Gamma Camera Images

Daniela had an appointment earlier today, the day before surgery, at Georgetown University Hospital. I accompanied her to the Nuclear Medicine section...nuclear medicine...two words in apparent errant juxtaposition. Here a very nice technician, thrice injected Daniela's right (it ryhmes with viola) with a radioactive imaging agent...no topical anesthesia. Now, I know this had to sting, because Daniela has an insanely high threshold for pain, and she was cursing under her breath--a patois of Italo-Germanic obscenities that would've made Asterix and Obelisk flee in a state of panic. A few minutes later, the technician slid Daniela in front of what appeared to be a faceless Apple Computer from the early 1980's. This box was in fact a Gamma Camera. Daniela closed her eyes and asked for her New Yorker magazine. She calmly turned the pages using only her left hand. I couldn't resist capturing the image:

The camera is the "box" to the right of Daniela. While I was taking my photo, the unstylish artifact was capturing its own image of Daniela. The Gamma Camera (Its name alone manages to conjure miscellanea from the realm of science fiction and comic book lore.) took the following image:
The dark spots on the lower left are the sites of the injections. The radioactive syrup will slowly make its way to the underarm. In a few hours, the lymph nodes, their jelly-bean forms satiated with imaging agent, will await the inspecting glance of the surgeon. Tomorrow during surgery, they will dissect the sentinel node(s) marked by radiation in order to better stage the level of metastatic activity. This Gamma Camera silhouette, more wispy apparition than photograph, has an eerie aesthetic. It also has an intriguing simplicity that betrays the reality of Daniela's physiology. I can not decide which of these two pictures is the greater distortion.

Tomorrow, we will be on the way to the hospital by 5:30 am. Surgery should begin on or about 8:00 am. To all of you who called and left voicemail messages, text messages, emails or simply thought of us today...your presence was felt, appreciated and welcome.... Thank you.