Back when I got my physical last September, one of the things that came back from the lab work was some slightly elevated liver enzyme levels. They weren’t high enough to be alarming, but they were high enough for my physician to want to run some further tests. So I spent a month abstaining from alcohol and Tylenol, and was retested, but this didn’t make any difference. So I was sent off to get an ultrasound of my abdomen. I did end up procrastinating on this for a bit, because at that time we were moving headlong towards kitanzi‘s surgery, and that, along with some personal relationship stresses, was taking up most of my emotional energy. But I did finally have the ultrasound down in February, and was told that it’s definitely a girl! No, actually, what I was told is that the ultrasound was inconclusive, and they wanted to send me for a full CT scan.
With one thing or another, I never did get called back, so when I was in getting my blood pressure medication adjusted last week, I mentioned that I’d never got a call. Ms. Schaad, the NP who I’ve been seeing about the various things that came out of my physical, rolled her eyes and told me she’d resubmit the paperwork. Yesterday, I was called and told I could come in today at 1:00pm, and to come down and pick up some barium contrast dye to take this morning.
The barium wasn’t as disgusting as I’d been led to believe, though I really don’t think its a taste sensation that will sweep the country either. The real downside of it was that once I drank it, I wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink, even water, until after the procedure. This made me fairly cranky for most of the morning, as I tend to keep a full jug of water on my desk at all times.
I got to the Northside Hospital‘s Radiology facility in Alpharetta right on time, did the paperwork, and waited to be called. I was finally led back into the CT Scanner area by a very perky, pretty young nurse, who gave me some more barium and went over with me all the various ways that the procedure might kill me, and asking me to initial the paper saying that that was alright. I then divested myself of my various belongings, and made myself comfortable on the slab while the pretty nurse set up an IV that would later be used to inject me with even more dye.
The next bit was spent being shuttled back and forth through the machine, before she came in to give me the injection. Wow, what an utterly weird feeling! It wasn’t actually painful, but it felt as though a nice fire was slowly making its way through my bloodstream. it lasted for about five minutes, during which I was shuttled through the machine a couple of more times, and then it was all done. I came home and ordered some Chinese food and played City of Villains until kitanzi came home.
I won’t know the results for a few days, but it was definitely an *interesting* experience.