11/19/2007 Glowing

Anyone got a black light?? I started drinking that contrast solution this morning at 0540. Tasted like bad banana chewy candy. Took a long hot shower, then drank the second bottle. Dan was ready to go, and so was I. Off we go.

I had to wait until 0810 for my 0745 CT scan. And in the interval, the intestines start making their thoughts known of the artificially sweetened 30 ounces of thin creamy white fluid they had just been presented. Plus another 16 ounces of yellow, almost lemony clear fluid to suck down. I was told that it was the second half of the oral contrast solution. Oh. 3 trips to the bathroom, I hope this exam doesn't take real long. The technician, June, was very nice. Blew the first needle in my left hand, put a 24 gauge in the right antecubital. (I did mention to her that my veins can be, elusive? could be a word.) I also asked her to save the good one for Wednesday....

I just had to move the zipper and snap down from my pants off the pelvis, not change completely. On the table, and it was a good thing the needle was on the right side, as the arm needed to be held up and over my head during the exam. That's an uncomfortable position on the left shoulder. This machine was a circle with the table moving through it. I don't remember hearing it; I do remember that the flourescent lighting seemed extremely bright. And that there seemed to be an amount of air accumulating in my intestines. June told me that the contrast would be infusing, (Afterwards, I asked her how fast that infused--3 ml/second, or 33 seconds for a 100 ml bag) and that I would feel warm, from the inside out, and it might feel like I'm wetting myself. Oh, Yeah--I could taste it, then feel the warmth in my chest and in my middle, and, oh yeah, it did get warm "down there". That was weird. The machine moved over my middle, slowly, and then we were done. She was going to pull the needle, but I reminded her I was having 2 other tests, and at least one of them needed IV access, so she flushed it. I took myself over to the bathroom, and I flushed there, too. A couple of times. Another employee came in to escort me to the next test. Thank you, June, for being so kind.

Oh, good, a bathroom right here.

We got to the next place, I signed in, and saw a sign that said that since this was a waiting room for more than one type of procedure... Oh-a waiting room. I asked the nice lady could my husband come join me? She called out to the Radiology area and asked that he be directed to this next area. There he is. Such a little thing, I felt my anxiety decrease a half a notch. We sat in that smaller area until Geoff came for me. A 21-year old student at Ferris. He lead me to another room where the "real" tech joined us. She watched him draw up the stuff--something radioactive for the bone scan--and told him to get the injection in and ask his questions after. He had already asked about the allergy stuff. When he went to inject the solution, he said he was meeting a little resistance--yup, the blue clamp was closed on my IV port. I saw that and opened it, then held onto the hub at the insertion site so as not to lose my needle in case he jerked or pulled or something. You know?? He injected the solution, then flushed the needle with a 10 ml prefilled NS, and then another one. (For all us nurses--they don't use the needles with the needle guards, and he recapped each of the ones he used). Back to the bathroom and then in with Daniel.

The nice lady, whose name is Bonnie, and Dan were having a conversation. It was about 9:30, and Bonnie said the MRI was going to be about 10:30. And I was not NPO anymore, so I could have something to eat. I was brought some apple juice and a water, and Dan went to get a bagel, as their cafeteria was in the process of dealing with the asbestos it found. I had a couple ounces of the apple juice, and gurgle, gurgle. Hmm. How about chewing on some of the bagel, maybe that will absorb some of that stuff. That did help some. We sat and visited, then I was called to go back for the MRI. And a stop at the bathroom.

