PET scan and Xanax

Landranger25
Landranger25 Member Posts: 210 Member
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Hi all, in a recent discussion I had posted that on my next PET scan that I was just going to skip the xanax as I didn't feel enough anxiety to warrant taking it. My 6 month PET was yesterday afternoon and at the scan the 2 tech's were asking me the 100 questions before we got started and when they got to the xanax question and I told them I skipped it they explained that it wasn't for anxiety. It "helped" with anxiety but was really for making the pictures more clear. Apparently it "blocks" uptake into brown fat. (Brown fat good, yellow fat not) We have yellow fat and brown fat in our bodies and they said there is actually quite a bit of brown fat in your neck and shoulder area. Since we want really good pictures in our necks by taking the xanax it helps the radiologist out when he reads our scan. In future I will go ahead and take the xanax. It's not that big of deal. Best to all.

Mike

Comments

  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #2
    Hi Mike
    I guess we learn something new everyday (Brown & Yellow Fat) never new I had it.

    Thanks for the info and good luck on the PET scan
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #3
    Xanax
    Like Hondo, no one has every mentioned anything to me about Xanax and PET scans..... I think, I'd need to investigate that a little further personally.
  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    #4
    Skiffin16 said:

    Xanax
    Like Hondo, no one has every mentioned anything to me about Xanax and PET scans..... I think, I'd need to investigate that a little further personally.

    Same here, but ...
    ... I found this, in a statement regarding preparation for a PET scan, provided by a company in Michigan called Regional Medical Imaging:

    You may be given a small dose of Alprazolam (Xanax) orally as prescribed by our doctor, which you should take approximately 15-30 minutes before your appointment. If you take this, please arrange to have someone else drive you to and from your exam. This will help patients that are nervous/tense, or have muscle spasms that could interfere with the scan. This also suppresses muscle uptake that can mimic pathology. This is especially important in patients with head and neck cancers, breast cancer, and lymphoma. If needed, your ordering doctor should prescribe this medication, as he/she will be most familiar with your allergies, history, and potential reactions with other medications.

    Take care,

    Joe
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #5
    soccerfreaks said:

    Same here, but ...
    ... I found this, in a statement regarding preparation for a PET scan, provided by a company in Michigan called Regional Medical Imaging:

    You may be given a small dose of Alprazolam (Xanax) orally as prescribed by our doctor, which you should take approximately 15-30 minutes before your appointment. If you take this, please arrange to have someone else drive you to and from your exam. This will help patients that are nervous/tense, or have muscle spasms that could interfere with the scan. This also suppresses muscle uptake that can mimic pathology. This is especially important in patients with head and neck cancers, breast cancer, and lymphoma. If needed, your ordering doctor should prescribe this medication, as he/she will be most familiar with your allergies, history, and potential reactions with other medications.

    Take care,

    Joe

    Interesting find....
    Interesting find Joe....
  • Landranger25
    Landranger25 Member Posts: 210 Member
    #6
    Skiffin16 said:

    Interesting find....
    Interesting find Joe....

    PET and xanax
    Thanks Hondo for the positive support regarding my test results. Should know something next week. Thanks too Joe. I looked this morning after I posted for some add'l support of what I was told yesterday but didn't really find anything. What you found is from a Michigan company and Michigan is where I am at! Like I said above, the xanax isn't really noticable to me so in future I will take it. Anything that I can do to make/help the Doc's help me I will do.

    Mike
  • Kent Cass
    Kent Cass Member Posts: 1,898 Member
    #7
    Landranger25 said:

    PET and xanax
    Thanks Hondo for the positive support regarding my test results. Should know something next week. Thanks too Joe. I looked this morning after I posted for some add'l support of what I was told yesterday but didn't really find anything. What you found is from a Michigan company and Michigan is where I am at! Like I said above, the xanax isn't really noticable to me so in future I will take it. Anything that I can do to make/help the Doc's help me I will do.

    Mike

    Very interesting
    So, now we know a little more as to why they ask if anyone drove you. Who'd athunk it could actually provide more accurate results! Seems if it really is a significant plus- they would request that we have someone drive us, so we can be given Xanax before. Yes- quite an info find.

    kcass
  • CajunEagle
    CajunEagle Member Posts: 408
    #8
    Kent Cass said:

    Very interesting
    So, now we know a little more as to why they ask if anyone drove you. Who'd athunk it could actually provide more accurate results! Seems if it really is a significant plus- they would request that we have someone drive us, so we can be given Xanax before. Yes- quite an info find.

    kcass

    "for dry mouth" ???
    They gave me a pill prior to my last Pet Scan to "dry up my mouth". I informed the sweet-thang that I haven't had any natural forming moisture in my mouth in the last 13 months, why take medication for something that is not there ?? I can't remember her gobbledegook medical reasoning response, but was that the Xanax dispensed by her ?? Just wondering.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #9
    Kent Cass said:

    Very interesting
    So, now we know a little more as to why they ask if anyone drove you. Who'd athunk it could actually provide more accurate results! Seems if it really is a significant plus- they would request that we have someone drive us, so we can be given Xanax before. Yes- quite an info find.

    kcass

    Xanax
    Kind of interesting on the Xanax...about having someone drive you.

