8/17/06 CT Scan

I arrived about 15 minutes early to my appointment. The receptionist had me fill out an update form. Meanwhile, the nurse came out to the waiting room with two bottles of barium sulfate solution ( 1.2 %wt/wt.). It was 450 milliliters each and a plastic cup. Starting at 1:55 pm, every 10 minutes, I was to drink a cup of this solution. This went until 2:45 pm. (Six times.) Then, I was taken back to a room to have an IV put into my arm. I hate IVs. The first vein that she tried to enter did not work out. So I guided her to my favorite entry vein. This is the one that I donate all my blood from. It worked!!!!!!
So now we have an entry point for the contrast agent. The nurse leads me into the instrument room. Like before, I jump onto the table and assume the position. They strap me in so I won’t move during the scan. Now the table starts to move me into the tube. Once I am in and ready, a voice comes over a speaker and says, “Breathe in and hold your breath.” So I follow the order. The table starts to move out of the tube. Once the table has stopped, the voice says, “Breathe.” This is done so they have a baseline to work from.
The technician comes in and hooks me up to the contrast solution that is hanging on a pole beside the table. We repeat the procedure, but this time with the contrasting agent.
As the agent enters my body, I get a warm feeling all over--almost like I wet myself. It is the strangest feeling. It only lasts for about 20 seconds. Once done, they unstrap me and lead me to a recliner where they remove the IV. They gave me a glass of juice and sent me on my way--except I would not leave.
I stopped to talk with Ed. Ed runs the facility. Because I was one of the first patients to use the facility, we got to know each other pretty well. I was hoping that he could take a look at my data. Looks like I’ll have to wait until Monday.