Speaking only from a patient perspective, I get comfort from the scans as a backup. Quite often, especially during treatment, I felt like there wasn't much to do except "go along" with tests and treatment. After a year of going through the absolute worse year of my life, the wonderful advice from this forum pulled me through it. At the very least, going to a CCC was reassuringly the best option.

I have a feeling that the fused CT/PET scans are going to be the wave of the future for most of us. For the past two months my doctors were telling me of the "new toy" they were bringing in and I had the experience of jumping in the tube last month. My ENT doc told me today that this machine is so valued that they are building a SPECIAL whole new building for it (This explains why I had to jump into the back of a semi trailer for my first experience) It was a definite improvement over having to go to two different radiation areas and spending half a day getting both a CT and a PET scan. It also seemed to be of shorter duration.

However, it was certainly of great relief for me to find that during the ENT appointment today, he read the findings of that new fangled CT/PET scan to tell me that from head to toe--nothing was "lit up" and that includes the lung and liver, two of the areas they are always concerned about.

Personally, if given the option, I won't ever object to getting scanned on a regular basis. It definitely gives me a feeling of security. I'll bet dollars to donuts that in the future most of us will be scanned with the new fangled combo CT/PET scans. Given the way my doctors have been crowing about this machine, it's the future...

Jen