scans by three!

Monday, MRI, easy. Drive to St John's, park, get scanned, home again. It's a worry that I'm scanned so often that I'm starting to recognise the bloke who does the scan. It's also good news that I'm still alive to be scanned :-)

I'm sitting, waiting a few minutes, with a cannula in my vein. May as well, I think, try to get used to it. So I deliberately look at the cannula. After a minute, feeling faint, I look away.

Tuesday, PET scan at Charlie's. The big worry here is... parking. On past visits I've failed to find the entrance, had to cut in front of other cars to get in the visitors' lane, failed to find the exit, been refused a ticket by a parking machine... Not all on the one visit, but I just don't have good memories.

This time, no worries, easy parking.

I also found the PET desk, first try, another first. All part of increasing familiarity. As above, that's both good and bad.

The staff are all very pleasant, very professional, very patient. I admit to a dislike of cannulas, a nurse fetches some water for me to sip. I comment that I am sweating in fear. Yes you are, says the nurse, but that's okay. All very kind and understanding.

Into the quiet room, radioactive sugar is pumped into my vein. Normal practice is that I relax for an hour, get scanned, have the cannula removed, leave. Today is a bit different:

I learn from the nurse that the sugar pumping is only ten minutes, the rest of the hour is to get the sugar throughout my body. Today, the cannula is removed once the pumping is finished. I relax -- with no cannula in my vein -- and feel so much better! Sure, I always fall asleep but today I fall asleep feeling happy that there is nothing sticking into my vein.

Then the body scan. And a head scan. Last time they asked, is it okay if we also scan your head? This time they just do it. It's no trouble for me, just another 15 minutes in the PET tunnel.

Then sandwiches, because PET patients fast before the scan. Then the post-scan doctor. I'm not sure what he's meant to be doing, I assume he's just making sure that I'm conscious before I leave. Though flicking through paperwork is also part of his routine.

Next, with my permission, I'm interviewed by a student doctor. I'm not entirely sure what he's meant to be finding out. I suspect he is also unsure. Practising talking to patients is a stated objective, he does that quite well.

I think he may be practising his diagnosis skills. Unfortunately he strikes a brick wall when it turns out that I have absolutely no brain cancer symptoms until I fall over in a fun run.

From my perspective he seems very young... Though by the time I ask what stage his studies are at -- and he says, final year -- I'm not surprised. He knows a lot about medicine :-)

It does make me wonder: How did ED decide that I have brain cancer? I can't believe that they said, He fell over, must be brain cancer... My best guess is that they knew I had an epileptic fit and were looking for evidence of brain damage. Found a lump and then thought, cancer.

I'm home by lunch time. Have a rest. Go for a run. Because it's Tuesday, we run on Tuesday, no excuses accepted. I run because Deb runs. If Deb doesn't run... I happily veg.

Today is a post-trail run run. Gentle recovery. My calf muscles still ache after Sunday. I'm sure it's doing me good :-) Actually, I enjoy running. Even... especially... the extra strain of the trail runs.

Sunday, I beat some people! Woohoo! Deb beat twice as many people! But that's okay, Deb and I ran different courses :-)

My body is scanned. My head is scanned, twice. Now I just wait a few days to get the results. Meanwhile... back to Kotlin programming and World of Warcraft...

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"I took out a loan to pay for an exorcism. If I don't pay it back, I'm going to get repossessed." … Olaf Falafel
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