Yesterday was the big testing day. No food, no caffeine, no sugar. Just water. I got to the hospital and was told the PET scan was going to be first on the docket. Much to the hospital’s credit I waited all of about 3 or 4 minutes. The PET tech came to get me. He reminded me of (do whatever you wish with this description) a surfer from Arkansas. Totally laid back with lots of twang. We started on the walk to the machine, we must have covered 70% of the hospital’s campus then outside, downstairs, into another elevator to a portable trailer near the breast cancer imaging center. It was quite the hike.
He leads me into a small room with two reclining chairs. He explains that he’s going to inject something and then we have to wait for it to be absorbed before they can complete the test. “Ok.” I thought. I sat back and he started tying off my left arm. He inserted a port that had two (maybe three, I can’t be sure) docks for needles. One needle went in and then the fun started. He reached for this stainless steel canister that was frosted on the outside and huge! Marty McFly eat your heart out, I think I just found part of the flux capacitor! I have kicked myself repeatedly for not getting a picture of this thing. Surfer Dude from Arkansas then gave me the best testing instructions I have ever received: “Lay back and take a nap…I’ll be back in 45 minutes”. RIGHT ON!!! I can do that!
As promised SDA returned and for the next hour and a half I alternately stuck my head and feet into this machine that had a big donut hole opening. It wasn’t too bad at all. I think I even slept most of the time.
PET scanner with Surfer Dude from Arkansas
On to the blood work, this got interesting. There was some confusion about the port being left in my arm. No one was entirely sure whether or not it was supposed to be there. The phlebotomist even looked at me at one point and asked, “Can I get blood OUT of that?”. I immediately offered my other arm to her and told her just to use the other one. At one point, I looked at the friend who was with me and said, “Yeah, that warm fuzzy feeling you’re supposed to get…I don’t have it”. As it turns out SDA left the port in for the MRI gang to use later in the day.
We finished up with the blood work around 3:30pm and the MRI was scheduled for 3:45pm. Just enough time for me to INHALE a sandwich and some M&M’s. The nurse came out and explained that I needed to change into scrubs for the MRI. I so totally looked like Sexy Smurf. The MRI itself kind of sucked. I had to lay down on this table, she taped my head down (even after I tried to argue that I had been able to stay completely still for the PET scan), then put this football helmet thing over my entire head. It was obnoxiously loud even with ear plugs. Luckily, there was a mirror attached to the football helmet so I was able to see not only the window, but also a clock so I had a pretty good idea of when it was going to be done.
We should have results tomorrow or Friday at the latest. One bummer note, today Mom’s plane was delayed at JFK for over 4 hours. She was pretty miserable because they were actually on the runway the entire time. This meant she missed her connecting flight and won’t get here until tomorrow. Fortunately I was able to switch my appointment with Dr. B. tomorrow.
‘Til next time…..
