Did you get the instructions to avoid eating or drinking any foods high in sugars for 24 hours before the PET/CT (some say 48 hours), no food after 6 am (if a morning scan) and after that, only water? To avoid exercise for 24 hours beforehand and to be quiet and calm before the scan (no jiggling or fidgeting) -- this sounds silly but apparently can affect the scan. They also told Barry not to make a lot of arm motions and to sit still after he received the labelled glucose injection -- otherwise the active muscles compete for the labeled glucose and can adversely affect interpretation of the results. No reading or talking, they left him in a darkened room (very cool room, be prepared) for 45 minutes and then he went for the scan.

Expect areas that are still healing and inflamed will show "activity" on the scan. A radiologist used to seeing a lot of head/neck cancer PET/CTs will be able to sort these out in most cases, but perhaps not all -- there may be areas of uncertainty. Thus there may be a follow-up MRI if the oncologist wants to get a better idea of what's going on. In my husband's case, they didn't see anything that lookied like residual cancer but did note that he still had indications of a lingering pneumonia he suffered 3 months earlier (just post-treatment). As a result, he was given a course of antibiotics and re-checked with chest xray a month later, and the pneumonia had resolved.

His second PET/CT 3 months later was far less nerve-wracking since we knew what to expect, but there is still that period of nervousness until the result comes back (which in his case was "all clear")

Gail