I'm always running to catch up at the moment. Well, not running, more like ambling a bit faster in the general direction of forwards, with the occasional loop de loop.
I had a CT scan yesterday. There was, as usual, a problem locating my vein. I watched my heart rate on the monitor, the ectopic beat causing it to escalate every few beats before dropping back to something more sensible.
Because my heart needed to be relaxed for the scan, the lovely radiologist got a senior colleague to have a look at my arms before making any attempt to stab me. He looked carefully, and then concurred with her recommendation that they got a doctor with an ultrasound machine to put the canula in. So it was all quick and relatively painless in the end. I was tempted to ask him to pass his ultrasound over my diaphragm and gall bladder while he was there, just in case we could see anything helpful, but I restrained myself.
They injected me with whatever it is (x-ray dye?), said my heart rate was calm enough for me to not need beta blockers, and then I was motored into the tube. As I slid in, I told myself there was no need to be claustrophobic,and no need to panic. Then I found myself picturing myself panicking, and then I realised I was starting to panic about panicking.
I managed to get a grip. and tried to concentrate on seeing what was actually happening. I realised I was looking at the lasery bit when I read the words "do not look directly into the laser" printed on it. I averted my eyes.
The first couple of passes were easy.
The final pass was a bit more dramatic. The lights from the machine started going round and round, until it seemed like the tube was spinning. I felt like I was in some sort of time machine, or in a film where this represented a time machine.
As the spinning slowed, I felt a very warm sensation around my back end and I thought I'd pooed myself. I remembered reading something about the process might generate a lot of heat, so I hoped that was the case.
It was.
As I'd not had any beta blockers, I was able to change and go straightaway.
Just got to wait for the results now.
