Sunday came the tantrum. I had nicely cleaned the entire deck with a burned hand and all and went to bed knowing that I was going to get up and paint the deck. I had my schedule and when I get a little cray cray I NEED a schedule. Well, 20% chance of rain and I woke up to a downpour. Well lets just say Wolf of Wall Street and there 154 f-bombs had nothing on me. Talk to any member of my family who tried to talk to me. I swore at the rain for a good 2 hours before I just said screw it and did my grocery shopping, raked the yard, dug out a space for my garden, and attempted to put the raised bed together. The last item unleashed another litany of expletives and perhaps a foot stomp or two. It was as pretty as it sounds. But, the deck did dry out and I was able to paint it. In the dark. Under the lights (where I may or may not have needed to wave my arm to get one of the sensor lights to stay on). But, I felt better my weekend mission was complete.
I had today off from work, but I spent the whole day at the hospital. Taking a vacation day for scans, never the way anyone wants to spend their time. My day started with a bus running late and a fight between two women on the bus. The shouting and expletives were flying and it got pretty heated and the bus driver pulled the bus over to tell the two to knock it off. It was amazing. So yes, a nice relaxing ride to the hospital. Knowing that I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after 10 am I had doubled up on the water before I left the house. Then the bus was 20 minutes late. I ran into my radiation oncology appointment told them my name and ran to the bathroom. Then finished my check in process. The clerk at the front desk found it humorous, thankfully. Quick check up with the radiation oncologist, who is happy to see how well I am doing. She was concerned about the rash I am being treated for until she looked at it and agreed with my PCP, likely from hormonal swings. Her most important question every time I see her, when and where is your next vacation. (AZ in May!)
After killing some time in my office and drinking the last bit of water before 10 am I headed to get radioactive. This may be the one Nuclear Med Tech I haven't worked with before. I was a little keyed up for the rest of the day when she brought me in the room. She was headed into her usual spiel and I turned into a question machine. What was this isotope? If it is the same technetium as the MUGA scan is that why I can't have those two scans on the same day? And because it's a bone scan that's why I don't have the PYP to make the technetium stick blood cells right? She was trying to answer these questions as I babbled about being a hard stick and how I was going to have mochaccino flavored barium for lunch. She was trying to get back onto all the items she had to tell me and downgraded the needle gauge size to make sure she had a success on one try for placing the IV. She sure did, despite all the questions and extraneous information I threw her way. She also hunted me down at CT scan after she realized that she forgot to tell me that I could eat before the test. Very appreciative.
The CT scan was not my favorite and will never be. The people in the waiting room did not help. First, this was my lunch today:
Thankfully it was time for my scan. The tech asked me how my day was going. I told her other than the lady in the waiting room calling me a dude, it was good. "What? " Yes, the lady just called me a man. Ok, no metal on right? I didn't know how to respond either. She did have me drink the last of the barium shake. They make you save 25% of the shake to chug right before scanning (I just burped with typing that). It is warm and gross. I really will never eat anything mochaccino flavored again. Blech. After chugged barium and some scanning came the dye and feeling like you peed yourself. I mean who doesn't want to take a vacation day for this stuff? Peeing yourself, drinking barium, being called a man. Fun, fun. All worth it for the next year's worth of piece of mind when it comes back clear.
Things got better from there. The tech took the IV out of my arm. I may have told her I loved her when she said she was going to remove it. Then I was able to start drinking water to flush the barium, which was making me a little queasy, out of my system. I got a cup of soup to see if real food would help. It did not. But, having only the bone scan left on the day improved my mood.
The bone scan starts with your legs and arms being strapped to the moving gurney. They then lower a camera until it is millimeters from your face, but not touching. All I could think of was what anyone with a sibling thinks of "I'm not touching you"
The best option is to keep your eyes closed until your head is out from under the camera. But, if you do open your eyes as you are slowly able to see around the camera, it is best to sing this in you head:
Started with a 9 am appointment and last scan was done at 3:45 pm. Thankfully my mother came to pick me up so I didn't have to take the bus. She took one look at me and was concerned that the barium was coming back up. I could only tell her that I was 50% sure it would not. Thankfully, it stayed down along with 3 liters of water and half a sandwich. Hopefully, by the morning all will settle out. But, please no mochaccino anything. Ever.
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