CT Scan This Morning

My morning at the VA Hospital was fun, as always. The notice I received in the mail said I had a lab appointment at 8:30 a.m., but when I got there, there was no record of a lab appointment. So I went on over to the CT Scan area - one hour early - and told them what was going on. They didn't make me sit there too long.

First, I went in and enjoyed a lovely mocha/chocolate barium smoothie. Yum. What a great way to start your morning. Then I had to sit for an hour, to let the barium move around, I guess. I was then called back in to drink a second barium smoothie - banana flavored this time. (I strongly recommend you have the mocha/chocolate if you get a choice.) (I once got to have the barium inserted into my body a different way, and I have to say that I'd rather drink it. Also, I don't know if this other barium came in different flavors.)

After I drank the second smoothie, I had an IV needle stuck into my arm. Pain was no worse than when you donate blood, and once it was in I forgot about it.

Then the fun began. I went into the room with the CT scanner and laid down on the thing you lay down on. (Table?) They didn't ask me to take my clothes off, which surprised me. Instead, they just put a sheet over my bottom half and told me to push my jeans down to my knees. This should be easy to do, right? It's not so easy when you're laying down. Try it. All the way down to your knees. They then hooked up an iodine IV to my IV needle.

The procedure didn't take very long. It was just a matter of laying there and holding my breath a few times for about 10 seconds at a time. We did it once without the iodine IV and then again with the iodine IV.

When the scanner got going real fast, the sound played right into my alien baby story. I could imagine being in the alien's spaceship and having them examining me to gauge the progress of the fetus. Yes, I know I'm weird, or odd, or whatever you want to call me. (I prefer eccentric.) I don't care what you think! I'm going to have fun.

The procedure was finished and I came home. For a procedure that took only about 15 minutes, I was at the hospital for three hours! I'll have to wait for doctors to review the results before I hear any news. I've already sent an email to the liver specialist to give him a heads-up that the test was done today. I'll share whatever news I get, good or bad.