Caveat: On Being Temporarily Radioactive

My diagnostic PET scan at the hospital was delayed due to technical issues with their gadgets. I wasn't really upset by this, but it forced me to send a message to Curt telling him I would be late to work – later than already anticipated. Fortunately, someone was able to take my missed class, and I raced to work after the scan and went straight into my 6:40 class. 

"I'm radioactive," I announced. This, of course, required extensive explanation. 

I explained about Fluorine-18 radiotracer-tagged glucose (fluorodeoxyglucose – basically radioactive sugar) and how it shows hotspots of metabolic activity on the scan. It probably mostly went over their heads – elementary kids in Korea only know science well if they study it in hagwon, as the public elementary schools don't seem to do a very good job with science education.

I'm not sure the kids really cared that much – they didn't find it to be as interesting as I'd thought they might – sometimes with these kind of technological / medical issues, it's hit-or-miss.

I had a terrible headache this evening, but I suspect this has more to do with the requisite pre-scan fast than because of the radioactivity or injection or any of that. 

I go back tomorrow to get the result.

[daily log: walking, 7.5 km]

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