Thursday, September 22, 2005
CT Scan - What a Trip!
First you can't eat or drink anything three hours before so if your appointment is at 9:30am you don't get any breakfast. Then you have to show up an hour early to drink two large glasses of water with a bit of something in it that makes your bowels glow. It’s just like tap water with a little extra tinny or chemical taste. The last few gulps are difficult to get down because you are sick of it and hungry for just about anything else. Labels: CT scan, endometriomas, ovarian cyst, ovarian surgery
Your glad the washroom is close by because you have to use it several times before you are called in 15 minutes late. During all this waiting time you are almost driven mad because some poor patient's IV is beeping in the hall. You look at all the nurse/doctor looking people walking by and wonder, “Can't someone check on that?”, “Is that lady ok?”, “I guess it must be ok since everyone is ignoring it except for me and the woman sitting beside me with her book turned over on her lap and complaining to me she can’t read with that thing going off like that.”
You start to think you should visit the washroom again when a nurse summons you into a large room where you are asked to lay down on a stretcher while she inserts an IV needle. She explains the IV is for an injection that will be given to you during the scan. She goes on to say the drug will give you a “warm” feeling through your arms and make it’s way down to your “bottom”. This injection will make you taste and smell “something” and make you think you wet the bed.
You want to say you really do have to go to the bathroom but that would be awkward now that you are there with a needle in your arm, which, by the way, is driving you nuts; it hurts and is itchy. You manage to fight the urge to pull it out and scratch when the nurse leaves the room by singing a silly Sunday school song you can’t remember most of the words to.
Finally she comes back and leads you to the next room. Sitting in the center of the room is a large, upright, square donut looking all sleek and modern. Sticking out of the hole is a bed. Yes, that is where you go; you will soon be put in that donut hole. Once you are lying down the nurse asks you to unbutton your jeans and pull them down. Hmmm. That will be difficult with a needle stuck in elbow pit. You try doing it with one hand and end up letting the nurse do it. After helping you lift your arms above your head she leaves.
You’re alone in the room with the big donut. The donut moves. It is coming up your body. Closer and closer to your face. It stops just at your chin. The inside rim of the donut hole is clear and you can see the innards spinning around it. It is mesmerizing. It slows down so you try to distinguish what is in there. Stop! Don’t do that! It’ll make you dizzy and you feel weird enough.
Then it speaks to you. Telling you to hold your breath and then to breathe. The nurse’s voice comes out of ……. I’m not sure where and tells you she is starting the IV now. Sure enough you feel a warm, tingling feeling move through your arms, your shoulders, you taste and smell “something” er… not yummy. The feeling, which is quite over whelming, moves down to … there and you are sure you peed! It is bizarre!
Then it is over. The feeling goes quickly away. The nurse comes back. While she removes the IV the nurse mentions that your blatter is quite full. Good! Its' still there. After putting pressure on your needle wound for the longest minute she finally lets you go.
So I’m just one more step closer to surgery. On Monday I go for a pre-op physical with my regular GP. In the mean time just trying to get everything done before the 3rd. Tomorrow I will be staying home. My nephew is coming over for the day. This will give me a chance to do some unpacking and act like the stay-at-home mom I really am.
posted by Kellie Huffman at
9/22/2005 11:16:00 p.m.
About Me
- Name: Kellie Huffman
- Location: Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
knitter, teacher,flutest, wife to Barry, mother to Sinead and Bronwyn, daughter, sister.
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