A Long Day of Tests
While I knew that I was going to have several tests today, I did not anticipate this being one of the harder days of the week. Well, I was wrong.
We left home a little after nine o'clock. Once we arrived at the hospital, we went to a waiting room to be checked-in for my heart test as well as my CT scans. After filling out the appropriate paperwork, I had a nurse approach me with a glass of a milky-looking drink as well as a bottle labeled "Fruit Smoothie." This bottle conveniently lacked a list of ingredients. As I began to drink it, I realized it was far from a fruit smoothie. This stuff smelled like fruit, but consisted of a thick, chalky taste. I had to force myself to drink this down. Let me point out, I was not able to eat or drink anything before I went to the hospital this morning, so I was sucking this stuff down on an empty stomach. My stomach is still upset (more than 5 hours later). Just to round out the paragraph- the purpose of this drink was to cover certain organs in my stomach, so that they were distinguishable under the CT scans.
While I was drinking the "Fruit Smoothie," I was pulled back into another room to get an IV started in my arm. From my understanding, the nurse removed a tube of blood from my body and mixed in some solution. After finishing the IV, I went back to the waiting room for twenty minutes. Then, I went in for my heart tests. It was pretty simple. They just laid me down on table and hooked up some cords to my body. Over the course of fifteen minutes, they used the cords and an imaging machine to monitor my heart. Once this concluded, I returned back to the waiting room.
After a half an hour and some more "Fruit Smoothie," I was taken back to CT scan room. First, the nurse reinserted my blood back into my body through the IV. Then, she took some images. Next, she hooked up an iodine dye bag to my IV. Similar to the "Fruit Smoothie," the iodine dye is suppose to highlight certain things in your body during the CT scan imaging. It is an unreal feeling when the iodine dye starts to enter your body. You immediately get a metal-like taste in your mouth. Then, your whole body gets very warm. The nurse told me that over the years they have improved the iodine dye process. People use to throw up once it started to enter their body.
Lastly, we went down to the Pulmonary Department. I was to end the day with test on my lungs. As we sat in the waiting room, it sounded like the nurse was coaching the patients to give birth during the tests. All you could hear were things like "big breath, big breath, exhale" or "harder, harder, you are almost there." When I got into the room, she had me do a number of tests by breathing into a tube that was connected to a machine. I figured this would be simple- but it took me a number of tries to complete the tests properly.
As we walked out of the hospital, I was ready to fall asleep. On a positive note, I had a great conversation with an older guy named Brennan. I will write about it later when I have more energy. What a long day of tests.
We left home a little after nine o'clock. Once we arrived at the hospital, we went to a waiting room to be checked-in for my heart test as well as my CT scans. After filling out the appropriate paperwork, I had a nurse approach me with a glass of a milky-looking drink as well as a bottle labeled "Fruit Smoothie." This bottle conveniently lacked a list of ingredients. As I began to drink it, I realized it was far from a fruit smoothie. This stuff smelled like fruit, but consisted of a thick, chalky taste. I had to force myself to drink this down. Let me point out, I was not able to eat or drink anything before I went to the hospital this morning, so I was sucking this stuff down on an empty stomach. My stomach is still upset (more than 5 hours later). Just to round out the paragraph- the purpose of this drink was to cover certain organs in my stomach, so that they were distinguishable under the CT scans.
While I was drinking the "Fruit Smoothie," I was pulled back into another room to get an IV started in my arm. From my understanding, the nurse removed a tube of blood from my body and mixed in some solution. After finishing the IV, I went back to the waiting room for twenty minutes. Then, I went in for my heart tests. It was pretty simple. They just laid me down on table and hooked up some cords to my body. Over the course of fifteen minutes, they used the cords and an imaging machine to monitor my heart. Once this concluded, I returned back to the waiting room.
After a half an hour and some more "Fruit Smoothie," I was taken back to CT scan room. First, the nurse reinserted my blood back into my body through the IV. Then, she took some images. Next, she hooked up an iodine dye bag to my IV. Similar to the "Fruit Smoothie," the iodine dye is suppose to highlight certain things in your body during the CT scan imaging. It is an unreal feeling when the iodine dye starts to enter your body. You immediately get a metal-like taste in your mouth. Then, your whole body gets very warm. The nurse told me that over the years they have improved the iodine dye process. People use to throw up once it started to enter their body.
Lastly, we went down to the Pulmonary Department. I was to end the day with test on my lungs. As we sat in the waiting room, it sounded like the nurse was coaching the patients to give birth during the tests. All you could hear were things like "big breath, big breath, exhale" or "harder, harder, you are almost there." When I got into the room, she had me do a number of tests by breathing into a tube that was connected to a machine. I figured this would be simple- but it took me a number of tries to complete the tests properly.
As we walked out of the hospital, I was ready to fall asleep. On a positive note, I had a great conversation with an older guy named Brennan. I will write about it later when I have more energy. What a long day of tests.
posted by Chris at 3:14 PM
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