Tuesday 06.22.2010 Testing, Testing

Intermittent sleep; finally it was 0850. I got up.

Putzed around, had breakfast, then went over to the Mid Michigan Physician's building on the north end of town for the scans.

The nice lady at the window verified my information, then told me to have a seat. Callie came out for me; she's the one who called me and scheduled me.

She took me back through The Door, down a hallway, and into a small room with one of those chairs with the arm that swings, that are used for lab draws and IV starts and such, and directed me to have a seat on the "padded chair". Ok.

She put a tourniquet around my arm and found a vein, then put a needle onto a barrel of something, and came at me. "Hold the bus," I said. "Do I need a needle for the CT scan?"

"Oh, you're having a CT done, too?" She looked at her paperwork and verified that, indeed, I was to have a CT scan also. I told her we talked about it when she scheduled me, but she had transferred me to someone else to schedule the CT scan. "Yes, you'll need a needle for that."

She undid the tourniquet, got the supplies ready to put in an IV needle, and started again.

She got the little 23 gauge needle into the vein with one poke, but it wasn't advancing. I was feeling warm, (I sometimes don't do well with needles into myself), but took a big breath and got myself together. She was able to do what she needed to do without too much more poking around. A clear dressing over the site, and a couple pieces of tape, she flushed it with the normal saline before screwing on the radio-isotopes. With that injected, she flushed it again, with instructions to go back to the window to get my 2 bottles of barium stuff. My appointment with her for the bone scan is 4 pm.

Back at the window, the nice lady gives me two bottles of berry flavored white stuff, with instructions to drink one at 1:30, and the other at 2:30. And nothing to eat or drink after 1:30. I didn't remember the nothing to drink part from before. And to be back at 3:30 for the CT scan. Ok, thanks.

Now what. For some reason, I thought I had to be there all afternoon. But I don't. It was just a little after noon.

I went across the road to wander around in Wal-Mart. I don't go in there very often.

I wandered around, looking at stuff. I found a couple things I wanted, but I didn't take a charge card with me, so I looked at a couple more things before heading back home with the top down.

Ahh. A pb-n-j sandwich for lunch, a slug of water, and the first of the two berry flavored drinks. Not so berry flavored. I did my best getting the first one in. She had said 15 minutes, but it was more like 25. After a half hour break for my belly, I sucked on the second one. I was listening to a story on my device to try to distract me somewhat. The second one took about 20 minutes, and then it was time to go back.

I let the nice lady at the window know I was back, and Tanya came out to get me. We went through The Door, through the maze of hallways, and into the CT room. That's the machine that is a round circle and the table slides through it, like jumping through a hoop. Tanya said she did my scan last year. Oh. I didn't recognize her. She flushed the iv, hooked up the "dye", and started the machine. I had to bring my arms above my head on the table, which was reminiscent of the radiation treatments, without the handle to hold onto.

The machine says "take a breath. hold it" and the inside of the circle spins as the table slides in and out of it. For the abdomen and pelvis, it's positioned just below the sternum and advances down to the hips, then back up. On the third time through, Tanya says she's starting the iv, and within seconds, I feel the warm flush spread throughout my body, and the table advances again.

She comes into the room and chats for several minutes and unhooked the iv stuff, taking the needle out after verifying with whoever that I don't need it for the bone scan. I think we must be done and ask if I can get up from the table. No, one more time through...

After that one, she came out and "parked" the table. I got up and she aimed me down the hall towards the waiting room. There's a restroom...

With an empty bladder, I went out into the waiting area just as someone coming towards me was calling "Katherine...?" Yes, that's me.

She led me back through The Door and through the maze into another room. This is the first bone scan I've had done here. I lie on a table and she covers me with a light blanket. It's a bit cool in there, and I know I'll probably be too warm at some point. She moves the table to the machine that has a large square box on it, positioning the box over my head, about 6 inches away. There are marks like crosshairs on the bottom, which is right above my face. I close my eyes. This test is going to take an hour. I settled in for a nap.

The box moved it's way slowly down to my feet, then she came into the room and did something at the computer, moving the box to the underside of the table. It started it's way back up toward my head. And I got warm.

I saw that it was down on my legs and moved my arms, which were down at my sides (and the little fingers were getting numb) and moved the blanket off the top half of me. She asked if I was ok--I told her yes, and she continued the test.

We were finally done. She moved the table away from the machine and helped me to sit up, then off the table. It was 4:40. Hey, that's not an hour...

I asked if I could see the images, and she led me around behind their protective wall to the monitors. Callie was there, too. There was my skeleton, with a very bright spot showing my bladder. I thanked the ladies for their expertise and went on my way, stopping at the restroom again.

Over to Wal-Mart again, this time I took in the charge card. I picked up some undergarments and a pair of slippers, also a couple of things I wanted for the JC, and went back home.

My tummy was bloated and I wasn't feeling very good. I ate a bowl of cereal and passed a lot of smelly gas.

As I was checking the internet, I saw that my prescription was ready, so I went out to pick it up.

Dan got home about 9:15 from golfing. We chatted a bit; he showered and I'm about ready for bed.

Tomorrow is a workday for both of us.

My wrist is really sore tonight; my abdomen has been decompressing for a couple of hours now.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.