Lymphoscintigram: having the scan

A lymphoscintigram involves a radioactive material being injected into your limb so that a scan can be done to show how quickly the radioactive dye moves up through your legs, and what your lymphatic pathways look like.  This will help distinguish lymphodema from lipodema and give an indication of how healthy your lymphatics are.  

I had my lymphoscintigram done at St George's hospital, as part of the reviews of my lipodema prior to having surgery.  It seems that different centres do the process a little differently (such as how long you are left between the scans) so your experience may vary a little.   

I was able to eat and drink as normal on the day, and was very quickly taken into the scanning room on arrival, where the technician explained the process to me and got me to take my socks off and pull up my trousers.  I was then asked to climb onto a flat table/bed and given an injection in each foot.  

You need to wear socks to the appointment as they want you to leave the cotton wool on to protect your skin from infections (they taped cotton wool over the injection site like they do when you have a blood test). No compression tights that day :) as they want you to have natural circulation of lymph. 

My experience was that the injections are quick and really aren't painful. I felt them going in my foot but no discomfort in my legs and no lasting effects. I had taken paracetamol and ibuprofen as my boss had recommended it but I think it isn't necessary. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was. They also don't go in exactly the same spot in each foot. How odd is that? 

Then I had to lie on a high bed for a full leg scan which I think took around 10 mins and involved a machine moving above my legs, going from my feet up towards my body. Then I was sent out to walk around for say 2 hours before returning for the final scan.  I just walked around the local shops! 

The second scan took less than 20 minutes and the experience was the same as the first one, except I had some more radiation in a container on my leg outside my clothes as a comparison source. 

I was practising steady breathing to stay still and chatting to the lady doing the scans so the actual scanning time passed quickly and it was interesting seeing the radiation "sparkling" on the monitor screen during the second scan.  

I expected the injections to be right between the toes but you can see from the cotton wool how low it was on me!  I think they went for where my blood vessels were.