; and followed the technician back to the scanner. I got one more cup of barium, and we did the scan. The time for the CT was about 7 minutes, and the PET was about 25 minutes. Piece of cake! I was thanking everyone because I have waited for a scan that would find my tumor since 2009. It seemed to shrink after I began Octreotide treatment.
One new thing I know after going to Dr. Wolin, is that I have been on too much Octreotide! It has caused the weakness and some of the diarrhea I have had. I won't be doing any more rescue shots.
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