Mochaccino flavor, still, still ruined

Today was scan-o-rama day. It was as much fun as I anticipated.

6:43 am 
I run down my bus. It was 8 minutes early. Thankfully, I have comfy pants and running shoes on. Unfortunately, I can't have anything to eat or drink at this point and could have used some water by the time I get to the hospital. This comes into play later in the morning, but I am grateful that I drank 4 tall glasses of water before leaving for the morning.

8:00 am Nuclear Med Injection
The nuclear tech remember's me from Monday, already has the IV stuff set up to be left arm only and it takes her only one try to place the IV! Winning!! She injects me with radioactive Technetium 99-MDP (which is a bisphosphonate and why it is used in bones) and says see you in 3 hours. Good start.

8:50 am and the countdown to drinking barium 
I check in with the CT unit coordinator. Yesterday, my CT orders needed to be changed because with the recent transition to the electronic medical record at the hospital  it was listed as I didn't need contrast. I told them I was happy to not drink barium, but my oncologist insisted. However, from my description of the mochaccino flavored barium I have ruined the flavor for the research associate who manages my study case. I confirm with the unit coordinator that I am registered for with contrast and she confirms. She asks if I had lab work in the past 90 days, I tell her Feb. 2nd I had a complete panel done and my renal function is great (Thanks frequent oncology follow up!). Everything seems all set.

I go sit in the waiting room. They check if I'm wearing any metal. Nope. Ok you don't  have to get changed. I show them the IV already in my arm. Great, we'll start bringing you drinks soon. Can't wait.

Or can I.

One of the RN's from CT comes into the waiting room to get me and asks me to "Step over here" for one second. Well, that's never good. She informs me that because I never had and HcG (pregnancy) test they can't do the test. I inform her that the test will be done today and who do I need to give my urine too. She directs me to the upstairs lab and I let her know that they way her department has handled my testing is bullcrap (using a less polite word) and inform her that if I had known about the test I would have done it.

Now I run up to the blood lab. I haven't had anything to drink in 3 hours at this point time. This is when I am thankful for all the water I drank in the morning. I explain the situation to the guy at the desk and give him my medical record number of the top of my head. I get the very familiar cup and they send it to the lab stat.

 9:40 am Mochaccino time!

By the time I make it downstairs they are able to confirm that it is negative and the RN hands me a Mochaccino flavored barium drink # 1.

I apologized for being rude to her. She states that she did not find me rude and was unhappy about the patient care I was given (Only in Massachusetts would telling someone that a process was bullcrap is not rude. Perhaps that should be our new state slogan?). I was hoping this would make her only want to give me one Barium smoothie, but no such luck.

The waiting room for this year's CT scan had two other woman cancer survivors. One just had some peach fuzz and her and commiserated on all the good drugs and how it has changed our body temperatures. I had asked her if it was warm in the waiting room because I wanted to make sure I wasn't adding a hot flash to my day. We also discussed the barium process. The first one goes down so easy. She noted that was one benefit from not being able to eat before. The second one, oh the second one,  not so much. I held up my bottle next to belly and asked her if I could move the rest in via osmosis and without drinking it. The other woman cancer survivor getting her scans, chuckled greatly at this, and let us know she was happy today was a without contrast day for her.

10:15 am time to suck it up

Both woman give me the "nod" and move on to their scans and I'm left with Mochaccino Barium #2 alone on the waiting room. I have 25 minutes to complete it. I get down a third of it over the next five minutes.

I start channeling my inner Ross Geller. "Vanilla milkshake, just a vanilla milkshake"

and get down another third of the shake.

10:30 am this is not great

Ten more minutes. I attempt to get more down. I take a great big sip through the straw and at that point I am really grateful that there is no one else in the room. My entire body tries to bring the barium back up. I'm able to put my head in my hands on my knees and keep it down. My mouth is watering and I'm getting a little shaky. I keep it down and victory! I have drank 900 ml of mochaccino barium. The taste in my mouth is just foul.

10:40 am The CT scan finally!

They come and get me to do the scan. The first couple are done without the IV contrast and then comes the contrast. That familiar burning sensation where you think you may have just peed your pants (but don't). then a couple more quick scans. Then the radiology tech did on of the best things ever. She took the IV out of my arm. I told her I loved her. She told me she get's that all the time (I'm pretty sure I have made the same declaration after every CT scan). Then we both noticed that my arm was bleeding. She cleaned me up and left a bandage in place.

11:00 am Bone Scan Time

After drinking 1 cup of water and with Mochaccino flavor still prominent I head to bone scan. The radiology tech who is no more than 22 years old greets me and begins to explain the test. I smile at her and she asks if I've ever had one before. I tell her I've had 7 (only 3 were cancer related, the rest, as a runner, were for stress fractures).

The first scan is the long one 20 minutes. But it's the most exciting one to watch, once your head clears the gamma camera (say that 5 times fast). You get to see the camera pick up the radioactive isotope in your bones and put together your skeleton. I have to say my scoliosis does not appear as pronounced as it once was. I also note, that my old stress fractures don't light up. That is the extent of what I can interpret.  It also took me longer than I would like to admit to realize it was not hip bones but my kidneys that were lit up so bright. In fairness I didn't have my glasses on and could only view it out of one eye. I swear I passed Anatomy and Physiology, I swear.

The next scans are short, 3 min a piece and check my skull and ribs closely. The tech checks in with the radiologist, they are happy with all the pictures and send me on my way.

12:00 pm 

My mom picks me up at the hospital, and I start drinking water. We get home and English Cheddar and Lemon soda are my food and beverage of choice. I am fairly certain I won't be hungry for days.  The lemon soda is very helpful in finally eliminating the mochaccino flavor (not so much for eliminating the burbs).

No news is good news and my appointment with my oncologist on Monday will confirm my NED status.

For now, I'm going to go eat one of those cupcakes I made on Monday. I think I earned one.

(Also, this was the last song that I heard on the radio while heading into the hospital. There is no way things can be bad when Britney is the last thing you hear)