Matt's Cancer

30/07/2020 - Radiotherapy

Page 10

Today I have an appointment at Derby hospital, for radiotherapy treatment. I decided to drive myself there.
Just for fun I was going to ask the nurse if this injection will make me glow in the dark. The nurse explained the procedure to me, I was only allowed to use the loo on the ward, not to drink anything containing caffeine, etc, then she said the injection will not make me glow in the dark. I was so disappointed, not that it won’t make me glow in the dark, but for the fact I didn’t get to ask her that question.

After having the injection in my arm I waited in the waiting room, I had my tablet and headphones to keep me occupied.

The name of this test is called a GFR EDTA and is a simple procedure involving four visits to the Nuclear Medicine Department.
On the first visit, I would be given the radioactive injection in my arm, then asked to return to the department for blood samples at 2, 3 and 4 hours after the injection, this will take about 10 minutes each.

The test carried out is to assess how well my kidneys are working, the glomeruli are tiny filters in the kidneys, this test measures something called the glomerular ‘filtration rate’ . The test estimates the volume of blood that is filtered by my kidneys over a given period of time.
If these filters do not work properly then my kidneys are said to have reduced or impaired function.
This test is also used to determine my dosage for certain types of drug treatment.