After 19 months of pain and investigation following a THR I am now waiting for a nuclear bone scan. I would be grateful to hear of other people’s experiences of this procedure. Thank you.
They will give you exact instructions, especially about fasting and what to wear, but in general here’s what will happen. The exam does not hurt and it will take about a half hour or so, mostly boring and not claustrophobic. You will need to wear pants without buttons, zippers or any metal. Metal will cause distortion of the images. You will get an injection of a radioisotope, a substance which emits a tiny bit of radiation from inside your body. You will lay on a table and a big round camera head will be positioned several places around you to record those tiny radiation signatures and “draw” a computer picture of the hip and upper leg bone. Then you go home and wait to get the report from the doctor. The technologist who does the exam can’t read it. It will need to be processed by the computer and be looked at by the reading doctor. The radioisotope has a very short life, so usually here are no special precautions, but ask to be sure what specific recommendations there might be.
In a previous life this was one of the departments I directed, and I had one recently myself. Good luck. Mine exam was good and was the definitive exam to tell my doctor that my prosthesis was solid and healing well. Good luck
Thank you so much for your very informative reply, much appreciated. Don’t know at the moment how long the wait will be.