Day One

Quite a different journey to work for me today. I'm on the 07.30am train into central London. By 8.30 I'm sitting in one of the many cafes in the hospital, looking out over the river Thames and the Houses of Parliament. Hundred of staff are arriving - I assume they are staff because I haven't spotted one uniform yet. I wonder if there is a policy whereby you don't travel to work in your uniform. I feel strangely at home. I grew up around this area and went to school just down the road from the hospital. I remember it as less than salubrious but today I am struck by how clean and bright it is, with lots of sculpture and modern art.

All the staff in the PET department were expecting me, an induction pack and badge were waiting and a three week itinery produced. I was really impressed with the organisation, but also the warmth of welcome. I am the first 'formal' student they have had, which really surprised me because the centre has an international reputation for excellence and many PET trials are conducted there. They are keen to know that they are fulfilling my objectives and have asked for feedback on my experience.

It's not a department to work in if you're of a disorganised disposition - timing is everything. Patients arrive and are taken to an interview/injection room. Here a team of two radiographers work together, one checking id and patient history whilst the other canulates the patient. From here the patient changes into a hospital gown and is allocated one of six bays with a bed - this is known as a 'hot' room and is where the radioactive tracer is injected. The idea is to minimise your time in this room, potentially you could have six patients all emitting radiation and that could result in a high cummulative dose. Once injected the patient needs to remain inactive for an hour and half, even reading is not permitted. This is to create optimal conditions for the uptake of tracer to pathology and not muscle. Although this sounds like a lot of sitting around time for the radiographers nothing could be further from the truth. Scans need to be conducted exactly on time, and as one patient’s scan is finishing another patient’s uptake time is completing. About ten minutes before the scan the patient is sent to empty their bladder and then return to rest. Somehow the radiographers know exactly where each patient is in the process, interaction with the patient and thus radiation burden is shared equally between the radiographers and they also had a running mental tally of this.

I’ve ‘acquired’ lots of other bits of information about the modality and will endeavour to put them into context over the coming days.