A CaT but not a PET

I was due for a PET/CT scan in late June. Actually, in my own opinion, I was *overdue.* Previously, my insurance would not pay for a PET scan any more frequently than once every 3 months and my last PET was in February. That scan had ambiguous results though, so we did a follow-up CT scan in March. My doctor said we would do another PET 3 months after the CT scan, rather than 3 months after the PET (as I had hoped).

But I was patient. I knew the follow-up CT scan had shown that what looked ambiguous in February remained the same size a month later. A good sign, since what cancer does is *grow.* So I waited. But as late June approached and my nerves began to twitch, I got a phone call from my doctor's office explaining it was too soon for a PET scan and insurance was saying they wouldn't cover it.

I didn't accept that for one second. I insisted they pull up my records, which showed I certainly was due for a scan based on the 3 month rule. After some investigation and several additional phone calls we finally found the actual problem. Medicare (my primary insurance) has decided to allow 3 PET scans in a person's lifetime. Which means I've had about 7 lifetimes worth of scans already!

Needless to say, I'm not very happy with this development. Clear PET scans also cleared my mind and soothed my nerves, so missing a scan has been stressful.

But we didn't simply abandon the idea of a scan altogether. The scan I usually would have undergone is a combined PET and CT scan. Since my primary insurance declined coverage of the PET, my secondary insurance followed suit. But I was still allowed a CT scan. So we scheduled one of those for early July.

The CT scan I got required 2 types of contrast (which helps to differentiate things on the scan). The first involved drinking a giant cup of liquid.

And this is after I'd drank the first 1/4 of the contrast

The second is an IV contrast which, when administered, makes you feel like you've peed your pants. It's an unfortunate side effect, especially paired with the fact that I had just downed a small lake's worth of liquid!

The good news is that my CT results appear normal. It's not as good an indicator as the combined PET/CT, but it will have to do. Insurance won't pay for another PET unless there's a change in my status that leads us to believe my cancer has returned. Most likely I would get a CT scan showing potentially cancerous activity. Then insurance would pay for a PET as a follow-up. Hopefully I won't find out. As long as my CT scans are normal, I'm willing to give up the injection of radioactive sugar I was receiving every 3 months with my PET scans. There go my dreams of a radioactive-sugar-induced transformation to a superhero. A sense of having wet my pants is a poor replacement.