April 4, 2007: Testing

Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille ...

Well I am way behind in keeping this updated. But, here goes the flood of events.
Sally and I started on April 4th at 6:00 am in Lake Zurich, I was at the High Tech Medical Imaging office for a body scan. They injected 25.4 mCi of Tc-99 MDP (another flavor of glow-in-the-dark crap). And we waited two hours for it to be taken up in my skeleton. It should show up on the scan in areas of unusual celluar activity. The staff was nice; but, as always with me, they had some challenge getting a vein for the injection. When my turn came I lay on a table about 12 to 14 inches wide with my arms over my head and waited as the machine passed over me, humming monotonously, for twenty-five minutes.
End of test 1; go dress and leave for the next imaging center.
We had some time bfore we were due at Bright Light Radiology in Elk Grove Village so Sally and I went shopping at a Staples. We wanted to get a digital voice recorder so we could get everything the doctors would be saying to us. We skipped lunch because we weren't sure that we could be done in time for my appointment.
Once at Bright Light, about 1:00 pm they took me in and did a front and side Chest x-ray or Chest PAL. I returned to the lobby to wait further directions.
A nice young lady came out with a big plasic cup of water for me. Sally didn't get any. The young lady directed me to drink it and informed me that I would receive another 16 oz. every 30 minutes. Nice of them to keep me hydrated.
I was actually ingesting some kind of contrast agent that need to fill my bowel. It wasn't 'horrible', more like a bicarb. But drinking a half gallon was a bit much.
They took me back about 3:00 pm and tried to find a vein. I felt so sorry for the girl. She was very frustrated and so apologetic for sticking me six times.
I told her, "It's not you. It's just me. You can't help the way I am."
She went to get the doctor to do it. I know one should NEVER profer a guess at a lady's age; but, she was about my age. We had a nice conversation while she tried to find new ground to stick. And more than stick, she needed a big, good vein that could take 3 ml per second of the die.
I learned that she has a husband my age who also had a heart attack. She can't keep him on his diet or exercise. Amid the many appologies she did get a vein in my right forearm and I was set for my abdominal and pelvic CT scan. This is where I find out if my older sister is crazy or not; but more on that latter.
A scan before the injection takes about 1 minute while I hold my breath. Then the girl comes in and holds my hand while the machine pumps me up. Actually she was there to verify that the 100 cc of Isoview370 IV was going IV and not subcutaneously. The idea was to get the contrast agent into the abdomen not my arm.
Wait five minutes and through the imaging machine again holding my breath.
The tech checked the images and said they were good. I could get dressed.
So we left about 4:00 pm.
Sally was so kind that she didn't eat because I couldn't eat. So we decided to go out for dinner and enjoy ourselves. Now we wait for the results.