Ok, so back to the study - Amanda had the PET scan scheduled for 8am the first day so it was a really really early start for us.  I think we left the house around 6am. When we got to the hospital they hooked Amanda up to an IV (because she would need to be sedated) and put the electrodes on her scalp for the EEG. At this point she had no sedation so this was quite difficult with her fussing a lot. After they finished putting them on (26 electrodes I think) they were ready for the injection. Let me just stop here and explain a little about a PET scan the way I understand it. As part of its normal function your brain uses glucose to create energy (as does the rest of your body). The more active portions of your brain will use more glucose than the less active portions. A dead portion of your brain will use no glucose. Now with that in mine what they do is combine a radioactive isotope with glucose and inject it into your blood stream. The radiopharmaceutical is created by a nuclear chemist. (yea you probably wont find a PET scanner at a walk-in clinic) The glucose used by each area of your brain then deposits the isotope in that area. Now for the really cool part. As a radioactive substance decays it releases anti-matter. Electrons normally carry a negative charge, but in the case of anti-matter they have a positive charge. (someday we will be able to create anti-matter and it will solve all or our energy problems. I just read that ½ a pound of anti-matter can power the entire united states for 2 days. When matter combines with anti-matter it releases and enormous amount of energy. Ok, I could go on and on, but you are probably pretty bored by now)

The scanner simply detects these emitted positrons and charts them visually. Now I know what you are thinking, "isn't this dangerous?" Well the radioactive isotope has a half-life of about 2 hours and therefore is rendered inactive pretty quickly after the procedure. It exposes the patient to no more radiation than a CT scan or chest x-ray. BUT since Brandy was pregnant, she would not be able to be in the room with Amanda during the uptake or the actual scan and she also needed to avoid holding or carrying Amanda for 6 hours after the initial injection. (this was pretty weird, right?) Anyway, after they inject the radiopharmapsudical they monitor the patient for 30 minutes by EEG during what is called the "uptake period" During this 30 minutes the patient should be stimulated as little as possible, such as sight, hearing or touch, because that can cause those corresponding areas of the brain to deposit more of the isotope and give a false reading. Amanda did ok during the uptake period, but clearly was not happy (only because she was being restrained though.) It had nothing to do with the meds.

After the 30 minutes they removed the electrodes and took us into the PET scanner room. They allowed me to hold her while they gave her the sedative and I think they make it much easier for her to go to sleep instead of having her lay down before administering the sedative. They promptly started the scan and to my amazement (after being through one of her MRIs) the machine is silent! Things went great and she was done in no time. We were told to expect the results the next day.

Later that day she had her Neuropsychological evaluation. They also confirmed that she was performing very well for her age and condition. She was still somewhat sedated from the morning so I feel she could have done much better if she was fresh. I think next year we will see if they can do the evaluation on a separate day.