Angie's Stem Cell Transplant 2006: Wall Motion Study

About Me

Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

In Sept./05 I was diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal Large Diffuse B Cell Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. The tumour in my chest measured 10cm x 10.6cm x5cm. After I completed 6 rounds of CHOP-R chemotherapy, a CT Scan in Jan.06 showed that my tumour had decreased by well over half the original size. A Gallium Scan showed negative for cancer cells in my mass. We decided to do 2 more treatments to be sure we killed any remaining cancer. We now had to decide if I should proceed with radiation. Did the risks of radiation outweigh the benefits? My hematologist and radiation oncologist had excellent arguments for both sides of the coin. The decision was to be mine. They set up appointments for me to see doctors in Toronto and Vancouver for 2nd opinions. In Vancouver I had a PET/CT Scan (a superior machine to a Gallium Scan) to see if my tumour was active. On March 17th this scan revealed that my tumour WAS still active and had INCREASED in size from an early scan. This meant that I had Relapsed or Refractory NHL....my best chance for cure was a Stem Cell Transplant. In my blog, I will describe what I am going through before, during and after my transplant.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Wall Motion Study

Today I went to the Nuclear Medicine Department of the New Halifax Infirmary for a Wall Motion Study....to see how well my heart is functioning.

This is the actual machine used to do my test today. I had to lie down on the imaging table, and the camera took an image at 3 different angles around my chest. I had 3 ecg pads attached to my chest to obtain heart rate data necessary to produce a movie of my beating heart, to see how well it is working as a pump.

Some of the chemo drugs I have received over 10 treatments may have caused a decrease in the efficiency of my heart. My doctor wants to make sure my heart is strong enough for the SCT. He also wants to have a baseline test to compare to after my Stem Cell Transplant.

A small needle was used to put a solution called PYP into my vein. This substance caused my red cells to become sticky. I had to wait 20 mins. and then I had a second injection of a small amount of radioactivity. Without the first injection of PYP, the injected radioactivity would not be able to stay attached to the red blood cells, and the images of blood movement in the heart would not be possible.

The 3 pictures took about 7 minutes each. I was in the room approximately30-40 minutes. A gamma camera is used to produce the pictures. The first picture was focus on my left ventrical. The other two pictures were focused on the walls & chambers of my heart.

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Angie

Hi It's Judy and Pam saying hi.
You are such a trooper. It's hard to read what you are going through but such an inspiration to hear how you are handling things. I will give Sue a call tonight.

Take Care Pam and Judy; 5:16 pm