CAT Scan's, Bone Scan's, Radioactive Dye, and Barium Milk-shakes; Oh My!

What a phenomenally interesting day.

Experienced two things that I've never had done before; a CAT Scan and Bone Scan. One involved radioactive dye injected into me (I'm still disappointed I'm not glowing...thought I should've gotten *something out of the deal ya know?) and the other..."Barium Milkshakes! Get your Vanilla Barium Milkshakes here!" *gag* It actually didn't taste that bad but there was just that hint of something like "Mmm...I'm not so sure about that..."


So you get there and they give you your wristband and you settle in to wait. The waiting rooms are quite nice, chairs are pretty comfy (I was able to take a nap between two today so they're comfy enough for that) maybe I'll take a picture of them here soon. Don't want you to feel left out ;) Anyways, they took me back to the "Radioactive Area"...that makes ya feel good. At least they didn't put lead suits on and stand behind a wall...The gal unfortunately missed my vein the first time with a VERY large needle, and had to poke a second time. (I'm almost looking forward to the port. No more pokes in the arm with that thing). But she got it in the second time and gave me my dose of radioactive dye. Anyone know what I'm talking about when I say that there's an aroma that has a medicinal taste to it whenever medicine is administered through an IV? Kind of smells/tastes like laughing gas. I always have that experience whenever I'm given IV drugs. *shrugs*

Then the other nice ol' gal took me to my own little private lounging area, I had Lounge #1, and produced two BIG bottles of a vanilla flavored smoothie texture like drink with Barium in it. The nurse gave me the instructions on what to do and said "I have to do it once a year. My advice is to just drink it as quick as you can." She then went on to joke with me about gags I can pull on people when I've lost all my hair. ;) So I drank it like I do my breakfast drink in the morning on the way to school. I just drank it. *Oof* That was a lot of blech.

I don't know if I can fully explain what that was like. In all honesty it didn't taste all that bad. Rather it was the consistency of it, slightly *thick* like silky pudding or something; and there was this slight element of "Yeah....I'm not so sure about that..."

After about an hour and a half or so, she came to get me and take me into the CAT scan room. What an impressive machine. I've only ever seen them on TV and to be standing there looking at one in real life was surreal. I must admit I was a bit disappointed that we weren't all dressed in blue scrubs in rooms only half lit looking all serious with dramatic music playing...sorry, too much TV. Ha!

They had me lay down, and started telling me what to do. "Put your arms above your head and don't move", "Just do what the machine tells you to do. When to hold your breath and when to breathe". So they do that part; lasted about 10 minutes. Then she comes back in and says to me "Now I'm going to put the "chaser" into your IV. You should start to feel warm all over and you might feel like you need to go to the bathroom, or that you peed your pants". "OOOOoooookayyyy"........W...T...F... About 10 seconds later I felt this incredible warmth just, like, bubble up inside of me. It flew up and down my torso and I *swear* I peed my pants! Hahaha! Then it moved down my legs and "out my feet", so to speak. That was one *weird* experience.

So then I had about two hours or so till it was time for the MRI, so I wandered to the cafeteria then hunkered down in two of the chairs and took a short nap.

The Bone Scan was next and a very nice man took me back to the "Hawkeye 4" Bone Scan machine. An impressive one as well. This was a very relaxing test. I just laid down, he strapped my arms and feet in such a way that I could just totally relax and I took about a 20minute snooze. What was pretty cool was he showed me the pictures of my skeleton afterwards. I have pretty good lookin' bones if I do say so myself! ;)

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Overall it was an interesting, if long, day. The only bad thing about the whole thing is my tummy's been a little bit messed up since having to chug those two Barium shakes. I wonder what Thursday will hold.