Two girls were going to take care of me. I changed into a patient gown (open in the front) and bottoms. One of the girls helped me get my right arm out of the shirt I was wearing, because of the IV, and my other shoulder doesn't work too well. The preceeding patient was not quite finished, so I dashed over the bathroom. Ok, my turn. We go into the room, and there's the table with a sheet on it, and, no kidding, two holes for the breasts to be suspended into. They instruct me to climb onto the table on my hands and knees, then lower my chest onto the table and make sure the breasts hang into the wells. NO KIDDING!! So you're face down on the table, there's a cut-out for your face, (you're looking down at putty colored plastic about 5 inches away from your nose. It's got light from somewhere, and some air movement, too.) and you have to keep your arms at your side. Then they say they are going to check the placement of your breasts, and the hands are moving the dangling breast tissue through the sheet. She hands you a small blue squeeze ball to call them if you need something. One of them puts headphones on my head--they're crooked, but I manage to wiggle them around so they fit a bit better. The have connected my IV to another container of contrast stuff that they tell me I need to hold REAL STILL when that's infused, because those are the important pictures that the surgeon will use during surgery. Ok, here we go. The table slides into the machine, and my forehead support moves a little. Then I can feel my arms going in, and the voice in the headphones says we're going to start. A MRI machine makes lots of quick static-like noises, and it's quite loud. This first series takes about 15 minutes, then there's a pause, and the voice tells me that they're injecting the contrast. Oh, yeah, I can taste it, like the other stuff. The machine starts up again, and I kind of doze off, and wake up with a start. OH NO--I've got to cough. I try to suppress it, but I'm going to cough. I squeeze the bulb and hear a tone, but I don't hear a voice. I cough. And I think--I've just moved during the part the the surgeon is going to use. The voice asks if I need something, and I tell her I need to cough, and she tells me she's paused the machine so go ahead. And I do. And my nose runs, and my eyes water, and on the plastic below my face is a circle where my nose is dripping and another from my right eye. Oh, yeah, life is good. They resume the test when I tell them I'm ok now, and tell me there's about 4 minutes left. ok. I can do this.

We're done, the table slides out of the tube, and the 2 girls help me off of the table. She wants to take my IV out, but I tell her I have one more test. She goes and talks with the next group, who says they've already injected the stuff they need, and she takes the needle out and puts a bandaid on.

I asked if I could see the images, and she says yes, but she can't answer questions. I don't see anything real recognizable, like the marker that was left in the tumor, or the tumor itself, but the left breast is definitely larger than the right. I went to put my clothes back on, then to the bathroom, (it's slowing down some), and back down the hall across the waiting room from Daniel.

I pop my head into the waiting room while they are entering data into the machine, then go over and jump onto their exam table. The girl places a bolster under my knees, and uses a tied tourniquit around the toes of my shoes to keep my feet together. This is a Total Body Bone Scan. Jamie is the nice lady going to take care of me, and young Geoff is at the computer. They position the plate, which is suspended on a frame that fits over the bed, close but not touching my body. Starting at the head, the machine slowly moves down. So slowly, that Jamie leaves and comes back in with a Christmas Trivia game she has created for her family. She is taking them on a surprise vacation to Chicago for Thanksgiving, which is the prize for her game that they will play Wednesday evening. We got a few questions in, and I asked her if she would go across the hall and fetch Daniel. I'm sure he must be quite bored by now.... He comes in, it's good to hear his voice. I can't turn my head yet, so I can't see him. We answer about 20 questions or so, and they have to reposition the plate over the right breast, then the left, then over my head turned left, and my head turned right. When we were done, I was surprised that it took and hour and a half. They untied my feet and helped me off the table. Young Geoff at the computer asked if we wanted to see the images. Sure!! There it was, my skeleton, right there on the screen. Looks pretty good. Dan notices that the left shoulder looks different than the right. It sure does. And look at the bright white spot in my pelvis--my bladder's full. We were finally done. One more trip to the bathroom and we were on our way.

Daniel and I went to the Flapjack Shack for 'cakes and eggs (and a pot of coffee for me) as we had shared the bagel and juice earlier, then home. I was home for an hour or so before I headed to Jackson. My intestines have finally slowed down. When I got home I checked email, wrote some more here, then off to bed. Tomorrow is a more restful day.

Hey, turn on the black light. See my teeth??