I am officiallly radioactive

I completed my pre-admission this morning. Then I went to imaging for the procedure to find my first lymph node. It was an interesting process. Dr. Ball and Nate (CNA?) did the procedure. Dr. Ball first deadened an area around my nipple. Then he injected a radioactive tracer into the tissue. The tracer works its way through your system to the lymph nodes. This part of the procedure took about 30-40 min. It was interesting to watch on the screen. It was somewhat like looking at stars at night. What eventually happens is one of the stars gets very big. That is the tracer collected in the first lymph node. The tracer also made it to my second lymph node. That area on the screen also started growing bigger. They take a few images for Dr Livingston. Then they use something like a Geiger counter - it makes noise like a Geiger counter - and mark a spot on my skin where the first lymph node is. It gives Dr. Livingston a place to start in surgery. She will also have similar equipment in surgery to make sure she identifies the first lymph node.

I am told there was an article in the Statesman this morning and also on one of the morning shows today  where they discussed this procedure in detail.