Patrick Comerford
I spent much of yesterday afternoon June 2025) in the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, where I had a PET/CT scan as part of the continuing monitoring of my pulmonary sarcoidosis and to see how or why it has left some marks on my heart.
This has been the second time in two weeks that I have been in hospital in Oxford for tests related to my sarcoidosis. Two weeks earlier (31 May 2025), I was in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where I had been referred for a Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Test in the Nuclear Cardiology Department. Those tests, checking the level of blood supply to my heart muscle, were recommended after recent tests in Milton Keynes University Hospital showed small traces or signs of sarcoidosis may have spread from my lungs to my heart some time ago.
The Churchill Hospital is a teaching hospital managed by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is closet to the Old Road campus of the University of Oxford, and it is a short journey on the No 13 bus from the stop at Queen’s College on High Street. The first hospital on the site was built in 1940 to provide medical aid to people with orthopaedic injuries caused by air raids in World War II. But this proved unnecessary, and the building was leased to the US army medical services.
The new American hospital was named after Sir Winston Churchill and was opened on 27 January 1942. The US army left the hospital at the end of World War II, and it reopened as a conventional hospital in January 1946. The Churchill Hospital came under common management with the John Radcliffe Hospital in 1993 and with the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in 2011. New cancer treatment facilities were introduced in 2005.
The Churchill was the first hospitalto administer the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca AZD1222 Covid-19 vaccine outside trials, on 4 January 2021. This started the rollout of the second vaccine to enter the programmein the UK.
As well as being an important centre for the treatment of cancer patients, the Churchill specialises in kidney transplants, diabetes, endocrinology, oncology, dermatology, haemophilia, infectious diseases, chest medicine, medical genetics and palliative care.
The visit to the Churchill Hospital yesterday was a relatively simple procedure that took about two or three hours. But the long journey there and back by bus between Stony Stratford, Buckingham and Oxford, and the preparations and follow-up meant that it turned out to be a very full day indeed, and involved a severe diet for 36 hours beforehand.
Before my scan, there were questions about whether I was diabetic, claustrophobic, or had any disabilities or mobility needs, whether I was overweight or had allergies or incontinence, and about my present medication. The procedures were fully explained by the radiographer who also took my clinical history. My height and weight were measured, and there were more forms to fill in. I was told beforehand to wear warm, loose, comfortable and metal-free clothing.
With a PET/CT Scan, PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography. This is an imaging technique that uses small quantities of a radioactive tracer, 18 Fluorodeoxyglucose (similar to sugar), to produce images that show how the body is working. CT (Computed Tomography) uses x-rays to produce cross section pictures showing the density of different organs in the body.
By combining these two techniques in one scanner, they are able to provide important information to help plan appropriate treatment. There are no known side effects from the injection of the radioactive sugar. A small amount of radiation is involved in the procedure, It is a similar amount to other diagnostic procedures such as CT, but the risks are minimal.
I was told this is the equivalent to about five years of naturally occurring or ‘background’ radiation and is of no significant risk, and that any small risk is outweighed by the benefits of having the scan to help in my diagnosis and treatment. I was warned to be on-time, as the radioactive sugar I was injected with has a very short shelf life.
The preparations for yesterday’s scan were rigorous and exacting. I had to avoid strenuous exercise for 24 hours before the scan. For six hours before my appointment, I could not eat or drink anything, except plain unflavoured water, and I was given strict separate fasting instructions. I was encouraged to drink plenty of water both before and after the scan, about four to five glasses, as this helps to flush the tracer through the body.
The tracer or radioactive sugar was injected into a vein in my arm to obtain images of my body. This was similar to a blood test, and there were no side effects. But I then had to rest and relax for 90 minutes while the injection was absorbed into my body. I was glad I had brought the Guardian and the Church Times with me.
Once my body had absorbed the radioactive tracer, I was ready for my scan. The scanner is an open ring-like structure that some people compare to a giant doughnut. The bed moved through the ring of the scanner as it collected images for what seemed like 30 minutes.
I had to follow a no carbohydrate high protein diet/high fat diet from Wednesday night and throughout Thursday, and to avoid strenuous exercise for 24 hours prior to my appointment. This involved keeping a very detailed a food journal and was warned that failure to follow the diet would result in the scan not going ahead.
I have been a life-long vegetairan, so I could eat eggs, leafy-green vegetables with an olive oil dressing, dark or raw chocolate, peanut butter, avocado, vegan cheese, seeds and nuts and homemade ‘energy balls’ with nuts and seeds, and drink water that was not flavoured or sweetened, and black or green tea or coffee. But I could not eat tofu, quorn, supermarket or restaurant-prepared foods, sugary foods such as fruit and fruit juices and citrus, smoothies or blended beverages, desserts, cookies, cake, chocolate, sweets, chewing gum, seasonings that contain sugar, artificial sweeteners, ‘sugar-free’ products, dairy products, dairy alternatives, grain-heavy or starchy foods such as bread, cereals, tortilla, rice, and pasta, non-leafy-green vegetables like potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, green beans, and beans and legumes, and there was no alcohol either. Nor could I take some of the tablets prescribed in connection with my Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Then, for 12 hours before my test, I could eat no food at all but had to continue drinking plenty of water until the scan was complete.
After the scan, I was advised not to have close contact with pregnant women or children for six hours, and to drink plenty of fluids to help flush any excess tracer through my kidneys. I now have to wait for my images to be analysed by a consultant radiologist specialising in PET/CT, who then sends a report to the doctor who requested my scan.
I have now had sarcoidosis for eight years or more. The occasional flareup experiences are uncomortable to say the least, and can aggravate the mild asthma that was never treated in my childhood or teens. Sometimes, I end up at the end of the day walking around like the ‘drunken sailor’, with poor balance, sore joints, itchy and irritated shins and blurred vision. It has been going on for some years now – and there are more tests to follow. Of course I am worried about sarcoidosis having been in my heart for some time now, and of the outside possibility of renal sarcoidosis.
After yesterday’s round of tests, scans and consultations, and 16 hours of starvation, I needed to drink coffee and to eat before beginning the 2½-hour bus journey back to Stony Stratford in stages. I first caught the bus back into Oxford, and went for a stroll through the city centre.
I finished the day in Oxford attending Choral Evensong in the Chapel of the Resurrection in Pusey House, followed by Benediction, before catching the connecting buses to Buckingham and to Milton Keynes, having missed the last bus from Buckingham to Stony Stratford once again. If they had airport-style scanners before getting on those buses, I might never have got home last night as the radiocative traces still in my blood system body might have set off all the bells and alarms.
Those traces of radioactivity brought advice not think of flying abroad for 48 hours. But the timing of this hospital visit meant I had already ruled out the possibility of looking for flights to be at the funeral of my cousin, friend and long-time Irish Times colleague Don Buckley in Dublin this afternoon.
On the bus home last night, I caught up on the news and how the world is collapsing around us: Israel going to war with Iran, Trump and his regime on the rampage across the US and picking economic quarrells with former friends and allies, the rise of racism and a new fascism seemingly everywhere … and I was comforted by words of the Collect for Help in Danger which we prayed at the end of Evensong in Pusey House: Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend from all perils and dangers of this night, for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
I am determined to continue walking a few miles each day as an enjoyable exercise, I have a healthy diet, and I am surrounded by love and well cared for.
As I have said so many times over these years, I have sarcoidosis, but sarcoidosis does not have me.
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