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I try to exercise most every day.  It was difficult to do last week, following my sixth and final chemo treatment.  I felt like garbage most of the week, and couldn't get motivated to exercise much. 

I decided that I would start fresh this week, with a renewed commitment to running, so I went for an easy 5-miler on Monday morning.  Because I'm so out of shape, I actually stopped to walk a number of times along the way.

That was a terrible decision.

I knew I had a PET scan scheduled for Tuesday, which would show the status of the cancer in my body.  I had been through this once before, so I thought I knew the drill.  No carbs 24 hours before the test.  Drink lots of water. 

I forgot about the part about no exercise the day before.  Oops.

I didn't sleep much Monday night.  I was so anxious about finding out the results of this test.  More than anything in the world, I want to be cancer-free.  If the test comes back positive, and shows some cancer is still hanging around, I may have to go back in and get some more chemo, and I really want to be finished with that. 

So, when I arrived at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance yesterday, I was tired.  I was a little groggy and irritable.  I was really looking forward to getting the thing done and then going out  for a big breakfast: pancakes, french toast, a donut.  A cheese omelette with a side of hash browns, toast and jelly.  All of it.  At once.  But that wasn't gonna happen. 

The nurse inserted an an IV to flush my body with the radioactive sugar fluid for the test.  He informs my wife that she she can hang with me for a little while, but after a bit I will actually become radioactive, and won't be safe to be around.  In fact, I should stay away from children after the test because of my radioactivity.

I'm radioactive.  Gee.  I always wanted to have a superpower.

"Able to bulk erase a TV station's tape library in the blink of an eye".  Just like Jack Black's character in Be Kind, Rewind.
 
The nurse asked me a battery of preliminary questions. Among them: "Have you exercised within the last 24 hours?" I admitted I had.  The nurse left.  A few minutes later another nurse came in, with a very stern look on her face, to inform me that my little 5 mile run/ walk the day before could possibly interfere with the test.  The sugar is designed to cling to cancer cells, and if my muscles are the least bit fatigued, that sugar would rush to the muscles in my legs and stomach and compromise the results.  The test is too important and too expensive to take this kind of a risk, so I would have to reschedule.  

Remember how I was saying life isn't what happens to you, it's how you react to it? I didn't react well to this news.  I was very upset.  I wanted to get this done.  I already had an IV in my arm.  I had already sacrificed for a day on my protein diet.  I had my post-test breakfast already ordered in my mind.  Most of all, I couldn't wait to find out if the cancer was dying. or Dead.

I was able to get the PET rescheduled for today (Wednesday).  So that meant I had to go a full 48 hours with no carbs.  My breakfast plans were dashed.  No pancakes. No donuts. No hash browns. No toast and jam.

Oh, and no exercise.  Check.  I'm going back in for my test today, better rested, hoping for some good news.