    When I first started the rads I was apprehensive with having my head bolted to the table with the mask. The MD's prescribed Xanax to help with that anxiety. I took a whole one the first few days, and they helped knock the edge off the anxiety. But later that evening after I drove home and was settling down for the evening I'd get really lythargic.

    So after those first few days, I'd pinch the Xanax in half. That worked good, but after another few days I was used to the mask, and the routine. So I only took the Xanax for that first week.

    At no time did anyone ask if I was driving myself, even though I was the only person there other than Mondays (chemo on Mondays), my wife would drive on chemo/radiation days. She drove those days mainly just to be with me on chemo days.

    I just looked on my Xanax bottle, it only says to use care when operating a motor vehicle. I guess it's just another of those differences of opinions by medical professionals.

    JG
  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    #10
    Skiffin16 said:

    Xanax
    Kind of interesting on the Xanax...about having someone drive you.

    When I first started the rads I was apprehensive with having my head bolted to the table with the mask. The MD's prescribed Xanax to help with that anxiety. I took a whole one the first few days, and they helped knock the edge off the anxiety. But later that evening after I drove home and was settling down for the evening I'd get really lythargic.

    So after those first few days, I'd pinch the Xanax in half. That worked good, but after another few days I was used to the mask, and the routine. So I only took the Xanax for that first week.

    At no time did anyone ask if I was driving myself, even though I was the only person there other than Mondays (chemo on Mondays), my wife would drive on chemo/radiation days. She drove those days mainly just to be with me on chemo days.

    I just looked on my Xanax bottle, it only says to use care when operating a motor vehicle. I guess it's just another of those differences of opinions by medical professionals.

    JG

    yes
    I was meaning to reply, myself, Skiffen.

    People take Xanax all of the time expressly so that they can continue to lead normal lives (including driving and working) while combatting anxiety and depression. My assumption is that the warning is one of those insurance-related things, or the sort of thing you read on meds where they state that you should not drive a vehicle until you have tested out the med to be sure you can handle it.

    Like you, I had anxiety about the rads. In fact, there was no frigging way they were going to bolt me down inside of a fiberglass mask every weekday for seven weeks. In my case, valium was offered and accepted. Over time I, too, managed to cut my dose in half and, by the end, even manage without it.

    I provided that blurb from RMI because it surprised me, as I had never heard of such a thing with respect to PET scans and found it interesting and educational. I have never been prompted to take Xanax or any other medication prior to a PET scan, not counting the injection of highlighter.

    Take care,

    Joe
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #11
    CajunEagle said:

    "for dry mouth" ???
    They gave me a pill prior to my last Pet Scan to "dry up my mouth". I informed the sweet-thang that I haven't had any natural forming moisture in my mouth in the last 13 months, why take medication for something that is not there ?? I can't remember her gobbledegook medical reasoning response, but was that the Xanax dispensed by her ?? Just wondering.

    Hi Cajun Eagle
    It really makes you wonder about some of the people doing our testing. I had to go in for an upper GI and was told no food or drink after midnight, I showed up at the admittance office for the test and the nurse had a fit when she seen me walk in with my water bottle. I told her I had cancer and don’t have any saliva glands and that I am not drinking I am using it to keep my mouth moist; she still took my water bottle away.

    When the doctor came in to see me I told him and he did not have any problems letting me sip what I needed to keep my mouth moist. I guess the nurse got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.
  • GRAVEY
    GRAVEY Member Posts: 83
    #12
    soccerfreaks said:

    yes
    I was meaning to reply, myself, Skiffen.

    People take Xanax all of the time expressly so that they can continue to lead normal lives (including driving and working) while combatting anxiety and depression. My assumption is that the warning is one of those insurance-related things, or the sort of thing you read on meds where they state that you should not drive a vehicle until you have tested out the med to be sure you can handle it.

    Like you, I had anxiety about the rads. In fact, there was no frigging way they were going to bolt me down inside of a fiberglass mask every weekday for seven weeks. In my case, valium was offered and accepted. Over time I, too, managed to cut my dose in half and, by the end, even manage without it.

    I provided that blurb from RMI because it surprised me, as I had never heard of such a thing with respect to PET scans and found it interesting and educational. I have never been prompted to take Xanax or any other medication prior to a PET scan, not counting the injection of highlighter.

    Take care,

    Joe

    Yeah soccer,
    I was only
    Yeah soccer,
    I was only offered xanax by my radiologist for anxiety for the mask, I tried it one day, I slept so hard it was crazy. I came to the conclusion that I did not have anxiety, I would assume that people who do feel normal after taking it, people like me who dont have any anxiety, get the affect I felt, which was to pass the hell out.
    I never took another after that. I was curious about the suppression aspects of it, I have never heard anything from any of my docs, and have never seen or read anything to that affect. I will have to ask my Onc, Rad, and ENT about that.


    Thanks for the info,

    GRAVEY

Discussion Boards