A Path Through

When I was told that I needed a MUGA scan, my head immediately went to a stranger standing in a dark alley looking for his next purse snatching victim. Turns out there is no alley, no sketchy guy, and my purse is just fine.

A MUGA scan is short for a Multigated Acquisition Scan. For those of you reading this and thinking, “well THAT tells me a lot”, let me explain a bit further.

A MUGA scan uses nuclear medicine imaging to show how well the heart is pumping. It has several reasons for its use; however with cancer patients it can be used to see things such as whether the heart is strong enough to handle the medications that will be used to fight the cancer, and to assess impacts of chemo before and after treatment.

Now, when I received a call to report to the Nuclear Medicine department at the hospital, I was a little uncertain as to what I had been signed up for. This feeling did not improve when the person on the other side of the phone quickly ran through the radioactive injection I would be receiving. Yes, not only do I have cancer, I was now 100% certain I was going to glow in the dark!

However, now that I am a MUGA veteran, I can now confidently say that the process is simple and painless. For those of you who may be interested, here is how a MUGA scan plays out.

When you arrive, you are injected with a material that is designed to make your red blood cells easier for the radioactive injection (to come in a bit) to attach. You are then sent away for 20 minutes as the injection does it’s thing (basically, your red blood cells slowly turn into a 2 year old eating a popsicle on a hot summer day…REALLY STICKY).

Twenty minutes later, it is time to get ready to embrace your inner Spiderman and get radioactive. You receive an injection of the radioactive material and it is off to the races, or should I say scanner. This is where the exciting stuff ends. However, I think it is worth sharing that there was no need for me to change into a gown. When I asked about the impact of an underwire bra, the tech smiled saying, “we can see all we need to with what is in your blood”. Yup, that’s right folks, your blood becomes so impressively visible that it can be seen through metal!

The scan room itself is nothing impressive and is similar to that of a bone scanner. The table is thin and has a strap that goes around it that will hold your arms to your side through the first two parts of the process. Heart monitors are added to your chest and every effort is made to make you comfy (pillow for head and under knees), however the reality is that the table is far from a Serta mattress, so comfort is limited to the aforementioned pillows.

You are then moved under the camera (a gamma camera) and told to relax and breathe normally. On a side note, they will say this as you are staring at the word “Nuclear Imaging” written on the scanner perfectly in your line of sight.

The scan is actually made up of three sections. The first scan will have the camera focusing on the left side and, if you have a stable heart beat, it should last 20 minutes. For those people who decide to have a triple espresso before this exam, you may be there for a while longer!

The second and third scans will take 10 minutes each with the machine moving to the top, and right side. The only change between the three scans is that for the right side, your arms will need to move above your head. You would think this would be an easy thing to do for 10 minutes; however, I can assure you that it is a bit more challenging than you think as pins and needles will become your enemy!

With each scan, your sticky little radioactive blood cells are the star of the show as the camera makes a movie of your heart pumping them through all the chambers.

Now, I did say that the process was painless; however, it is definitely NOT entertaining. Through the course of this whole process, you are literally lying there staring at the ceiling. For those of you who are interested, the MUGA scan room at Surrey Memorial has 21 slats in the ceiling airflow screen above the table, the flashing light on the smoke alarm flashes red every six seconds, and there are 12 ceiling panels running horizontally across the room. In addition, it is possible to become highly entertained by thinking about how “Gamma” camera sounds like “Grandma” camera (I am not proud of that fact…at all).

At the end of each scan, a cheery little chime will play that resembles a ring tone to indicate that it is completed. By the end of the third scan, I had likened the tone to that on a microwave indicating I was done cooking!

And there you have it. Forty minutes and three heart movies later you have been MUGA scanned.

On a final note, I will share that there were no interesting side effects from a MUGA, however I almost had my kids convinced that I could light up a lightbulb by just holding it my hand.

With the MUGA scan, I am official finished all the pre-chemo activities and it is time to take another step on the path. Chemo begins February 28, 2022 and the fight truly begins.